My favorite recipes are simple and elegant. The less ingredients, the better. When I recently blogged about my first homemade batch of clarified butter, Richard McGary commented “Now that you have your clarified butter, if you want to try something, get a boneless, skinless chicken breast; season it with a little salt and pepper; bread it in bread crumbs from fresh bread, not stale or dried bread; and sauté it in the clarified butter. This is a remarkably simple technique with minimal seasoning but the flavor you will get with the butter and bread coupled with the moist chicken is mind boggling.” Of course I had to give this a try since it’s right up my alley and I had the clarified butter anyway, and I have to agree with Richard that it is remarkably flavorful. Especially considering that I usually stay away from chicken breast because it’s too boring. The breading turned out soft and crispy at the same time and the chicken was succulent.
So if you need a good reason to make clarified butter too, here is one! Richard: Thanks for the recipe, I will definitely make this again!
Ingredients
boneless skinless chicken breast, preferably organic
salt and freshly ground black pepper
clarified butter
1 egg
fresh white bread such as French bread or Italian bread (1 day old is fine)
Preparation
Remove the crust from the bread. Use a microplane grater (or the grating wheel of your food processor) to turn the bread into fresh breadcrumbs.
Beat the egg and put in a wide shallow container, just big enough to hold the chicken breast. Season the chicken breast with salt and freshly ground black pepper and coat with the beaten egg on both sides.
Spread out the breadcrumbs on a plate. Put the chicken breast on the breadcrumbs.
Turn around to coat the other side as well. Press on the bread crumbs to make them stick. Let this dry for about 15 minutes.
Heat clarified butter in a non-stick frying pan over high heat. Add the breaded chicken breast and lower the heat to medium.
Cook for 3-6 minutes on each side, depending on thickness, until just cooked through. Do not cook longer than necessary. You can check the doneness by pressing on the chicken with your finger.
Serve immediately on warm plates.
Stefan's Gourmet Blog 
My suggestion (actually, it’s my mother’s, a trick I picked up from her) is to add a healthy dose of grated Parmesan to the crumbs for added flavor. It really works
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Good idea, thanks! I’ve done that with costolette di vitello, but that was years ago.
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You’re so right, Stefan. Simple is best. I’m not one to cook chicken breasts normally, finding them too dry and tasteless in comparison to the thighs. It sounds like this preparation will address those concerns. Besides, it will give me an excuse to make some clarified butter. 🙂
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Looks like we’d enjoy each other’s food 😉 I agree completely on what you said on thighs vs breast, and in 99% of the cases substitute chicken breast in recipes with chicken thighs.
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Hi, Stefan. Glad you gave it a try and liked it. Sometimes, the simplest things are the best. 🙂 I made this years ago before boneless, skinless, chicken breasts became the rage. There is something about the clarified butter, the breadcrumbs and the chicken when combined that is ethereal. I can tell from the photo that you cooked it to perfection.
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Boneless, skinless chicken breasts are so popular here that the rest of the chicken is often exported to Africa and is sold so cheap there that local producers can’t get a chance.
I’m sticking to boneless, skinless chicken thighs. I bet that wouldn’t be bad breaded and fried in clarified butter, either 🙂
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