Chicken Fillets with Black Olive Sauce

This elegant dish looks and tastes as though it belongs on an upscale restaurant menu, but it’s actually easy to do. If doubling the recipe, keep the first two cooked fillets warm in a low temperature oven and repeat the fast process.

Tapenade
Use this classic Italian olive spread on gluten-free toast triangles as an appetizer, toss with pasta or add to a sauce for plain chicken or fish.

Ingredients

1 large chicken breast (about 8 ounces) boneless and skinless, sliced into two fillets and pounded flat
3 tablespoons white rice flour
Fine sea salt and black pepper
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 tablespoon black olive tapenade, made (recipe follows) or purchased
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Tapenade
1⁄3 cup (2 ounces) oil-cured black olives, pitted
1⁄3 cup (2 ounces) Kalamata olives, pitted, rinsed and patted dry
1 anchovy fillet, rinsed and chopped, optional
1 tablespoon capers, rinsed and drained
Few drops red wine vinegar
1 small garlic clove, crushed and minced
1 to 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Directions

Tapenade
Combine all the ingredients in a food processor and grind to a coarse paste, scraping down the bowl several times. Transfer to a small glass jar with a screw top, and store in the refrigerator.

Chicken Fillets
Heat two dinner plates. Spoon the rice flour onto a plate and season with salt and pepper.

Warm the olive oil and butter in a large, nonstick skillet over medium heat. As soon as the butter has melted, quickly dip the chicken in the flour on both sides, shaking off the excess. Add to the skillet and brown lightly until just cooked through, 1 or 2 minutes on each side, adjusting the heat (or lifting the pan) so the butter does not get too dark. Transfer to the warm plates.

Stir the tapenade into the buttery juices left in the pan to make a sauce, and drizzle over the chicken.

Serve immediately.

Cooking time: 1 or 2 minutes on each side.

Serving size: 1/2 tablespoon (tapenade).

Nutritional Analysis:
Calories: 440 (tapenade, 25), Carbohydrates: 12 g (tapenade, 1 g), Protein: 25 g (tapenade, 0 g), Fat: 31 g (tapenade, 2 g), Cholesterol: 105 mg (tapenade, 0 mg ), Sodium: 230 mg (tapenade, 100 mg), Fiber: 0 g (tapenade, 0 g)

The author of more than a dozen cookbooks, Gluten-Free Living Food Editor Jacqueline Mallorca has written titles including The Wheat-Free Cookand Gluten-Free Italian.

Nutritional analysis for recipes is created using Food Processor SQL nutrition and fitness software by ESHA. Recipes are analyzed per serving (unless otherwise indicated) for calories, fat, cholesterol, sodium, carbohydrates, fiber and protein. Nutrient amounts are approximate due to variations in brands, manufacturer, preparation and ingredient substitutions. When ingredient choices are listed, we use the first one. Nonspecific amounts, for example "to taste," and garnishes are not included.