Chicken Lady Jayne

 

I moved all my cookery books recently from the kitchen, where they were lined up along the counters, to a special bookcase in the living room. OK, my boyfriend did - he kept saying I would have more space in the kitchen if my books weren't there (true - my cookery book collection has probably doubled since I moved into this house three and a half years ago) and while I was on holiday in Cambodia, he bought and built me a bookcase. So now I have gone from this (just a fraction of my collection - all I could fit in the photo):

 

                                         to this!

 

As well as my cookery books looking tidier, and not getting covered in icing sugar every time I make a cake, another advantage is that it is much easier to see which books I have. I found a small book just called "Chicken" from the Cookshelf range that I'm sure I haven't seen in years! I decided to celebrate my new find by making a recipe from the book. The one I chose was called Chicken Lady Jayne, but there was nothing to explain the name of the recipe, and I can't find anything online. Does anyone know how this recipe got its name?

 

I did adapt it slightly as the final stage in this recipe was to add 3 tbsp brandy and set light to it so the alcohol would burn off. I didn't have brandy and didn't really fancy doing this, but since I don't know what the recipe was supposed to taste like anyway, I think the way it turned out was just fine!

 

You need:

to serve 2:

2 chicken breasts

2 tbsp oil

2 tbsp shallots, sliced

rind and juice of half a lemon

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1/2 chicken stock cube

4 tbsp water

1 tbsp coffee liqueur or flavouring

 

Slice the chicken breasts in half and pound until flat. Then fry the chicken and shallots in the oil until cooked. Add the lemon juice, rind, Worcestershire sauce and chicken stock cube (I sprinkled it in rather than dissolved it first) and water and cook for 2 minutes.

 

Finally add the coffee liqueur to the sauce and cook for a further two minutes. Serve with the shallots and sauce poured over the chicken.

This was tasty and as we do eat chicken a lot I like to find different things to do with it! I'm still curious about the name of the dish though....