Growing up, my family ate a lot of chicken for dinner and over the years my mom would use her culinary knowledge to whip up new recipes that never ceased to satisfy our big appetites. After so many new variations and “what are we having for dinner” questions, my mom just began to respond with “chicken something” and it stuck. When I was home in Miami this weekend, my mom made my favorite “chicken something” dish- chicken cutlets with a dijon lemon shallot sauce.

It’s a dish that before I really jumped on the cooking bandwagon, I would prepare every time I had a dinner party. It was my straight out of college- go to-impress the guests dish, and impress the guests it always did. I don’t eat, or rather cook, much meat these days so this was a nice treat to enjoy while I was home soaking up some sunshine. This is such a simple and flavorful way to prepare chicken. This time around, we decided to add some Greek yogurt to the sauce and it gave it a really great almost cheese-like flavor. Here’s how my mom does it…

4 chicken breast halves (thin sliced)
flour for coating (or a mixture of flour and finely ground nuts)
2-3 TB. olive oil
Juice of 1 lemon
1 TB. Dijon mustard (Maille)
1 large chopped shallot
cream, sour cream or yogurt (optional)

Coat chicken in flour/nut mixture.
Add olive oil to pan and heat.
Add chicken and sauté until just cooked through
Remove chicken from pan, place in serving dish and cover with foil
Add juice of ½ lemon to pan – stir to loosen any crumbs
Add chopped shallot and sauté
Add more lemon
Add dijon and stir till combined
Add cream, sour cream or yogurt and stir to combine

When ready to serve, pour sauce over chicken.