Recipe Makeover: Tyler Florence's Chicken Francese

Have you ever noticed how popular chicken is with all those Food Network television chefs? I often cruise through the Food Network website looking for some interesting recipes to lighten and I've got to say, poultry seems to reign supreme! So I wasn't that surprised when the recipe that appealed to me from Tyler Florence featured chicken.

The original recipe calls for dredging the chicken breasts in seasoned flour and then in beaten whole eggs. They are then fried in 1/4 cup of oil in a skillet. Instead, I used an egg substitute "with yolk" product that is lower in total fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol than beaten whole eggs (and it's really easy to use too). I still used olive oil to brown the chicken breast, but I used 2 1/2 tablespoons instead of 4. With a nonstick skillet, this was just the right amount of oil. The original recipe then calls for a lemon sauce to be made in the skillet using all sorts of flavorful ingredients like sliced lemon, white wine, chicken broth, parsley, and a couple tablespoons of butter. I took out the butter completely and switched to a sweeter white wine that wouldn't need the butter to help mellow the flavor.

These changes cut the calories by 28% and fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol by about 60%.

	Before	After
Calories	475	340
Fat(g)	26	11
Saturated Fat (g)	7.5	2.2
Cholesterol mg)	217	96
Fiber (g)	.6	.6

Light & Easy Chicken Francese

Photo: Elaine Magee

Ingredients:

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
3/4 cup unbleached white flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4-1/2 teaspoon black pepper (depending on preference)
1 cup egg substitute "with yolk" (if that product is not available, use 3/4 cup of any type of egg substitute and blend with 1 large egg)
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/2 lemon, with rind, cut in thin rounds
1/2 cup sweet white wine
1 cup low sodium chicken broth
1/2 lemon, juiced
1 tablespoon unbleached white flour
1/4 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley (regular parsley can be substituted)

Directions:

1. Lay one chicken breast in between two sheets of wax paper and pound with the flat side of meat mallet until about 1/4-inch thick. Put the flour in a medium bowl and combine with salt and pepper. Place egg substitute or egg mixture in a wide medium bowl.
2. Add a tablespoon of the oil to a nonstick skillet or large frying pan and begin to heat on medium-high. Begin to dredge both sides of each chicken breast in the flour mixture and then dip them in the egg mixture to coat completely. When the oil is hot, add two cutlets to the skillet and cook until underside is golden (about 2 minutes). Coat the top of the chicken cutlets with canola or olive oil cooking spray. Flip chicken over and cook until second side is golden. Remove chicken to a large platter and cover with foil to keep warm.
3. Repeat step #2 with the remaining oil and chicken breasts.
4. When all 4 chicken breasts are keeping warm on the platter, add the lemon slices to the same skillet and cook for 1 to 2 minutes. Pour in the wine, broth, and lemon juice and when the mixture comes to a gentle boil, reduce the heat to a simmer. Continue to cook until the sauce is reduced a little (about 4 minutes total).
5. Blend about 3 tablespoons of the hot liquid with 1 tablespoon of white flour to form a loose paste. Add flour paste to the skillet and whisk into the hot liquid and continue to cook and stir until a nicely thickened smooth sauce forms.
6. Place the chicken back in the skillet with the sauce and place the lemon slices on top of the chicken as the chicken simmers for a couple of minutes. Garnish with chopped parsley right before serving!

Yield: Makes 4 servings

Nutrition Information per serving: 340 calories, 41 g protein, 19 g carbohydrate, 11 g fat, 2.2 g saturated fat, 6.5 g monounsaturated fat, 1.7 g polyunsaturated fat, 96 mg cholesterol, .6 g fiber, 238 mg sodium. Calories from fat: 29 percent.

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• Easy Rotisserie Chicken Recipes
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Recipe Makeover: Paula Deen's Chicken & Rice Casserole

I love doing Paula Deen recipe makeovers because:

1. She rocks the kitchen.


2. She has a tendency toward my kind of cooking (comfort food).


3. There are always quite a few changes I can make for a big ticket nutritional pay off.

Today we are making over Paula’s popular Chicken & Rice Casserole. The original recipe calls for canned green beans. I don't do canned vegetables (not that there is anything wrong with that - except the added sodium); I just would rather use frozen or fresh vegetables. I think they taste better, although it seems that people prefer whatever they were raised with.

I also used skinless roasted chicken breast instead of any type of chicken meat with skin. And I used the 98% fat free condensed cream of chicken soup instead of regular and reduced fat sharp cheddar instead of regular. I made a blend of light mayonnaise and fat free sour cream instead of real mayonnaise, which creates a wonderful tasting mixture with 75% less grams of fat compared to the real thing.

Lastly the original recipe calls for a box of long grain white and wild rice. I used 4 cups of cooked brown rice and it seemed to work great. The pinch of salt (or any salt or that matter) simply isn't needed with the other ingredients that will contribute some sodium.

We cut the calories by 45% and the total fat and saturated fat were cut by about 70%! Cholesterol was cut in half and the fiber increased by 2 grams per serving.

Here’s the best part...it still tastes terrific - savory and satisfying!

	Before	After
Calories	646	354
Fat (g)	38	11
Saturated Fat (g)	9	3
Cholesterol (mg)	120	62
Fiber (g)	3.5	5.5

Light & Easy Chicken & Rice Casserole

Photo: Elaine Magee

Ingredients:

10 3/4-ounce can condensed cream of chicken or celery soup
1/2 cup light mayonnaise
1/2 cup fat free sour cream
3 cups frozen green beans
3 cups diced, cooked chicken breast, without skin
1 medium sweet or yellow onion, chopped
8 ounce can water chestnuts, drained and chopped
4 ounce jar or can pimentos, drained (optional)
4 cups cooked brown rice (or cooked brown rice and wild rice blend)
1 cup shredded reduced fat sharp cheddar cheese

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350-degrees. Coat a 9 x 13-inch baking dish (or 3-quart casserole dish) with canola cooking spray.
2. In large mixing bowl, combine condensed soup, light mayonnaise and fat free sour cream.
3. Add remaining ingredients to the mixing bowl and combine with mayonnaise mixture. Spread into prepared baking dish and bake for 25 minutes or until bubbly.

Yield: makes 8 servings

Nutritional Information per serving: 354 calories, 25 g protein, 38.5 g carbohydrate, 11 g fat, 3 g saturated fat, 4 g monounsaturated fat, 3 g polyunsaturated fat, 62 mg cholesterol, 5 g fiber, 435 mg sodium. Calories from fat: 28 percent.

Related Topics:

• Quick, Easy Recipes: More 'Halfway Homemade' Dishes
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• Healthy Cooking Newsletter - recipes, kitchen and shopping advice in your inbox