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Carl Davaz

It is a rule of cooking that the smaller or thinner something is, the faster it cooks. Smashed Chicken, as it is known in my family, bears close resemblance to Chicken Scaloppini, but is actually an approximation of a dish made with skate that I had in a restaurant. In addition to chicken or skate, this recipe also works well with pork loin, any thin piece of mild white fish, or even sliced button mushrooms.

The important thing here is to make whatever you’re cooking an even thinness. For chicken breasts or pork loin, that means pounding them between pieces of plastic wrap with a heavy, flat object. The flat side of a meat pounder is ideal, but a smallish cast-iron skillet would work. Pound evenly until about half as thick as a slice of bread.

If you want to avoid the pounding and all of its noisy, aggression-releasing benefits, you can cut the chicken breast on the diagonal into thin slices. A brief time, maybe 15 minutes, in the freezer will make this easier. Very thinly cut pork loin chops may need only the minimum of pounding, depending on their thickness.

Chicken breasts vary in size from the very generous ones from the meat department to the small ones that come frozen in bags. The smaller ones are a good serving for one person. Cut the larger ones in half before pounding to make two servings.

This recipe can be made easily for one or scaled up for as many people as you have the energy to pound for. Serve with pasta, a green salad, maybe some bread and the rest of the wine from the bottle you used to make the sauce.

Smashed Chicken

• 2 large half chicken breasts, cut in half across the middle and pounded to an even thinness
• Olive oil to coat bottom of pan
• Salt and pepper
• Flour
• 1 tablespoon capers
• ¾ cup dry white wine (pinot grigio is good) or low-sodium chicken broth
• Juice of half a lemon
• 1 tablespoon cold butter

Place a shallow baking dish or pie pan in the oven and preheat to 200 degrees.

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. While it’s heating, lightly season chicken on both sides with salt and pepper. Dust with flour.

When pan is hot, add enough olive oil to cover the bottom with a thin film. Place chicken in the skillet. Do not crowd pan; you will need to do this in batches.

Cook until lightly browned on the bottom. The top will have begun to turn white; this should take only a couple of minutes.

Turn and cook the other side until lightly browned, another minute or two. You may need to add a little more oil.

When browned on both sides, place in pan in warm oven. Add more oil to the skillet, if needed (and it probably will need it.) Cook the rest of the chicken and then place it in the oven.

While the chicken remains in the oven, add wine to the skillet and raise heat to high. Stir to deglaze. Add capers and cook rapidly to reduce the liquid until it thickens a little. Remove from heat. Add lemon juice and stir. Add butter and swirl the skillet until the butter disappears.

Return chicken and any juices to the skillet; turn to coat with sauce before serving.

Kim Davaz of Eugene writes the biweekly Eating In column.

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