Finger Lakes Chicken French Recipe: Authentic Step-by-Step Guide
Credit: @kainosroc on Instagram
Finger Lakes Chicken French
(Finger Lakes)
What is Chicken French? Ask a Rochesterian, and you’ll learn that this lightly fried chicken breast dish is the city’s culinary claim to fame—with the garbage plate a close second. Chicken francese, as it’s known at Italian-American restaurants from coast to coast, became a Rochester staple decades back, with restaurants putting creative spins on the cornstarch-based chicken breast coating and sherry-based sauce, and adding pasta and rice sides to make the perfect comfort food menu. Want to take your chicken for a French spin? Try this Rochester favorite in your own kitchen. Click here for a downloadable, printable card featuring this recipe.
Craft Beverage Pairing: Gruner Veltliner (wine); IPA (beer)
Serves 5
Ingredients
5 chicken breasts, 6 ounces each, pounded into cutlets ¼ inch thick
1 cup flour
4 eggs
½ cup sherry
2 cups chicken stock
2 tablespoons lemon zest
¼ cup parsley, chopped
5 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 tablespoons cornstarch combined with 2 tablespoons of water for the slurry
Directions
- Pound the chicken breasts into cutlets.
- Season flour with ½ teaspoon of salt and pepper.
- Dredge the chicken in the seasoned flour and shake off excess.
- Beat the eggs.
- Dip the floured chicken in the egg, taking care to coat completely.
- Dredge the chicken in seasoned flour again.
- Sear the chicken in oil for about 3 minutes on each side.
- Remove the excess oil from the sauté pan, add the sherry and the chicken stock, reduce by half.
- Thicken the mixture with the slurry and add the lemon zest.
- Continue to simmer on low heat 5-10 minutes until the chicken is cooked completely, internal temperature should reach 165F using a temperature probe.
- Serve at once with your choice of rice or potato.
