Panko Chicken with Dijon Balsamic Arugula Salad

This dinner is one of our family's absolute favorites all year round. The chicken cooks very quickly and gets nice and crispy, and then gets piled high with a healthy arugula salad with tomatoes, avocado, olives, toasted almonds, and a grain mustard balsamic vinaigrette.

The chicken cooks in ~10 minutes (if you cut your chicken breasts into thin cutlets, or buy chicken cutlets from your butcher or grocery story). That's the perfect amount of time to toss together the salad and slice a few lemon wedges. For this dish you'll be shallow frying (pan frying) the chicken, not deep frying. The 6 tablespoons of olive oil referenced below for frying is a good general amount - but if your pan is really big or really small you might need to adjust the amount. You want enough oil to cup about 1/4 inch up the side of the pan, so when you put your chicken cutlet in, its not submerged in oil.

The key to cooking this chicken is to make sure your pan doesn't get so hot that the outside of the chicken cooks / burns before the inside of the chicken is cooked through. If at any point your oil is really smoking, or your panko looks burnt in spots, turn down the heat a bit. To check if your chicken is done after the 10 minutes (5 per side), just slice into it - it should be opaque white throughout.

You can absolutely sub gluten free flour for the all purpose flour and gluten free panko instead of regular flour when dredging the chicken, and you can skip the butter if you are dairy free.