Sauteed boneless chicken breasts (p. 436)--Choose your own adventure CHOICE 1

I've always wanted to write a "Choose-your-own adventure" novel. I assume everyone read those as a kid. If you weren't exposed to the awesomeness of the CYOA novel, the hero (you) would get to a point where a choice would have to be made. If you made one choice, you turned to one page. If you made a different choice, you turned to a different page. I always marked the choice points and read down each path, although I think that was probably an uncommon choice.

The books always went something like this (and were always written in second person):

"You are running down a path and fall down a well. You:
1. Whistle for your faithful dog. She is sure to come and rescue you (turn to page 221).
2. Try to climb out (turn to page 225).
3. Sit down to read the book you have in your bag. You have a book, a Snickers bar, and a bottle of soda, what more can you want (turn to page 551)?"

You can think of this blog post as the cooking version of the CYOA novel.

I decided to start with a great base, Sauteed boneless chicken breasts (p. 436).

Boneless, skinless chicken breasts always seem so expensive and I hate buying them. I usually just buy chicken thighs or buy whole chicken breasts and skin and debone them myself. I stumbled upon a great sale in the frozen food section on a bag frozen boneless, skinless chicken breasts--I will buy them that way from now on! I totally forgot that chicken was sold in the freezer section, I tend to only shop for meat in the "meat section". I only wish we had a deep freeze so I could really utilize frozen food sales.

I heated a butter and olive oil mixture until it was hot:



The chicken fat oozed out in a very artistic way:



I dredged the chicken breasts in flour (just flour) and popped them into the hot pan. TJOC recommends that you cook the chicken for exactly four minutes on the first side and then 4-6 minutes on the other side--which was NOT long enough. So if you use this recipe, make sure to get out your handy meat thermometer and check if the chicken is actually done.



The finished product looked like this:



Now on to the Choose-your-own Adventure:
1. You are starving hungry and eat the chicken as-is (refer to the bottom of this post).
2. You want to eat something more fancy so you make Sauteed chicken breasts with mushroom sauce (follow this link).
3. If you are in the mood for something piquant decide to make Chicken piccata (follow THIS link).


Choice 1:
You bite into the chicken. It has a nice crust from the flour and the chicken is tender and moist but you feel as if something is missing. You go to bed full but unsatisfied, wondering if there was something else out there. You sigh. At least dinner was fast.