By Erica Yurasko

I went into the kitchen today, thinking about something for dinner. I opened the fridge, the pantry, the freezer, nothing jumped out but some chicken.

Chicken! Haven’t we had enough poultry lately? Perhaps, but chicken can lend itself to many different spices, herbs, and tastes.

So, I pulled up my Web Browser, and Googled “Chicken, parsley, rosemary, thyme, basil, marjoram”, and it spat out the recipe below:

Chicken with Provencal Sauce

INGREDIENTS:

• 4 (6-oz) skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
• ¼ tsp. salt
• ¼ tsp. freshly ground black pepper
• 1 ½ Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 c. fat-free, low-sodium chicken broth
• 1 ½ tsp. Dried Herbes de Provence (described below)
• 1 tsp. Butter
• 1 tsp. Fresh lemon juice
• Fresh Thyme sprigs (optional)

Make your own Herbes de Provence by combining the below-listed herbs into a seal-able jar and shaking to mix. Store away from sunlight.

If you don’t have all the herbs handy, no worries. Just combine as many as you can. I have a reasonably extensive spice cabinet, so I was only missing a few.

• 1 Tbsp. Dried Basil
• 1 Tbsp. Dried Thyme
• 1 Tbsp. Dried Marjoram
• 1 Tbsp. Dried Summer Savory
• ½ Tbsp. Rosemary
• 1 Bay Leaf, crumbled

-Optional-

• Lavender Buds
• Fennel Seeds
• Dried Sage

PREPARATION:

1. Place each chicken breast between 2 sheets heavy-duty plastic wrap, pound with rolling pin until chicken breasts are ½ – inch thick.
2. Sprinkle chicken evenly with salt and pepper.
3. Heat oil in large, nonstick skillet over medium heat.
4. Add chicken, cook 6-minutes per side or until chicken is done.
5. Remove chicken from pan to a warming plate.
6. Add garlic to pan, stir constantly for one minute.
7. Add broth and Herbes de Provence, bring to a boil. Scrape pan to loosen browned bits.
8. Reduce broth to ½ cup by boiling off excess.
9. Remove from heat, add butter and lemon juice, stir until butter melts.
10. Serve sauce over chicken. Garnish with sprigs of Thyme, if desired.

Erica’s alteration:
I didn’t cook the chicken 6 minutes on each side, but cooked just until the chicken was done. I also did not have low-sodium chicken broth on hand, and what I had turned out to taste a bit too salty. Also, the sauce was served separately from the chicken, which was a boon since it was a little too salty.

Results:
William gave this meal three stars out of five. I thought it was very tasty, and would enjoy having it again sometime. William mentioned the combination of herbs that was used, he thought they were tasty but overpowered a bit by the sodium in the broth.
The chicken tonight was served with roasted potato wedges, which complemented the chicken very well.