Chicken, Pasta, Lemon and Cream Sauce

This is pretty quick to prepare and very tasty. It also has half the fat and half the calories if you eat half as much. But it's good enough that half as much might just work.

Bring to a boil while moving ahead with the chicken and the sauce

• 6 quarts water with 
• 1 Tbsp salt
• one pound of fettucini dry pasta (or equivalent fresh), Find it but don't cook it yet but put it somewhere handy. Notice how long the package says to cook it. (Somewhere around 8 minutes, probably.) 

Turn down the heat and put a lid on the pot so its ready to use in a bit.

Then you need

• 4 chicken breasts - boneless, not over 1 inch thick. (If thicker, butterfly them. Well, and you you don't need four.) The idea is to have one skillet full of chicken breasts.)
• 2 Tbsp butter - not margarine or anything with the word "spread" in the name
• 2 Tbsp olive oil - or any vegetable oil
• 3 medium lemons - slice 3/8 inch thick, discard the end slices (Meticulous people like to remove the visible seeds. I just eat around them in the finished dish.)
• salt
• pepper

Melt the butter with the olive oil in a 12 inch skillet. Heat to medium and brown the lemon slices on one side only. Remove the lemon slices from the heat and set them aside on a dinner plate.

Salt and pepper the chicken. Then, on medium-high heat, brown the chicken breasts on two sides. I prefer this browned but not with hard crusts on the surface of the meat. Remove the chicken and set them on top of the lemons.

• 1/2 to 3/4 cup white wine - Use a drinking wine, not a cooking wine. Use cheap wine if you want. Expensive wine doesn't help the dish.
• 1 cup chicken broth - the less salt the better
• 1/3 beef bouillon cube (1/2 tsp granules) - I wish I knew where to get this without salt.

Pour the wine into the skillet while still hot. It's still on medium high. (If you don't like wine, replace it with more chicken broth plus a teaspoon of sugar or honey or 4 sliced grapes.) Stir and scrape the bottom of the pan to dislodge all the tasty particles of chicken before they burn.

[This is a good time to start the pasta cooking by turning up the heat on the water. While you are simmering the chicken, below, it will begin boiling and you can add the pasta. Set a timer for the pasta so you don't overcook it. You want it slightly undercooked if you choose to mix it with the sauce below. When the timer goes off, or when you test the pasta to be done enough, remove the pasta from the water to a large bowl or cookie sheet. Don't pour out all the water as you may need some.]

Add the chicken broth and bouillon cube to the pan. Bring to a boil. Add the chicken to the pan. Put the lemon slices on top of the chicken and reduce the heat to medium. Simmer covered for about 7 minutes on each side. Keep the lemons on top of the chicken after turning it over. Test the meat by feel. It might not take the full 15 until the chicken is no longer rubbery (and raw). Try not to overcook the chicken but don't leave any of the meat pink or red either. (Balance. Balance. Balance.)

When the chicken is done, remove it and the lemon from the pan and set aside with a covering plate or strip of foil to keep the heat in.

Increase the heat to high, don't use the lid and stir continuously to reduce the liquid by one-half. Reduce the heat to medium.

• 1 cup heavy cream - microwave this for 44 seconds to warm it up, pour into the pan and stir until the cream is thoroughly incorporated.
• 1 Tbsp capers - (optional)

You have two choices here:

1) Add the pasta to the sauce and simmer for 2 minutes. It may need thinning. If so, use some of the pasta water to do keep it from being too thick. Prepare individual plates with a serving of pasta with the sauce, a smattering of capers, a chicken breast with a little sauce drizzled over it and a few lemon slices on top. (Something green looks really good on the side of the plate. Peas? Parsley? Spinach? Sugar snap beans?)

2) Serve home style with the sauce topped with capers in a bowl, the chicken and lemon slices arrayed on their own plate and the pasta in its own bowl. Everyone takes some pasta, chicken, lemons and sauce.