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Roasted Chicken Breast with Rich Pan Sauce

Antonia Quinn
Jan 30, 2018
3 min read

This chicken dish has become a staple in my kitchen. It's honestly so flavorful and amazing, and it's always a hit when I make it for other people. I actually found this recipe on The Food Lab page on Serious Eats' website with a lengthy article about the science of why pan sauces are usually so much better at restaurants than when you try to make them at home. To be honest.... I didn't even know what a pan sauce was before I came across this recipe, I was just trying to find a delicious way to make chicken in a pan, so I googled pan chicken and stumbled across this.

I'll be honest and say the first time I made this I made the sauce a little bit too thin, but even with that mistake it was still SO delicious, it was totally a meal you would get at a five star restaurant. This was actually one of the first dishes that I made that I felt super proud of myself for making, I mean I was pretty much on my high horse for knowing what "pan sauce" and "emulsion" were but it also tasted incredible. The next few times I made this it got a lot easier, and I think it just keeps getting better every time now. This recipe is great for impressing guests if you're having people over for dinner, impressing your significant other for date night, or just for impressing yourself while you eat dinner in front of the TV watching The Bachelor with a couple glasses of wine.

Ingredients:

- 2 boneless skin-less or skin on chicken breasts (6 to 8 ounces each)

- Sea salt or kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

- 1 tablespoon canola oil

- 1/2 cup dry white wine

- 1/2 cup homemade or store-bought low-sodium chicken stock

- 1 1/2 teaspoons powdered gelatin

- 1 small shallot, minced

- 1 medium clove garlic, minced

- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter

- 2 teaspoons soy sauce

- 1 tablespoon minced fresh chives

- 1 tablespoon minced fresh parsley leaves

- 1 tablespoon minced fresh tarragon leaves

Directions:

1. Adjust oven rack to the center position and preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Pat chicken dry and season generously with salt and pepper. Heat canola oil in an oven-safe medium skillet over high heat until just starting to smoke. Carefully lay chicken breasts into hot skillet with the side that would have the skin down. Cook without touching at all until there is a deep brown crisp sear on the side that is down, about 6 minutes.

2. Now use tongs to carefully flip each breast over, and transfer the whole pan into the preheated oven.

3. Keep cooking chicken for about 7 to 12 minutes (depending on how thick the chicken breast are) until a meat thermometer in the thickest part of the breast reads 150 degrees F. Then take the whole skillet out of the oven and put chicken breasts on a cutting board, but don't cut them yet, let them rest while you finish making the pan sauce.

4. Place the same skillet you used for the chicken on the stove over high heat and add shallots and garlic. Cook for only about 30 seconds, continuously stirring they're softened and fragrant.

5. Add wine/stock combination and cook, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon. Continue cooking on high heat until sauce is reduced by about two-thirds, 5 to 8 minutes. The sauce should be thickened and not too liquidy. When sauce is reduced, stir in butter and soy sauce and cook at a boil until emulsified, about 30 seconds. Remove from heat and set aside.