Pan-Seared Chicken Breast for A Date Night at Home

Now that the holidays have passed, all I want is simple, healthy, and delicious food. I will admit, I ate one too many homemade cinnamon rolls and more pie than I should have. Now that all our company has left, Jeff and I were planning a "Stay at Home Date Night." I wanted the meal to look special but not take all day to prepare.

Well nothing goes better with a glass of wine and Netflix, than Pan-Seared Chicken Breast, Herbed Potatoes, and Sautéed Asparagus.

The chicken is moist and flavorful served alongside a smooth white wine pan sauce. You get a ton of flavor out of one skillet.

Ingredients

• 2 Pounds of bone-in chicken breast with the skin (I used boneless with the skin because that’s all the store had but bone-in is preferred)
• 1/2 C chicken broth
• 1/2 C dry white wine
• 1 shallot, minced
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 tbsp of butter
• 1 tbsp of olive oil
• salt+pepper
• 1 sprig of fresh rosemary
• 1 sprig of fresh thyme
• 1/2 lemon, chopped parsley, rosemary, and thyme for garnishing at the end*

*optional

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Liberally season the chicken breast with salt + pepper
3. Heat a large oven-safe skillet on medium high heat. Once warmed, add 1 tbsp of butter and 1 tbsp of olive oil.
4. Add chicken to the pan skin side down. Let the skin brown and crisp up (approx. 4 minutes). Try not to move the chicken too much; this ensures a nice, crispy skin.
5. Flip the chicken, add 1 sprig of rosemary and 1 sprig of thyme, and slide entire pan into oven. Bake for 10- 15 minutes. Depending on the size of the chicken breast, this might be too much or too little time. Check for doneness every so often.
6. When chicken is cooked throughout, remove chicken from pan and let it rest on a plate. Remove herbs.
7. To make the sauce, place pan back on the stove and add the shallot and garlic.
8. Once fragrant, use the chicken broth and white wine to deglaze the pan. Let simmer for 5 minutes. Season with more salt and pepper, if necessary.
9. You can place the chicken back in the pan or just spoon the sauce over top when serving!
10. Top with a fresh squeeze of lemon juice and enjoy.

Tips

herbed potatoes

If you are trying to be more health conscious, you can lose the butter and use all olive oil, just don't let it burn!

If you don’t have any white wine on hand, just double the amount of chicken broth.

I strongly encourage you to taste the sauce several times as you prepare it. Maybe it needs more salt or pepper. Maybe it's missing some herbs. Add dried rosemary and thyme if necessary.

A recipe like this is hard to provide exact measurements and cooking times for. It needs to be prepared thoughtfully as to not overcook the chicken or end up with a bland pan sauce.

You will be able to find the recipe for the herbed potatoes over on my blog, The New Mrs.Allen. They really complete the meal and require very little effort.

Let me know how your date night goes!

Marissa A