Note from the Editor: 
This is a recipe from the cookbook we are currently reviewing, Freshman in the Kitchen. The recipe being reviewed is for Chicken Breasts with Rosemary, White Wine, and Lemon Juice made from scratch. Click the link above to read more about the book and let us know what you think!

My family loves chicken. At one time, my dad kept a running tally of how many chickens my mom had cooked in a month. My mom has cooked all sorts of chicken - roasted, fried, pan-seared, grilled, you name it. Suffice to say, I know my chicken recipes. However, I don't really know how to cook it myself. The idea of touching raw poultry has never appealed to me, so when choosing a recipe to review, the Chicken Breasts with Rosemary, White Wine, and Lemon Juice was perfect. It was time to impress my family with my new chicken cooking skills. 

Since I needed to feed the four of us, I doubled the recipe.  My mom and I purchased four bone-in chicken breasts, as directed, and proceeded to brine them. I’ve never brined chicken before, but it turned out to be easy enough. Mix salt and water together, add the chicken, and one hour later, done; brined. With my timer ticking away, I moved on to the next steps. Next, the recipe says to “trim any excess fat and skin.” Perhaps most college kids know how to do this, but I certainly didn’t. My mom showed me how to cut off anything that looked out of place, such as a piece of fat on the edge of the chicken. Next, I sprinkled the breasts with salt and pepper (since the amount is not specified, I used about a teaspoon for each of the four breasts). I heated the oil in a saucepan on medium heat, and placed all four breasts into the pan as directed. The recipe says to cook for 4-5 minutes on each side, however, each side needed much more, around 9 minutes, in order to be "nicely browned." I then added the wine,  a chardonnay, and poured in the lemon juice. I turned the heat down to medium low in order to get those nice, "simmering" bubbles, and periodically moved the chicken around the pan. Whereas the skin used to be nice and crusty, it soon turned soggy and mushy, and didn't look as appetizing as before.

The recipe states the chicken should simmer for around 5-10 minutes, or until cooked through. This is a slight miscalculation. It took my chicken breasts 45 minutes to cook. I was starting to get frustrated at about 15 minutes, continually prodding the chicken with my thermometer to check. It wouldn't have been so bad if the recipe had said it took 45 minutes, which would have allowed me to let the chicken simmer while I did other tasks. However, I stood over the chicken almost the whole time, checking to see if it was almost done. At first I thought perhaps my chicken breasts were far bigger than the recipe intended, and in fact, the smallest of the breast finished around 10 minutes earlier than the rest. However, I do think the chicken breasts were average size, so I doubt this was the problem. Perhaps I didn't turn my heat high enough - but since the recipe called for the chicken to "simmer", there was only so much heat I could turn on. 

When the chicken was finally cooked, or so I thought, I whisked in the butter and let it simmer in the skillet for a few minutes. Afterwards, I placed the chicken on the plates, and since the recipe doesn't specify what to do with the fresh rosemary, I simply placed it atop the chicken as a garnish. Finally, with a dash of salt and pepper, dinner was ready - one hour and thirty-five minutes later. A full hour more than recipe stated.

My family dug in, and immediately, it was clear the chicken was not as cooked as we all might have liked. For the sake of time, we threw the chicken in the oven at 400 degrees for a few minutes until it was safely cooked through. 

At the end of it all, the reviews were mixed. The chicken tasted like far less work than it actually took, and one family member said it tasted like "just chicken, nothing special." My little brother said it was "okay," and we all agreed 4 out of 10 stars was appropriate. The sauce didn't seem to have much of a bearing on the taste of the chicken, even though it simmered for 45- 50 minutes. The taste alone was slightly bitter, and didn't complement the chicken as well as it could have. The rosemary was a nice touch, and actually ended up being the flavor we could taste the most. 

While the chicken was certainly a fun recipe to try, it didn't turn out to be quite as impressive as I'd hoped. Perhaps the sauce needs a little tinkering, such as throwing in more spices to add flavor, or the timing and cooking method needs to be rethought. A good start, since in my family, "just chicken" is always better than no chicken, but in my opinion, this recipe has a little ways to go.