Chicken Cutlets in Mushroom-Sherry Sauce

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Welcome to Monday again! How was your weekend? If you live in the South, I hope you got through the storm ok and with not too much damage. Keeping my fingers crossed! With calm thoughts in mind, I thought we’d start off this week with something simple and comforting and delicious too—these lovely Chicken Cutlets in Mushroom-Sherry Sauce. It’s been ages since I’ve posted a chicken cutlet recipe and this is one I’ve been making for a long time and is near and dear to our hearts. Take a deep breath and let’s get this Monday started.

Whenever I find a new recipe for how to serve chicken cutlets, I want to stand up and dance, you know what I mean? It may seem like a small, trivial triumph but hey, these days, I’ll take what I can get! Especially when this dish is easy enough to prepare on normal weeknights (not the ones where you’re racing like a crazy person to Back-to-School night and driving the soccer carpool to —that’s what take-out pizza is for) but also sophisticated enough to serve at your fanciest dinner parties. This is one versatile dish, people!

And for those of you who are not huge fans of mushrooms (you know who you are, you fungi-phobes) I’m here to say as someone who eats them but doesn’t particularly love them either, that they’re kinda subtle here and very yummy. So give it a try, pretty please!

The only thing you must do is serve this with some kind of rice or potato or other starchy thing for sopping up all the finger-lickin’ sauce, because I guarantee that you won’t want to miss a single drop! Have a great day!

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Chicken Cutlets in Mushroom-Sherry Sauce

Makes 5 servings

Prep Time: Under 45 minutes

Ingredients

For the Chicken Cutlets

• 2 packages thin-slice chicken cutlets (about 1 1/2 pounds—it’s ok if it’s a little over or under. If you can’t find very thin cutlets, you can slice thicker ones in half and then pound them to get them even thinner if necessary)

• 1/2 cup unbleached, all-purpose flour

• Salt and black pepper for seasoning

• Vegetable oil

  
  For the Sauce

• 16 ounces mushrooms, cleaned and thinly sliced

• 1 large shallot, minced

• 1 rounded teaspoon sugar

• 2-3 garlic cloves, minced

• 1/4 cup plus 1 teaspoon dry sherry

• 1 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken broth

• 2 tablespoons milk (use whole or a higher percent to make sauce a bit thicker)

• 1 rounded teaspoon cornstarch

• A handful of freshly chopped parsley (optional)

• Salt and pepper to taste
  

The Recipe

1. To make the chicken cutlets: Place the flour in a shallow bowl and season it with some salt and pepper. Dredge the chicken cutlets in the flour and shake off the excess. Transfer to plate.

2. Pour enough oil to coat the pan generously into a large deep skillet and heat over medium-high heat until very hot. Add 4 of the chicken cutlets and cook until lightly browned on both sides. When entirely cooked through, transfer to a plate and repeat the process with the rest of the cutlets, adding more oil to the pan as necessary.

3. To make the sauce: Add the mushrooms, shallot and sugar to the oil left in the pan and cover. Let cook over medium-low heat for about 7-8 minutes, until the mushrooms have released a lot of their liquid. Stir in the garlic and let cook uncovered for a few minutes, until the liquid evaporates and the mushrooms turn golden brown.

4. Stir in the sherry, scraping up any browned bits stuck to the bottom of the pan. Add the broth and bring the mixture to a simmer. Let cook for about 5 minutes, until the mixture reduces a bit.

5. In a small bowl, whisk the milk and cornstarch together to form a slurry and then whisk into the simmering sauce. Let cook for about a minute to allow the sauce to thicken a bit, then add all of the chicken and any juices on the plate into the pan and let cook for a few minutes to allow everything to heat up and come together. Taste and add salt and pepper if necessary, sprinkle with the parsley if using and serve immediately.

   Enjoy!

   Note: Recipe adapted from The Best Chicken Recipes from the Editors of Cooks Illustrated. I tinkered with some of the techniques and left out the fresh thyme. Also increased the amount of chicken and the mushrooms to stretch the dish to serve 5.