Gluten-Free Recipe: Chicken Francaise

While planning for our upcoming Winter White Holiday party, I was searching high and low for white food.  Appetizers and desserts were super easy to find, but the main dish was a bit hard.  We opted for a Gluten-Free recipe for Chicken Francaise, which is pretty darn close, and wanted to do a dry run before the big night.

HISTORY OF CHICKEN FRANCAISE

It is an Italian-American dish of flour-dredged, egg-dipped, sautéed chicken cutlets with a lemon-butter and white wine sauce. The dish is popular in the region surrounding Rochester, New York. When Italian immigrants arrived in Rochester, they brought their recipes with them, including veal francese, but they substituted chicken for the more expensive veal. Another source says that Veal Francese had been popular in the region since the 1950s, but when consumers boycotted veal in the 1970s, area chefs like James Cianciola successfully substituted chicken. Cianciola credits chefs Tony Mammano and Joe Cairo with bringing the dish from New York City.

Despite being such a well-known dish in Italian-American culture, francese is not a classical dish or sauce. There are no written recipes that mark the origin of this dish.^[

HERE’S WHAT YOU WILL NEED FOR THE GLUTEN-FREE CHICKEN FRANCAISE RECIPE!

• 4 Boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 1 cup gluten-free flour – I use 4Cup Gluten-Free Flour, but you can use whatever brand you like best
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon onion powder
• 3 Eggs
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 3 tablespoons water
• 2 tablespoons of butter
• Salt and pepper
• 2/3 cup dry white wine
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 1 lemon
• Parsley for garnish
• Spaghetti – I use gluten-free, but if you can substitute it for conventional
• Parmesan cheese – grated

HERE’S WHAT YOU WILL NEED TO DO

1. Put the chicken breasts in between two pieces of Saran Wrap and pound them until they are about 1/2 inch thick, then place them aside.  Mix the flour with the garlic powder and onion powder in a shallow dish, then put it aside.  In another shallow bowl, scramble the egg, water, and salt and pepper to make the egg wash.
2. Place a frying pan on the stovetop, add the olive oil, and put the heat on medium-high.  Meanwhile, dredge the chicken breasts in the flour and then into the egg wash and add to the frying pan.  Wait until the oil shimmers before adding the chicken.  Cook for 3 – 4 minutes per side, until brown.  Dip the butter into the flour and then place it aside for later use.
3. Place the cooked chicken breast on a dish and put it aside for now.  Cut half of a lemon into slices.  Add the lemon slices to the pan that the chicken was in, stirring for about 1-2 minutes.  Next, add the white wine, chicken broth, and juice from the remaining half of lemon to the pan.  Cook for 5-6 minutes, stirring occasionally, to reduce the sauce.  Add the butter, stirring for about 1-2 minutes, to incorporate the flour into the sauce.  Now add the chicken breast back into the pan.  Reduce the heat to medium-low and cook for about 2 minutes on each side.
4. Serve over (gluten-free) pasta or rice, spooning remaining sauce from the pan over the chicken and sides.  Garnish with parsley if you’d like and eat!!  Here is the final product….it was so delicious and gluten-free!!!