Italian Fried Chicken

I can't think up a better name for this dish. It's sort of like chicken scaloppine, but there's no lemon or artichokes in it. ANYWAY. It's the boy's favorite, so I'm guessing I'm good at making this thing. By the way, the picture does it NO justice, and in this batch I kind of got impatient and didn't let it get golden brown enough.

This particular recipe will feed two people - add more chicken as necessary.


Ingredients:
3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 cup (approx) olive oil
1 cup (approx) butter - not margarine, it'll taste weird
1/3 cup white wine
1 green onion, chopped
6 cloves garlic, diced/sliced/doesn't matter
1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 tbsp garlic salt
1/2 tbsp salt
1/2 tbsp pepper
a dash of paprika
a dash of dried basil (optional)
1/2 a standard package of imported capellini pasta

Trim the chicken so there's really no fat on it. Fat, in this recipe, will taste funky. Pound the chicken breasts until they are really floppy. Be careful, 'cause you can cause them to basically disintegrate.

Prepare the batter. Combine the flour, garlic salt, salt, pepper, paprika, and basil in a bowl. Some people like to dunk chicken in egg or something else to get the batter to stick: I've had no trouble just putting the chicken in the bowl, then tossing it in the batter. But if you want, go ahead, I suppose.

Heat up the olive oil in a fairly large skillet. When it feels a bit hot when you hover over it, melt the butter IN the olive oil. Once the butter is melty, put the white wine in. Sidenote: I used Riesling, only 'cause I was out of chardonnay, thinking it would taste weird... it was actually pretty darn good. I really oaky, dry chardonnay would be ideal.

While it's heating, boil water for the pasta. Cook the pasta after it has heated, only about 3-4 minutes. Capellini cooks fairly quickly and gets squishy even quicker.

Set the heat to medium-high. Place the chopped onion in the oil/butter/wine creation, along with about 3/4 of the garlic you chopped.

Stir it a bit, then add the chicken breasts. Sprinkle the rest of the garlic on top of the chicken breasts. Trust me, if they suck in enough garlic, you'll be in heaven. Let them cook about one minute, then flip them, then cook about another minute.

Put the heat at medium, then LOOSELY cover the skillet. Allow the chicken to cook about four minutes on each side while they are covered.

Uncover the skillet, then cook them at medium-high heat, turning them every minute or so. Do this until they are golden brown.

Take the chicken out. You can degrease it if you want, but the grease is the best part. Place a nice helping of capellini on a place, then place the chicken on top. Use the junk in the skillet as a sauce for the pasta and chicken. This is how a real Italian gets shit done.

There ya go. This is a hit at my house and makes me feel like I have embraced my Italian roots while also possibly shaming them. I don't know why.