Lemon Artichoke Chicken

We all know that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Nowhere is that truer than here in food blog territory. The other day I was longing for taco hamburgers for dinner when I discovered that I'd neglected to buy ground round. Nor did I even have ground chicken or turkey in the freezer. As we all know, when the going gets tough, the tough go blog-hopping and off I went. It wasn't too long before I popped into Debi's Kahakai Kitchen(http://www.kahakaikitchen.blogspot.com/) where I saw this recipe for Lemon Artichoke Chicken. Debi had found it in a magazine called Clean Eating, one I hadn't heard of before. If the recipe hadn't already sold me, her photo of the chicken served with pasta would have. Fortunately, I had everything on hand and dinner was saved. (One unfortunate speed bump was that my bunch of fresh parsley had died; next time I will definitely have this on hand as dried parsley just doesn't do it for me.) I made virtually no changes to the dish other than to use some leftover flour mixture to further thicken the sauce.

This dish is extremely low fat and low calorie, but it definitely gets high marks for taste. In fact, the next day I heated a portion just enough to take the chill off and served it over a tossed salad and it was equally delicious. I served it with rice, but next time will try it with pasta "Kahakai Kitchen" style. Oh, and did I mention it takes about a half hour to prepare? This is definitely in the rotation and I think it would be delicious with shrimp or fish as well as chicken.

Serves 4

1/4 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 tbs dried oregano

freshly grated black pepper

1/4 cup Kosher salt, plus additional to season to taste

1 lb thinly pounded chicken cutlets

olive oil cooking spray

1/2 tbs extra virgin olive oil

1 medium onion, cut lengthwise and thinly sliced

1 clove garlic, minced

1/4 cup low sodium chicken broth

1 (14 oz) can artichokes, drained and cut into bite-sized pieces

1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (about 2 lemons)

1 tsp lemon zest

2 tbs fresh parsley, chopped (for garnish)

Combine the flour, oregano, pepper, and 1/4 tsp salt

Dredge each chicken cutlet in the mixture and place on a plate (save any remaining flour mix)

Coat a large nonstick skillet with cooking spray

Heat on medium to medium high so skillet is hot, but not smoking

Add 1/2 the chicken cutlets at a time and cook 3-5 minutes on each side, until browned

Cover plate to keep cutlets warm (I put them in a 200 degree oven)

Heat oil and saute onion for 5-6 minutes, until golden

Add garlic and saute 1 minute more, stirring to keep garlic from burning

Sprinkle remaining flour mixture over veggies and saute 1 more minute (I added this step)

Pour in chicken broth and bring to a simmer (the flour thickens it a bit more)

Add artichokes, lemon juice and zest and simmer another 2-3 minutes to heat through

Season to taste

Pour over warmed chicken cutlets

Sprinkle with chopped parsley and serve

(N.I. for 4 oz chicken and 1/2 cup artichoke mixture is 220 cal, 4.5 g total fat, 1g sat fat, 65 mg chol, 20g carb, 2g figer, 2g sugar, 27 g protein)

This is a very zesty and flavorful dish and one that I will be making again very soon. Thanks again, Debi.