Pan Seared Airline Chicken, Tomato Concasse, Prosciutto Ham Sauce
Air travel in the 1970s was a far cry from what it is today. We dressed up for a flight, smoked cigarettes on the plane, drank cocktails, and a fancy chicken dinner was served! This beautiful crispy skin on the outside of a juicy boneless breast, with the first wing joint still attached ( so you could easily pick it up and enjoy it), was dubbed an airline breast, but the elegant cut is also know as a frenched breast. Sadly, it’s not a cut you’ll likely find at your local grocery store in the States, but trust me, it’s’ worth the effort to learn to fabricate them. You can butcher 2 whole chickens and have meat for 2 or 3 nights dinner that week and make a chicken stock to have readily on hand.
- 2 airline chicken breasts
- olive oil – enough
- 1 slice prosciutto
- 1 shallot – sliced
- 1/4 cup white wine
- 1 cup chicken stock
- 1 tbs butter – unsalted
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Bring chicken to room temperature. In a sauté pan, heat olive oil, sear chicken, skin side down, until golden. Turn and transfer to a baking dish and finish cooking (to 160 degrees) in the oven.
In the sauté pan, add sliced shallots and cook on medium until caramelized, then add prosciutto. Deglaze pan with white wine, reduce, add chicken stock, reduce, strain. Off the heat, whisk in butter.
Tomato Concasse
- heirloom grape tomatoes
- 1 shallot – minced
- 1 clove garlic – minced
- 2 tbs red wine vinegar (I like Regina)
- 1/3 cup olive oil
Blanch, peel and slice tomatoes – set aside. Combine shallots, garlic and red wine vinegar. Whisk in olive oil and season with salt and pepper to taste. Spoon over tomatoes.
Served here with crowder peas and spinach salad. Rinse fresh spinach, remove the stems and toss leaves with a few tablespoons of the tomato vinaigrette.
