🍗 Golden Pork Panko Chicken with Buttery Lemon Drizzle 🍋 🧈

This golden pork panko chicken with buttery lemon drizzle recipe is one of this cookbook’s easiest and most impressive recipes. This recipe was inspired by Julia Child’s chicken breast meuniere: sautéed in butter from The Way To Cook, but I have substituted the flour for pork panko to lower the amount of carbohydrates.

Julia recommends accompanying this dish with baked tomatoes and fresh buttered spinach or broccoli. She states, “Sautéed potatoes would also be welcome, as would a light red wine like a Pinot Noir or Beaujolais.” Sounds good to me, but I enjoy this dish solo style—just the chicken.

This recipe calls for clarified butter, so I have included a recipe for that as an accompanying recipe for this dish.

This recipe is simple yet elegant, but if you are not familiar with dredging, I’ll explain. All you need to do is spread your pork panko on a plate, press both sides of each breast into it, and then shake off any excess. Do this just before you place it in the frying pan so the pork panko doesn’t get soggy.

When it comes to the chicken breasts, you can butterfly them or pound them out as directed in this recipe. You can also buy chicken breasts that the butcher has butterflied, but they can cost more, and they’re just so easy to make at home. Place your hand on top of the breast and, starting at the thick side of the breast, slice it in half, leaving a half inch or so at the back. Now open it up, and you’re done. Pounding out chicken breasts is also very easy. All you need to do is hit the thicker side of the breasts with a meat hammer or use your palm to hit the flat side of your chef’s knife against the chicken and the cutting board. Do this in a bag or between parchment paper to reduce the mess factor.

This golden pork panko-crusted chicken will store in the fridge for about one week but is best served fresh. You can, however, reheat it in an air fryer for best results.

Golden Pork Panko Chicken with Buttery Lemon Drizzle Recipe

Difficulty Level:  3 out of 5 Meatballs

Prep Time: 5 Minutes

Cook Time: 8 Minutes

Servings: 2

• 4 boneless and skinless chicken breasts
• Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
• 1 cup of pork panko
• 2 to 3 tablespoons of clarified butter
• 2 tablespoons of butter
• ½ of a lemon
• 2 tablespoons of fresh parsley, minced

Flatten the thick end of each chicken breast with a meat hammer or the flat side of your chef’s knife. Strive for an even thickness through each breast.

Season the breasts lightly with salt and pepper.

Just before cooking, dredge them in pork panko and shake off any excess.

Set a frying pan over high heat, add the clarified butter, and, when very hot but not burning, lay in the chicken breasts one or two at a time. 

Sauté each breast for 1 minute on each side and place on a warm plate.

Wipe out the frying pan, place 2 tablespoons of butter in it, and heat until it turns a light brown.

Squeeze a few drops of lemon juice over the chicken, pour on the hot butter, sprinkle with parsley, and serve at once.

Nutritional Facts: (Per Serving) Calories 575 Protein 57g Fat 36g Total Carbohydrates 2g

Clarified Butter Recipe

Who doesn’t love butter? Vegans, that’s who.

Butter is a fantastic ingredient, but it can be problematic for cooking because it contains milk proteins that burn at two hundred and fifty degrees. Not so good for high-heat cooking, but we can overcome this by clarifying the butter.

When you clarify butter, you separate the milk solids and whey. This raises the smoke point to four hundred and fifty degrees. Removing the moisture will enable you to keep your clarified butter in the fridge for a year and up to six months at room temperature.

It’s similar to ghee and uses the same process, but to make it, you have to caramelize the milk proteins. This differentiates ghee from clarified butter and gives it that well-known nutty flavor.

When you boil the butter, the milk solids and whey will separate, and after you let it sit for an hour or so, the milk solids will settle to the bottom, and the whey will float to the top.

You can use a cheesecloth to strain the butter through if you’re worried about getting the milk solids in the final product, but this is not required as long as you pour it slowly.

Your clarified butter should be clear and will solidify slightly if kept at room temperature.

Difficulty Level:  2 out of 5 Meatballs

Prep Time: 1-2 Hours

Cook Time: 10-15 Minutes

• 1 pound of butter

Place the butter in a saucepan over high heat.

Bring the butter to a boil and continue boiling for 10-15 minutes, mixing every few minutes.

Pour butter into a medium-sized bowl.

Let the butter sit for 1-2 hours.

Use a ladle to gently remove the whey from the top of the butter.

Slowly pour the butter into another medium-sized bowl, careful not to pour out the milk solids that have settled on the bottom of the bowl.

Use your clarified butter to cook as you would any other cooking oil.