ELEGANT CHICKEN

serves 4

This recipe and it’s name goes way back to the early 70’s before we limited  our sour cream and butter intake. The first meal i cooked for my in-laws was this chicken - along with wild rice and green beans with almonds and that’s what i usually serve with it these days.

2 whole boneless,skinless chicken breasts, cut in half to yield 4 pieces

1 cup sour cream

2 T lemon juice

1 t worcestershire sauce

1 t celery salt

1 t sweet paprika

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 t kosher salt

1/4 t fresh ground black pepper

1/2 cup melted butter

1 cup unseasoned bread crumbs

Combine everything but the chicken, butter and bread crumbs in a  largish tupperware container. Add the chicken and mix around to coat every part of the chicken. Cover and refrigerate up to 24 hours or as little as 3 hours. The longer the chicken soaks in the sour cream mixture the more tender it will be.

Remove the chicken from the fridge a half hour or so before baking.

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Roll the sour cream coated chicken in the bread crumbs and place in a large baking dish where the bottom has been lightly buttered.  A lot of the sour cream mix will be left in the bowl- discard it. Don’t crowd the chicken- as this will tend to steam it rather than crisp it.

Spoon half the melted butter over the chicken  and bake for 40 minutes. Peek to see if it is browning. If necessary drizzle the rest of the butter over it and bake for another 10-15 minutes.

Variation: to add some extra crunch to this dish mix in some coarse chopped almonds with the bread crumbs- half  nuts and bread crumbs. I like to use Spanish Marcoma, because they are extra crunchy all on their own.