Chicken with Mustard Sauce

My favorite time of the year is approaching! Christmas time is nice and all but, the best time of the year is that week long period between Christmas and New Years. I just love how society just tries to wrap up and reflect on the past year. I am a sucker for lists and the year's end is full of all those Best Of lists, which I really love. It's also resolution time so there's this strong sense of a Can Do, positive attitude. Awesome! It really is the best time of the year.

Michael and I are not into making New Year Resolutions but recently, we couldn't help but reflect on the past year and think about the new. We both got pretty bummed out thinking about how, income wise, this was the best year we've had, but, savings wise, it was the worst. What did we spend all that money one? I don't want to really think about it because it's kind of depressing. This year was a good year for me, income wise, and I actually think I'll be making slightly less this year. Something to think about.

One decision Michael recently made was that he wants to start eating healthier. It's all fine and well except that we often make and eat dinner together. This means that if he wants to eat healthier, I have to start eating healthier and I don't really know how to do healthy.

We probably eat better than most people. This year we cut out a lot of processed food from our diet, most of our meals are made from scratch, we try to eat organic if it's affordable, we eat a lot of salads, and we don't eat a lot of fast food. On the other hand, portion control is not in our vocabulary and we both love cheese and butter and red meat and fried stuff and bacon... Mmmmm...

Well, an easy start is proper portion and lean protein so I made Chicken with Mustard Sauce and served it with roasted broccoli.


Look at that tiny thing of chicken; it's the size of a deck of card, just like they recommend.

It wasn't my favorite dish but I like it, would eat it again. Michael, on the other hand, hated the sauce. I'm learning that he's not a big fan of citrus-y tart, slightly briny sauce, like piccata or anything with capers. Shame, I love piccata.

Chicken with Mustard Sauce
Serves: 4

1lb boneless skinless chicken breast halves
salt and pepper
2 TBSP unsalted butter
2 TBSP olive oil
6 TBSP chopped fresh parsley
6 TBSP chopped scallions
3 TBSP Dijon Mustard
3 TBSP lime juice
1/2 cup low-sodium chicken broth

Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper. Warm 1 TBSP each of butter and olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Saute chicken until cooked through, turning once, 6 to 8 minutes total. Remove chicken to a plate and tent with foil to keep warm.

Reduce heat to medium-low. Add parsley, scallions, mustard and lime juice to skillet and cook, stirring, for about 2 minutes, until well blended and heated through, taking care to scrape up any browned bits on the bottom of pan. Increase heat to medium. Add broth and remaining oil and butter and cook, whisking, until butter has melted and sauce is hot.

Divide chicken among four plates, spoon sauce on top and serve.