Chicken, Mandarins & Brown Butter With Salty, Pickled Onions

Inspired by chicken piccata, this dish is all about that balance of bright, sweet mandarins, rich brown butter and salty pickled onions. If you’re looking for a starch for this dish to go with, try herbed basmati rice, couscous or wedges of roasted sweet potatoes.

Serves 4

2 chicken breasts, about 1½ pounds

1 small red onion, peeled and cut in half lengthwise

Kosher salt

3 tablespoons red wine vinegar

4 firm mandarins (a little larger than a golf ball), peeled by hand

1½ teaspoons cumin seeds

Flour, for dredging

5 tablespoons room-temperature butter, divided

½ cup chicken stock

4 fresh bay leaves (or dried)

Flake salt such as Maldon

Chill chicken in the freezer for 15-20 minutes. Trim ends off onion halves and cut into ½-inch slices lengthwise. Place in a bowl and toss with 1 teaspoon salt, making sure every piece is seasoned and most pieces have separated from one another. Let sit for 5 minutes and then toss well with the red wine vinegar. Onions should start brightening to a more fuchsia tone. While onions are salting and pickling, slice mandarins into ½-inch discs. (If some fall apart, that is OK.) Coarsely grind the cumin in a spice grinder or mortar and pestle and toss with 1½ teaspoons kosher salt.

Slice chicken breasts in half lengthwise, making 4 thinner pieces. One by one, place each piece in a Ziploc bag, seal, and pound — not too hard, but enough to flatten slightly, focusing on the thicker ends — until about ½-inch thick. Season the chicken pieces on both sides with the cumin-salt mixture and then dredge in flour. Lay pieces on a wire rack set inside a sheet-pan. Toss onions periodically with the excess vinegar in the bowl.

Heat 2 tablespoons of the butter in a large saute pan over medium high heat, and swirl the butter around so it melts and coats the pan evenly. Once the butter has melted and has started to turn golden brown, 3 minutes, add two pieces of the dredged chicken breasts and sear chicken for about 3 minutes per side. Repeat this process by adding 2 more tablespoons butter, letting it melt and start to brown before adding the remaining two pieces of chicken. Transfer chicken pieces to a serving platter and turn heat down to low.

Add chicken stock and red onions (and any vinegar in the bowl) to the pan and turn heat up to medium and bring liquid to a simmer. Add the remaining 1 tablespoon butter to the pickled onion and brown butter broth, and swirl to work in the butter. Turn off heat. Arrange the mandarin pieces on the chicken platter. Pour the pickled onion and brown butter sauce over the chicken and mandarins. Season with flake salt and serve.