Butter Fried Chicken

Growing up my mother used to make this chicken she fried in butter once in a while for dinner. It’s always been a delicious crowd pleasing dish. What really makes the dish pop is the “dressing” added to it when serving. It’s not your typical dressing … it’s more along the lines of a salad. It’s a tomato, scallion (green onion) and Italian dressing salad. The combination of the salad over the moist buttery chicken make for what I call a party on a plate.

I’ve of course gone through and cut down on the recipe where I could to make it “point friendly”. I cut the butter way down just to have enough to brown the chicken, give it flavor and I added in a tad of olive oil to get it just a bit crispier on the outside.

6 Points Plus Values. Serves 5. 2 ¾ oz serving.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/8 lb  boneless skinless chicken breast, cleaned and cut into chunks
• ½ cup flour
• 2 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tbsp oregano
• 2 tsp black pepper
• 2 tsp salt
• 3 tbsp Smart Balance Light Butter
• 2 tbsp Imperial Vegetable Oil Spread
• 1 tsp olive oil

Clean all fat off chicken and cut into chunks. Once all chicken is clean, lay pieces between parchment paper or plastic wrap and gently pound/tenderize. You don't want the chicken to be too thin, but slightly thinner than it was before pounding.

Combine together flour, garlic powder, oregano, black pepper and salt in a paper bag. Shake to combine all ingredients together.

Rinse chicken under cold water then drop chicken pieces into the bag. Hold the bag tight and shake to coat all sides of the chicken with the flour batter. Remove chicken from bag and set aside, discarding the bag with the remaining flour.

Place light butter and margarine into a non-stick skillet. Heat pan over medium-low heat – as the pan warms gently swirl the butter around. Place chicken pieces into the heated skillet and allow cooking without moving or flipping until chicken is cooked half-way through. Gently flip the chicken and allow cooking on the uncooked side.

At this point the butter will start to dissipate in the bottom of the pan, so gently drizzle the 1 tsp of olive oil over the chicken in the pan and give the pan a gentle shake.  When the cooked side down begins browning, gently flip the chicken onto the other side to allow the chicken to be fully browned and crisped on each side.

When done, remove from the pan and serve alongside the sides of your choice. I highly recommend serving with mashed/baked potato and serving the chicken with the tomato and scallion salad (Italian – original, light, low fat, fat free – whichever you choose) tossed with the salad.