A Quick and Easy Dinner from Cooking Light {Chicken with Provencal Sauce}

I must apologize for the recent "radio silence". I was away for a few days to help my mom after she had surgery. She is doing well so far, thankfully! I hope to have posts up throghout the rest of the week with all of the holiday preparations.

With all of the upcoming holidays, I thought it might be a good idea to get some lighter meals in before the gorging begins. Okay, so I won't exactly gorge myself but rather indulge in some holiday favorites. Which will then make me feel that I need to get myself back to eating healthy and jumping on the treadmill at a much faster pace.

So, in anticipation of the big, wonderful meal we will be sharing with our family that's here in NJ on Thursday, I opted to make something a bit lighter tonight. I wanted something that would be quick and easy to prepare. I remembered a recipe I made awhile back but never got around to sharing here from Cooking Light's Five Star Recipes cookbook. The Chicken with Provencal Sauce is so simple and easy to prepare that you can have your kids help you with it.

I did a few things differently from the way the recipe is written. In order to keep the cooking time to a minimum, I sliced the chicken very thinly. I also allowed the chicken to rewarm in the sauce for about 5 minutes while the pasta finished cooking. I think that allowed the flavors to better penetrate the chicken. The lemon is not overpowering as it can be in some dishes.

Overall dinner was a hit at my dinner table with barely enough leftover for one container to go in my lunch tomorrow. Unfortunately, no picture to go with the recipe tonight. I did take some, but just wasn't happy with how they turned out in the end... so, rather than share something that doesn't look truly appetizing, I'm going to suggest you use your imagination or go see the picture over at Cooking Light! I imagine my photo mojo will be back by tomorrow night, so come on back to see what I have to share.


Chicken with Provencal Sauce
Source: Cooking Light (for printable recipe, click HERE)
Ingredients

4 (6-ounce) skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
1 garlic clove, minced
1 cup fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
1 1/2 teaspoons dried herbes de Provence
1 teaspoon butter
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
Fresh thyme sprigs (optional)
Directions
Place each chicken breast half between 2 sheets of heavy-duty plastic wrap; pound to 1/2-inch thickness using a meat mallet or rolling pin. Sprinkle chicken evenly with salt and pepper.
Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add chicken; cook 6 minutes on each side or until done. Remove chicken from pan; keep warm.
Add garlic to pan; cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add broth and herbes de Provence; bring to a boil, scraping pan to loosen browned bits. Cook until broth mixture is reduced to 1/2 cup (about 3 minutes). Remove from heat; add butter and lemon juice, stirring until butter melts. Serve sauce over chicken. Garnish with thyme sprigs, if desired.
Yield: 4 servings (serving size: 1 chicken breast half and about 2 tablespoons sauce)
CALORIES 248 (30% from fat); FAT 8.2g (sat 1.8g,mono 4.5g,poly 1g); IRON 1.5mg; CHOLESTEROL 101mg; CALCIUM 32mg; CARBOHYDRATE 1g; SODIUM 376mg; PROTEIN 40.2g; FIBER 0.3g
Cooking Light, JANUARY 2005
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Comments

This sounds so good, I can picture it in my head perfectly. Hope your mom has a quick recovery.
LaDue & Crew said…
Oh yum! I love the Herbes de Provence and lemon combination!
SOunds great!!! A nice light meal very unlike what we are facing!
Stacey Snacks said…
P,
I like that you posted anyway without a photo.
I may pick up some Cooking Light issues, since I have seen some very nice recipes created from this magazine.
Happy Turkey day.
I will be detoxing next week.
Stace
Jenny said…
Sounds terrific Patsy! I am always up for a good chicken recipe! Enjoy your Thanksgiving weekend!
LaDue & Crew said…
Me again! Go check out my blog- You've been tagged!
Deborah Smith said…
Hi Patsy,

I've tagged you on JerseyBites. Hope you'll participate. Come and see.
Patsyk said…
Thanks, Lisa! She's doing well and is on the mend.

LaDue & Crue - the flavor combination is really so tasty! Thanks for the tag... I'll try to get to it this week!

Stace - I have magazines going back quite a few years! Most are available on-line as well... so you could sample there before running out to buy the magazine.

Jenny - thanks! Enjoy your Thanksgiving, too! And, enjoy the quiet before the move!!

Jersey Bites - thanks for the tag! I can't believe I got tagged twice on 1 day! I'll have to get to work on answering those questions!
This sounds like a great recipe to have for, as you suggest, before the holiday, but also for between now and the new year when it seems all I do is eat rich, heavy, (delicious) food.

I hope your mom is doing better and Happy Thanksgiving!
That Girl said…
I love how we all try to go lighter around the holidays.
Michele said…
Oh!!! I make this!!!! This exact recipe!!! I love it, love it, love it! Try it people!!! Happy Thanksgiving!!!
Mary Bergfeld said…
Patsy, I hope your Mom is on the mend. Your recipe sounds really, really good.
pam said…
I bookmarked this to try from the Kitchen Tips mag, it souns good!
Gloria Chadwick said…
This recipe sounds delicious. My "photo mojo" isn't working, either. I made a stuffed pork roast and it was delicious but the pictures were awful, so I didn't do a post.
Anonymous said…
Hi Patsy,

Thanks for the comment on Cookie Madness. I didn't realize you had a blog, but it's great and I'm adding it to my sidebar.

Good idea on eating light before the holidays. Gotta balance out the gorging ;). There are so many old Cooking Light recipes I'd forgotten about. This is a good one.
Sara said…
I love Cooking Light recipes, I have quite a few of their cookbooks. Hope you had a good thanksgiving!
Shelby said…
I have loved Cooking Light recipes for years...this one sounds delicious!
Deborah said…
This sounds like a delicious way to lighten up around the holidays!

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