Chicken Piccata

I love chicken piccata.  In fact, it’s my fall back item when we go somewhere Italian and nothing on the menu sounds good.  I’d never made it at home before I saw this recipe.  It was so easy- now I can make it when I crave it.

“Cute Little Birds”

Those words came out of my husband’s mouth.  I don’t think I’ve ever heard him say cute (other than in reference to our little boy, but you can’t help but say cute when talking about your kid).

I don’t remember much about middle school other than passing notes in class and not paying attention in general.  If you asked me what I learned in those 3 years, I could probably count off the number of things on one hand.  Field trips, however, are well documented in my memory.  Whale watching.  Science camp.  Disneyland.  And then there was our excursion to Medieval Times in 7th grade, courtesy of our history class.  I liked my teacher, but I don’t really remember learning about jousting and the like. 

I sat next to my friend Kenny and watched the sword play and jousting theatrics as we ate our bland first course of watery soup.  A little while later, our bar wench greeted us in her fake British accent and placed a little roasted chicken in front of each of us.  It seemed massive at the time and I think I only ate the drumsticks and maybe a little bit of the breast meat.  I noticed Kenny eyeing my leftovers and I offered him my plate.  I looked over at his plate and noticed that he had picked his bird clean.  A few moments later, my bird was picked clean.  I was amazed to say the least. 

Later on that night, when I was telling my mom all about our adventures, I learned that our “little roasted chicken” was in fact a Cornish hen.  Last week was the second time in my life that I ate a Cornish hen.

I saw this recipe on Taste and Tell quite a while ago, but just got around to making it.  I was curious as to how these little chickens would turn out in the crock pot.  I’m a huge fan of crispy chicken skin.  I know, I know- so unhealthy, but oh so good.  Anyway, this didn’t turn out too bad, but I think I cooked the hens too long or maybe my lemons were too juicy.  There was no crispy skin and the meat fell off the bones.  I had a hard time lifting them out of the crock without them falling completely apart.  By the way, I’ve determined that Cornish hens have too many bones.