Pan-Seared Chicken with Carolina Blonde Beer & Orange Agave Sauce

Guys, I had an awesome dinner last night.

But I also had a problem. 

This was actually after I had turned on all the fans and used my ice cooling trick (below). It read 85* when I got home. It felt just awesome. NOT.

The other problem I had was that I was really excited about my dinner and I kind of had to make it because the chicken really needed to be cooked. (Are you noticing a trend here? I bought too much chicken too soon.) Being over a hot stove in an air conditioned kitchen can be a little intense sometimes. Being over a hot stove in a hot kitchen…well, it’s not exactly  peachy fun. But you know what makes it fun? Having an excuse to drink a beer while you drink dinner. It’s part of the recipe – you have to. And man a COLD beer tastes really good in an 81* kitchen.

To cool things down a little, I busted out an old trick from one of my old apartments that didn’t have A/C – placing a fan behind a big bowl of ice (I just pulled out the entire ice tray. Not messin’ around folks.) Maizey plopped right down to cool off. 

She rested and cooled while I cooked. If this is making you hot just reading about it, I’ll pause while you go get a beer. 

Ok, you ready? Good. Cheers. 

First, you take two chicken breasts and slice them horizontally across the thickness of the breast to make 4 thin breasts. Make sense? I hate thick chicken breasts – they get dry easily and don’t have ton of flavor so this is how I usually prep my chicken. Season with salt and pepper. Add a little olive oil to a pan and then add the chicken breasts once the oil starts to look shiny and hot. Cook the breasts for about 3 minutes on each side until a meat thermometer tells you they are 165 degrees (cooked through). Set aside. 

Bonus if your house is 81 degrees, your chicken will stay warm while you prep the rest of the meal.

Next you’ll make your sauce. Saute your shallots in the pan until starting to look translucent and then add in all the liquid goodness. What? You drank all the beer you were supposed to put in the pan? You naughty thing, you were supposed to save a cup. I suppose you can open another beer. Sigh. You just can’t be trusted. 

Let that simmer away over medium heat for 7-10 minutes until it starts to get thick.

Side note while I tell you about my new discovery. I discovered I can’t have soy – I think I told you that already so that’s not the new discovery. The NEW discovery is this: SOY-free soy sauce. Is your mind blown? 

How about a little lesson in soy seasoning? There is soy sauce which has wheat (can’t have that), tamari which is pure soy (can’t have that) and Braggs Amino which is liquid protein concentrate derived from soy beans with amino acids added in. Can’t have that either. I was thinking about using fish sauce for my soy sauce substitute in recipes but then I found this guy hanging out at whole foods. It has a teeeeeny bit of coconut flavor but you wouldn’t know it unless you’re sitting eating it plain. And ew, that’s just gross. Don’t do that. 

Anyway, is your sauce thickened yet? Are you still paying attention? DID YOU GET ANOTHER BEER?? Ugh, kids these days. Well it’s probably thickened by now so add your chicken back in. 

Turn the breasts to coat and then remove from the heat. Serve over rice. That’s the best part – how the rice soaks up all the goodness. I had intentions to make a salad to go with this but I had to conserve energy in the heat. So I just had chicken and rice. And the rest of my beer. Because I’m responsible and only had one. One of us has to be an adult here. 😉

Mmmm see the sauce on the chicken? Yum

Pan-Seared Chicken with Carolina Blonde Agave Chicken
serves 2-4
slightly adapted from Iowa Girl Eats

Ingredients:

• 2 chicken breasts, sliced in half to make 4 thin breasts
• extra virgin olive oil
• salt & pepper
• 2 shallots, thinly sliced
• 1 cup Foothills Carolina Blonde (or a cream ale of choice)
• 1 T agave
• 1/4 cup soy-free soy sauce (or substitute)
• juice of 2 oranges + 1 T zest