Picture a dinner party, with Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Tony Bennet music in the background and a martini in hand. This is the vision I had when I came up with last night’s dinner idea.

I bought thin chicken breasts for dinner last night and decided to marinate them in a dry martini, so to speak. I wanted olives to be incorporated with our chicken, so came up with the idea to marinate them in olive juice and vodka. I added pepper to my chicken, but no salt … the olives bring enough salt on their own. No need to add additional salt. As we know, I don’t cook with a lot of salt.

I sprinkled pepper over both sides of the chicken and mixed together vodka and olive juice. I used 1-1/2 cups of vodka and 1/2 cup of olive juice. I debated using the colossal garlic stuffed olives, which would have been fabulous – but ended up using Greek olives, which was also fabulous.

I let the chicken sit out and marinate at room temperature for an hour and once I was ready to cook them, I melted one tablespoon of butter and one tablespoon of olive oil together. I put my chicken in the pan and cooked it on the first side for 6 minutes. (When you turn your chicken over at 6 minutes … if it sticks to the pan, it is not ready to be turned. Just give it another minute or so and try again.)

Once I turned it over, I added the olives from the jar to cook along with the chicken while the other side browned.  I cooked the chicken on the second side for an additional 6 minutes and it was ready to be served.

The chicken turned out really moist and had so much flavor. To me, Dry Martini Chicken called for mashed potatoes, so that is what we had as a side.

Ingredients

• 4 thin sliced chicken breasts

• 1-1/2 cups vodka

• 1/2 cup olive juice (from the jar of olives you will be using)

• 1 teaspoon pepper

• 1 jar of olives (Greek or Colossal Stuffed Garlic)

• 1 tablespoon butter

• 1 tablespoon olive oil

Directions

Sprinkle pepper over both sides of chicken. Place in a glass dish for marinating. Mix the vodka and olive juice together and pour over the chicken. Let sit at room temperature to marinate for an hour or in the refrigerator for a few hours.

Melt butter and olive oil in a large sauté pan. Once they are melted, add the chicken to your pan. Cook on first side for 6-7 minutes. Turn and add olives. Cook an additional 6-7 minutes (until internal temperature reaches 165 degrees). Enjoy!

Until next time, Kris