The reason I call this sort of chicken piccata is because we did not start out with a butter sauce. We used our stand-by, McCormack Chicken Gravy, to use as a base. Instead of making the mix with a cup of water John made it with 1/2 cup white wine and 1/2 cup water. In addition he added a good squeeze of lemon, some capers, and a tablespoon or so of sautéed, minced shallots. It was our lower calorie version of piccata. Having made the sauce/gravy John added the chicken which is also our stand-by, Costco rotisserie chicken white meat pack.

Meanwhile I was busy with the vegetables. The Vichy carrots I made were from a recipe by Pierre Franey who was a celebrity chef before the existence of Food Network. The carrots were slice length-wise with a mandolin and we cooked ours in 1/4 cup water, 1/2 teaspoon brown sugar, 1 tablespoon of lemon juice, 2 teaspoons of olive oil, salt, pepper, and garnished with chopped parsley. I substituted the brown sugar for white sugar and the olive oil for 2 tablespoons of butter. They came out really well and John said they were the star of the dinner.

Unfortunately my hands were not the stars of the kitchen as I managed to cut both of them on the mandolin! So I guess I would suggest using the guard when using a mandolin.

I did manage to cook the broccoli with some of the sautéed shallots without further incident.

Usually our dinners are protein, starch, and vegetables. This dinner featured two vegetables and a protein. Having the excellent carrots took the place of the starch. We did not miss it at all.