This simple and delicious dish of Chicken Paillard (“paillard” is French for “pounded really flat”) may sound fancy, but will be done in a flash. French food, which has a reputation for being stuffy and overdone (which it can be, certainly) is really about straightforward, fresh preparation that makes eating like this every day a breeze.
We will make today a Chicken Paillard. Ooo la la. Oui, oui, Mon Cheri.
OK, I don’t speak French. German, yes (well, enough to fake it anyway). But French, not so much. When we lived in Germany, we were only 30 minutes from the French border, which afforded us a lot of great travel at the drop of a hat. One destination on Saturday mornings was a store called Cora. It was just over the border, and this place made WalMart look like a mom & pop store. If they didn’t sell it, you didn’t need it in life. From fresh produce, meats, breads, and seafood, to bicycles, televisions, linens, motor oil, slippers, wine, and even copies of keys while you waited. Seriously. It was a place you could easily get lost for hours–and come out with 3x as many things as you went in for.
One trip in particular, my husband and his buddy accompanied me to wander the aisles, looking for nothing in particular. When they’re together, their inclination is to revert back a few years in age. As a result, I felt like I had a couple of 12 year old boys trailing me at each turn. I kept hearing them say “Oh ho ho” and “Ooo la la” in their best Inspector Cluseau/Pepe LePew voices. I had to tell them to knock it off since I didn’t think that the French customers were going to think that the silly Americans were all that funny. That will teach me to take them along on a shopping trip like this one. Sigh.
Regardless of the junior high boy antics, we always came out of Cora with a haul that regularly included lots of wine (there’s a story about that for another post), tons of cheese (the cheese aisle was, well its own AISLE), beautiful meats and seafood, and bread that was so fresh that it was still warm. By the time we’d get home, we’d have polished off at least one warm baguette, and already planned our French-inspired dinner for the evening.
But that would leave me wanting to prepare a French-inspired meal. This simple, delicious and healthy option was the perfect way to end a day of being IN France without the heavy meals that may have come to mind wandering the store. Fresh ingredients of chicken breast, juicy cherry tomatoes, and a fresh spinach salad made for a perfect accompaniment to that loaf of bread! It may even have had us saying “Ooo la la”!
| Servings | Prep Time |
| 2 people | 10 minutes |
| Cook Time |
| 7 minutes |
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Another less-than-5-ingredient meal, another easy dinner ready in no time. I love that with just salt, pepper, and some olive oil, this chicken becomes a star on your plate in 10 minutes flat. Get it? Flat? Because it is--delicious and flat!
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- 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- 1 tbsp. olive oil
- 4 oz. cherry tomatoes, halved
- 1 tbsp. fresh basil, chopped
- 4 oz. baby spinach
- salt, to taste
- pepper, to taste
- Preheat a heavy skillet over medium high heat. Pat the chicken breasts dry, and place between pieces of parchment paper.
- Pound each chicken breast until it is 1/2 inch thick.
- Add 1 tbsp. olive oil to the pan. Salt and pepper each side of the chicken breasts. Place chicken breast in pan and brown for 5 minutes.
- Turn chicken breast and cook for an additional 2 minutes. The second side may not brown as much as the first side. Remove from pan and repeat with second chicken breast. Set chicken aside to rest.
- In same pan, toss tomato halves with salt & pepper to taste until they begin to give off their juices and start to blister. Remove from heat and toss in fresh basil.
- Serve chicken breasts over baby spinach topped with tomato mixture.
Because these chicken breasts pound out to be HUGE, it's easy to make a single chicken breast go a long way. Because we didn't eat both of these paillards in one dinner sitting, I had enough for a delicious sandwich the next day. Because the chicken is much thinner than a whole new chicken breast would be, it was perfect for a quick lunch that was satisfying and filling without being unhealthy. I topped it with the same spinach and tomatoes as the night before (and a little mayo, for good measure), but you could get creative with the additions for a sandwich. Hummus, avocado, pesto, brie--get crazy and have yourself a French lunch with a twist!
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What a lovely and simple summer dinner.
I love the fresh summer flavors going on in this simple dish! Pinning to make very, very soon 😉
Cora sounds like quite the place to shop indeed! This sounds wonderful!
Love how light this is and that you use cherry tomatoes! YUM!
Gorgeous paillard Dee Dee. Love those pan roasted tomatoes, so flavorful! Perfect summer meal! Oui Oui Mon Cheri!
Learn something new every day! Hadn’t heard of “paillard” but one of my favorite chicken recipes is a similar one called “Flavor Pounded Chicken” – same idea! 🙂
I made something very similar the other day, but turned it into a salad. Since I used cheese and basil with my tomatoes, I called it a caprese salad (even though I included chicken.) But now I am starting to think I should have leaned towards a paillard 🙂