Greek Chicken with Capers and Raisins in Feta Sauce - The Merchant Baker

By foodiva

Ingredients

• 4 (4 ounce) boneless, skinless chicken breasts, sliced thinly
• 2 Tablespoons all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 Tablespoon olive oil
• 1 cup thinly sliced onion
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1-1/2 cups fat free, low sodium chicken broth
• 1/3 cup golden raisins
• 2 Tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 2 Tablespoons capers
• 1/4 cup (1 ounce) crumbled feta cheese
• lemon slices and fresh oregano for garnish
• 8 ounces dry orzo pasta, cook as directed on package.
• extra virgin olive oil
• dried oregano

Details

Servings 4
Adapted from themerchantbaker.com

Preparation

Step 1

You know how you cook dinner (or not :) night after night, and after awhile, you get kind of bored with the same old flavors and you really want something more exciting, something that you might order in a restaurant, but you’d like to make it at home and you’d like it to be fairly easy?

This recipe is that. When we sit down and take our first bites, we always say, “I would

But what’s really wonderful about this chock full of flavor dish, is that it is not at all hard to make. All this magic comes together in one pan (woo hoo!) and it doesn’t take long to cook because we’re using thin chicken breasts. You can slice them thin or pound them thin, or both, but you definitely want to go thin here, about 1/4″ thin, give or take an 1/8″ or so. (I’m kidding. Don’t measure them. Just slice or pound them thin. I know mine were thicker than a 1/4″ this time around.)

The chicken goes in for a quick dredge in some oregano seasoned flour, then you brown the breasts on both sides. They come out such a beautiful golden brown that you might be tempted to dive in right then and there, but you should wait because you’ve got an amazing pan sauce to make, and the chicken isn’t fully cooked yet, so you

As long as you’ve got your onions and garlic ready to go, it’s just a matter of adding your ingredients to the pan, a little at a time. First sauteing the onions and garlic, then adding the liquids and raisins so that you can de-glaze the pan, scraping up all those lovely brown bits while the raisins plump up with all that delicious flavor.

The chicken goes back into the pan to simmer, covered, for about ten minutes to finish cooking. Then you’ll remove it so that you can freely whisk in the feta and capers. That’s it. You now have the most delicious pan sauce, ready and waiting to be ladled over your chicken.

I like to serve this over orzo that I’ve tossed with a little extra virgin olive oil and more oregano. I plated up one serving for this post, but I generally like to fill an oblong serving platter with the orzo, artfully overlapping the chicken breasts in a row on top of that. Then I’ll spoon the sauce over the top, holding back some reserve for those who want extra sauce on their portion. (That would be me.)

We had friends over one night and I made this dish. I tripled the recipe to make sure I had enough. They both went back for seconds, then my friend’s husband went back for thirds. I remember him saying something like it was so good, he just couldn’t stop eating it. #truestory

Yep, I would definitely order this at a restaurant, if that were possible. But, I can’t, so I’m happy that I can make it at home. Oh, did I mention that it’s also a lighter recipe?

Yield:

Combine flour and oregano in a shallow dish.

Heat oil in a large non-stick skillet over medium high heat.

Dredge each chicken breast in the flour mixture, shaking off excess and place carefully into the skillet. Repeat with the remaining breasts and cook for about 3-5 minutes on each side. (Cooking time will depend on the thickness of your chicken.) Don't flip them multiple times, one flip is plenty. Allow the chicken to become nicely golden on each side. They don't have to be completely cooked through, just nice and golden brown on each side.

Lower the heat to medium and add the onion and garlic to the same pan that you cooked the chicken in. Saute for about 2 minutes to soften, being careful not to burn the garlic. Stir in the broth, raisins and lemon juice and cook for 3 minutes, scraping the bottom of the pan to loosen up any brown bits. (Those bits are full of flavor.)

Return the chicken to the pan. Cover. Reduce heat and simmer for about 10 minutes or until chicken is done. Remove chicken and keep warm.

Add feta cheese and capers to the sauce mixture stirring with a whisk.

Serve chicken on top of orzo, ladle sauce over all and garnish with fresh lemon slices and fresh oregano, if desired.

*For the chicken breasts, you definitely want them to be thin. I usually place the breast flat on the cutting board and slice them, with my hand holding the breast flat and my knife parallel to the cutting board, into thin pieces. You can then pound them between two pieces of plastic wrap if you'd like them thinner, or if you need to pound out part of the breast that may be thicker than the other side. I like to get them to about 1/4" thick.

*Orzo is simply a small rice shaped pasta. I like the shape for this dish but feel free to serve with your favorite pasta shape or over your favorite rice or grain.

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