Sauteed Chicken w/ Garlic & Herb Butter Sauce

I want to wish everyone a Happy New Year!  2012 was very good to us, and we hope that 2013 will be just as good, or even better!

We spent New Year's Eve indulging in great food, great drinks, and great friends.  Just the way it should be, right?! 

New Year's Day was a little sluggish for us - we definitely are NOT in our early 20's anymore. 

Because of our laziness, we ended up just going out to see a movie and I picked up some chicken breasts to cook for dinner.  No typical "Good Luck" meal in our house - just simplicity!  The chicken is basically basted in hot butter and herbs, then the hot butter is used for a hollandaise-type sauce for the chicken.  Waste not-want not!  Right?!  Definitely not the healthiest of all meals, but hey, it was New Year's Day!

Ingredients:

2 skin-on chicken breasts
8 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 tablespoon Herbs de Provence
pinch of fennel
salt and pepper, to taste
3 cloves of garlic, smashed
1 cup white wine, plus 1 tablespoon
2 egg yolks
juice from 1 lemon
1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped

In a deep skillet (cast iron works great), melt the stick of butter under medium heat. 

Combine the thyme, herbs de Provence, fennel, salt, and pepper in a small bowl.  Season the chicken breasts with the herb mixture.  Add chicken, as well as the garlic cloves, to the skillet, skin-side down.  Cook slowly under medium heat until cooked through, about 20-25 minutes.  You'll want to baste the chicken with the butter frequently, and turn the breast over once the skin is nice and caramelized. Remove the chicken and place on a plate and keep warm while you make your sauce.

Add 1 cup of wine to the butter cooking liquid and reduce the mixture by half, scraping up any bits on the pan to add more flavor to the sauce.

In a medium saucepan, whisk the egg yolks until they are thick and pale yellow.  Whisk in lemon juice and 1 tablespoon of white wine.  Slowly incorporate the butter/wine mixture to the egg yolks, whisking constantly - like you're making a hollandaise or mayonnaise.  When all of butter is incorporated, slowly heat the mixture, whisking frequently, until the sauce is thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon.  Season to taste and stir in the fresh parsley.

Spread a decent line of sauce on your plate and top with whatever side dish/vegetable you choose (we had a bunch of different frozen veggies to clear out the freezer) and then top the side with the chicken. 

This was a simple, but flavorful way to prepare a nice pair of chicken breasts.  And it was a nice change-up from all the seafood we were eating!  Hope you guys have a great week!