Chicken Piccata - America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook

Page 290 from America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook.  Here is how this is going to go down.  I'm going to rate the recipe based on the following criteria:  Execution of recipe, ease of ingredients, taste.  Execution and ingredients will be weighted equally on a scale from 0-5.  Taste will be rated on a scale from 0-10.  0 is the lowest score, 20 is the highest.

Ease of Ingredients: (Availability is ranked based on likelihood that ingredient is already typically stocked in a kitchen.  Ranking is Common/Uncommon/Rare/Very Rare)

Here's the ingredient list:

All Purpose Flour - Common

Butter (Unsalted) - Common
Garlic - Common
Lemon (Juice & Slices) - Common

Pepper - Common

Salt - Common
Vegetable Oil - Common
Capers - Uncommon
Chicken Breast Cutlets - Uncommon
Chicken Broth (Low Sodium) - Uncommon
Parsley - Uncommon
Shallot - Uncommon
Proscuitto - Rare (Optional ingredient)

The book showed a trick to convert chicken breasts to chicken breast cutlets,  If you were to look for just the cutlets, you likely wouldn't have them available.  I keep a jar of bouillon to add to water to get the stock, but if they're going to get specific about low sodium, it's likely that you won't carry it.  Capers and shallots, while not likely to be normally stocked, are easy to find at the grocery store.  Proscuitto is easy too, but it is also pricey and you're likely to not have it on hand.  I substituted bacon for this particular recipe.  To make the dish, I had to pick up the lemons and parsley from the grocery store.  4/5

Ease of Execution (Techniques/Tools used):

Pan Frying

The recipe is timed for 40 minutes.  There's a little bit of prep work with mincing and slicing, basic kitchen stuff.  It does require a little bit of effort to get the dish together, with several steps involved, but nothing that was too complex.  4/5

Taste

The test kitchen tip in the book for this recipe suggested that it needed lots of lemon, which is why the recipe called for 1/4 cup of juice and some lemon slices while cooking to really bring the flavor together.  I approve.  This dish was so much better with the proscuitto (bacon).  I'm convinced that everything tastes better with bacon, but that's true with most cases.  If I had went without the bacon, I would not have been as impressed.  The lemon flavor could overpower any other subtle flavors that could be there..granted, based on the ingredient list, it looks like the lemon is supposed to be the star I know I cooked the chicken a little longer than expected, but the cutlets came out juicy and tender.  A quick and easy recipe that I would gladly use again.    7/10

Total Score: 15/20 (***3/4)