Pan-seared Chicken Breasts with Baby Peppers

Serves 2-3

It's the flavour of the peppers and coriander seeds that makes these chicken breasts memorable. Oh, and the little sizzling butter trick at the end. If you're serving 6, use 3 chicken breasts and cook in a larger pan, and add in a few more peppers.

Pan-seared Chicken Breasts with Baby Peppers Photo: Julie Biuso

Ingredients

• 2 skinned and boned chicken breasts, about 700g total
• 2 tsp coriander seeds
• 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 Tbsp creamy Dijonnaise mustard
• Sprigs of tarragon and thyme, or rosemary
• Flaky sea salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 10-12 mini pepper, about 250g
• 1 Tbsp butter
• White wine, optional

Method

1 Trim visible fat from chicken breasts and gently lever smaller pieces of breasts to one side to the breasts will lay flat. Slash through the thick part of the breasts (on what was the skin side) with a sharp knife. Mix coriander seeds, oil, mustard, sprigs of herbs, a few pinches of salt and black pepper to taste in a shallow dish. Add chicken breasts and turn them in the marinade. Cover dish and marinate for 1-2 hours in the fridge. Remove from fridge about 20 minutes before cooking.

2 Trim and halve peppers, then remove seeds and white membrane. Add to chicken and toss to coat in the oily marinade.

3 Heat a medium-sized cast iron or heavy-based frying pan over medium heat. Add chicken breasts cut side down, putting the fattest parts on the hottest parts of the pan. Put peppers around the sides of chicken. Once the pan gets up to speed, lower the heat so that it cooks without burning. As the peppers cook (the pan will be quite crowded), move them around, and when browned and tender, rest them on top of the chicken breasts; the juices from the peppers will run down into the breasts creating a gorgeous flavour. When the breasts are nicely browned, flick peppers to the side of the pan, turn the breasts and put the peppers back on top of them. Continue cooking until the chicken is nicely browned and has just lost its blush of pink in the thickest part of the breasts; you may need to turn down the heat to finish cooking. The chicken should take 15-20 minutes to cook all up.

4 Transfer chicken breasts to a board and transfer peppers to a dish. Leave the pan on the heat and swirl in the butter. Turn off the heat. (If the pan is really hot, turn off the heat and add the butter once it has cooled a little; there should be enough residual heat to make the butter melt and sizzle.) Season the chicken breasts with flaky sea salt, then slice. Transfer to a warmed plate, then spoon mover the sizzled butter and pan sediment. If there is a lot of tasty goo in the pan, splash in a little white wine and bubble up, then spoon over chicken. Arrange peppers around chicken and serve.

Recipe Notes

• If you can't find mini peppers, use 2 yellow (or red; yellow are sweeter) peppers into fat strips.
   
• If the chicken breasts are very fat at one end, slash the meat several times through (what was) the skin side, with a sharp knife. This will not only help the heat penetrate more quickly, but it will also allow the flavourings to enter the meat.