Lemon Shallot Chicken Paillard. Way better than it looks.

Looks pretty bland in the photo, but it's surprisingly lemony and savory

Because you pound this chicken to smithereens before cooking it, this is a super fast poultry recipe.  And, despite the overwhelming beige-ness of it, the chicken really is very flavorful.

HERE is the original recipe, from Martha Stewart, but I changed it a bit.

Ingredients:

• 4 chicken breasts, pounded thin
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1-2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
• 1 cup chicken stock*
• 2 shallots, sliced
• 2 lemons
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to broil (high)
2. Heat one tablespoon olive oil with one tablespoon butter  in skillet
3. Season front and back of your first pounded chicken breast with salt and pepper
4. Fry chicken in skillet, cooking each side so the chicken is cooked through, about 2 minutes.  Each side should be golden-brown.
5. Transfer chicken to Pyrex-style baking dish and repeat process to cook all meat. (If you can fit more chicken in the skillet, go for it.  Once mine was pounded, it was way too big to fit multiple pieces.)
6. Add oil and butter as needed to the skillet.
7. Once all meat is cooked and removed, saute shallots until golden in the oil and butter.
8. Add chicken stock, remaining butter, and the juice and fruit of both lemons (I scraped the entire insides out of the fruit--more lemon is better!)
9. Simmer for about 3 minutes
10. Pour the skillet mixture over the chicken in your baking dish and broil for about 5 minutes.

I decided to broil it because I don't feel like the meat is getting the seasoning from the sauce unless I see it actually simmering...probably doesn't make a huge difference!  

*I have never found SCD-legal chicken stock in the store, so I do use illegal chicken stock.  I haven't noticed that it causes me any problems; I suspect the sugar in it is pretty negligible.