Chicken with Provencal Sauce, Or Kitchen De-Stressing

First, let me admit that I have not been stressed about anything since Saturday after I got to chat with my boss. However, I've wanted to try this Cooking Light recipe for "Chicken with Provencal Sauce," and while testing it out, I began to see how it would be a great recipe to de-stress by after a hard day at work. The recipe really isn't complicated and it relies mainly on good technique. You pound 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts flat, sprinkle them with salt and pepper and cook them for about 6 minutes a side in a hot non-stick skillet that you've coated with olive oil. Remove the chicken from the pan and keep it warm. Throw some minced garlic into the pan and saute to soften it, then put chicken broth in the skillet to deglaze the pan. Throw in some Herbes d'Provence and let it all reduce down to about 1/2 cup of sauce. Take it off the heat and stir in some lemon juice and whisk in a tablespoon of real, honest to God, unsalted butter. Adjust salt and pepper to taste. Drizzle about 2 Tbs. sauce on each chicken breast. Easy. What makes this a de-stressing recipe?

First, you pour a glass of nice white wine to drink while you cook. I had a 2004 Honeymoon Vigonier that I got from Trader Joes. Very fruity (apricots, peaches and mango are what I tasted most strongly), so a nice sipping wine. None of that high alcohol heartburn effect. Second, there is nothing that isn't relaxing about whacking a chicken breast with a mallet. Third, allowing 10 minutes for prepping everything (flattening chicken, mincing some garlic and assembling salt, pepper, herbes d'Provence, lemon juice and butter), cooking time is maximum of 20 minutes. Nuke some nice frozen haricot verts from Trader Joes while chicken is browning on the second side. Take THAT, Rachael Ray. Fourth, there is nothing that isn't utterly satisfying about having nice juicy, perfectly browned chicken breasts as an end result. Fifth, you've got leftovers for several days, and even if you run out of sauce, you've still got some lovely cooked chicken to make other stuff out of. This all adds up to de-stressing cooking in my book.

I stored the leftover sauce separately from the leftover chicken. Tonight I stirred some dijon mustard into the leftover sauce for a slightly different taste. I'll make a salad with chicken later in the week and a chicken panini, too. Or maybe chicken-topped pizza. Depends on my mood.

Anyhow, today was a very unstressful day. Put the money in the registers and made out the daily cashier schedule, then I headed off for a 3 1/2 hr. training class with some of my co-workers. Afterward, our manager took us to lunch. We rolled back in about 1:30. My day ended at 4. I don't get many days like that, so I will take them when I get them. Ahhhh.....probably have to pay for it come Saturday. We are usually ungodly busy on Saturdays.

Tomorrow is my day off. Laundry beckons. It is the bane of my existence, but I live in a temperate but northerly climate in a society where clothing is not optional. I'm going to go watch a movie now.

Morning update: attempted to watch "Ned Kelly". Not even Heath Ledger and Orlando Bloom made this bearable. Very boring. Not quite as coma-inducing as "Cold Mountain" seems to be for me, but a close second if I'd been lying on the couch reading and not gotten so distracted with yet another round of "Jewel Quest" on the computer.....