The tenderloin is removed because it would otherwise fall off during cooking. We cut the chicken into pieces because it is easier to flatten the tapered edge and you get a bigger piece due to how it is cut in the first place. Cheers!

Made this for dinner tonight and it was amazing! One of the best Italian chicken dishes I've ever made. My husband won't eat moldy cheeses, so I subbed Provolone, and it was still fabulous. Thanks for the recipe!
Nancy

I tried this dish twice. The first one was a bit overcooked, but the second dish was done beautifully. My girlfriend and I loved it.

btw, I wonder what is the usual suspect for too much smoke when you are pan frying. The only issue I had with this dish was the smoke from pan frying saltimbocca. Thick smoke filled in my apartment on both occasions and the fire alarm went off even though I have had the kitchen fan turned on and the windows open during the entire processes. (There has never been this much smoke when I was pan frying steaks. I didn't even need to turn on the kitchen fan!) I used olive oil the first time, and grape seed oil the second time.

Sounds like your pan might be a bit too hot. Once you test the pan using the water test and after adding the food, you can always adjust the heat and turn it down. It shouldn't smoke this much. Grapeseed oil is a better choice as it likely has a higher smoke point than your olive oil. The lesson on pan frying covers many of these questions you ask. Keep on cooking and monitoring the heat. Cheers!

One of the hardest things for me to remember when I was learning how to pan fry was to turn the heat down, then back up as needed.

Just remember, when you first put the meat in, it lowers the temperature of the pan, then it heats back up, then you flip and it comes down a little, then back up.

It's a little nerve racking when you first start learning but with practice you'll be a pro in no time.

I still filled the house with smoke the other night. Practice, practice, practice.

One little trick I use that may not be approved by Rouxbe is when I see my temperature is too high and taking it off the heat isn't going to cool it down fast enough, I add some grape seed oil to the pan in the areas where there is no meat. This usually does the trick until bringing it off the heat cools it down.

Bon Appetit!

Thank you for your helpful comments Kimberley and Jude. Now I can do this without filling my apartment with smoke!

I have another question, btw. Is there any reason I want to use chicken breast instead of other meat, for example, chicken thigh? I often find myself enjoying thigh more than breast, so I guess it would be a good idea to try with thigh. Also, I suppose that it is easier to overcook with breast meat. But I would like to know if other people prefer breast meat to thigh meat for this dish, and if so, why.

Thanks!

I have no idea but...

I'll bet this is delicious with thigh meat. I say get creative and just watch the heat as some meats may take longer to cook?

Best wishes and let us know how the dark meat comes out!

This dish is ideally made with chicken breasts as they are quick to cook through. You can give it a try with pounded chicken thighs though. The presentation may not look as nice and it will take longer to cook the meat through (you'll need to cook the second side longer because the first side may overcook/burn the proscuitto), but feel free to give it a try. Cheers!

I tried this dish tonight and it turned out pretty good....a few questions...I am cooking with an Anodized pan on a Fisher Paykle Electric cooktop....I got a pretty good suc but I didn't think my reduction looked too syrupy...nor after I reduced the stock...is that because of the pan?
Also..I thought the video looked like more than 1 clove of garlic..can I add a little more.
Also....Is the sauce suppose to have a subtle lemon taste or a significant..or is that up to you....if I put the 1/2 lemon in, it seemed strong.
I'll try this again...my chicken breasts were organic and a little on the small side, so I thought my pcs were a bit small.
I love the videos. Thanks.

In terms of a reduction, the pan won't make a difference. Just let the wine reduce a bit further next time. The wine won't be super syrupy, but the further it reduces, the more concentrated it will become. A good, homemade stock will have enough gelatin in it to become syrupy/thicker once it is reduced. If you used a store-bought stock, it is harder (if not impossible) to obtain a thick, sauce-like consistency....even if you really reduce the liquid. Store-bought stocks simply don't contain enough gelatin to produce restaurant-quality sauces.

In terms of flavorings, absolutely, this is where you as the cook can use a little bit more or less to suit your tastes. Feel free to add more garlic, and add lemon juice to taste. Add a bit of juice...taste...and add a bit more if you think it needs some. I bought a lemon the other day and I actually got 1/2 cup of juice out of it!!! So, knowing how much to add "to taste" is important.

It just comes down to practice. Many cooks feel they should have a perfect dish the first time they make it. It takes practice and small tweaks to consistently get it to where you want it to be. Hope this helps! Cheers!

Oh my! What an amazing sauce. I couldn't find Cambozola cheese, so I just use classic Blue Cheese. Oh wow! It was an amazing looking meal, and smelled terrific. I found the sauce was too salty, even tho' I was careful to not add any salt. I suspect the blue cheese and cooking wine (wine with salt added) was the problem. So, in order to cut the saltiness, I whipped up some additional veloute (without salt) and added a little cream to it, and re-heated the chicken pieces in it ... oh my! hmm hmm hmm.

The presentation was spectacular, and the dish was a real hit. I will definitely be making this again, and experimenting with different cheeses. The blue was surprisingly delicious, but a little overpowering.

Nice work Leigh, you sure are getting this whole cooking thing. Way to improvise and tweak as you went along.

I agree that the blue cheese can be strong and sometimes overpowering. Be sure to try the cambazola one time and you will see how lovely it is. It's just a lot more mellow, yet it still has big flavor.

Keep up the good work!

Before I start can I just say I love this website! I've been using a few of the techniques on other dishes I cook regularly with success but today I thought I would try a recipe.

The chicken was cooked perfectly. I normally avoid pan frying chicken because by the time it was fully cooked it was dry. It never occurred to me to slice the breast thinner (hey I never claimed to be smart!) the sauce (my very first attempt at a pan sauce - I normally boil a kettle and get out the gravy granules) was nice but salty. I think I had also left too much of the melted cheese in the pan as it overpowered the sauce. I did remove most of it - I just underestimated how strong it was. I tried using extra garlic and a shallot to take the edge off but no luck. It turned out ok. It was too salty but that was my own daft fault. First of all I didn't check the salt content in the bought stock. Secondly I couldn't get hold of the right cheese so I used Brie which might have had a higher salt content. Thirdly I misremembered what I was supposed to do to the garlic and puréed it with salt. Oops. I'll know better next time. That's the great thing about cooking: if you mess it up it's still edible (most of the time!)

Thanks again for the lesson. Loved it.

One of the most effective ways at learning to become a better cook is to fine tune your observation skills. You draw great conclusions from this exercise David. You are on the path to better cooking for sure.

One other thing that might have lead to this being a bit over salty is the prosciutto which can tend to be a bit salty. But most likely it was your stock or the amount of salt you added. Practice makes perfect.

BTW... you should try making your own chicken stock and comparing the results. This way you have full control of the salt factor.

Cheers, Joe.

I wasn't sure if I would be able to successfully make this dish or if I would like it. I've never had proscuitto before. It came out great. I couldn't fine the cheese, so I used some Brie on a couple pieces and then some Havarti on the others. They were really good.

I joined Rouxbe in August and I am only just now able to start taking advantage of it. I'm going through some of the pan frying practice recipes. So far, I've done the Chicken Marsla, the Caprese-Style steak and this recipe. The chicken marsala was good; I overcooked the steak; and this was great.

So glad I joined. I am feeling more confident with each try.

Joanne

That is great to hear Joanne - keep up the good work. Cheers!

I made this tonight and I love it which totally took me by surprise. I don't like many cheeses. I used the camembert (thinly sliced of course) because I couldn't find the cheese in the recipe. I won't be eating the cheese alone yet but made this way I will definitely make again with the camembert.

Thanks for the great recipe!!