Make Lemon Chicken Light, Rich, Creamy

Adopting a healthful, low-fat diet doesn’t mean swearing off creamy, indulgent foods for the rest of your life. Instead, it means indulging only occasionally in rich meals and making an effort to enjoy smaller portions when you do indulge.

At home, adopting low-fat cooking habits means skimping on butter and cream and substituting lower-fat ingredients whenever possible.

For example, this streamlined recipe for Light Lemon Chicken with Mushrooms and Artichokes has lots of creamy, rich flavor, but only 29 percent of calories come from fat, compared to 47 percent in the original recipe.

The original recipe called for butter, cream and olive oil. The revised recipe omits the butter, reduces the amount of cream by three-quarters and cuts the amount of oil in half to save 42 grams of fat and 559 calories per serving.

The dish also saves calories by reducing portion size. The original recipe dished up gargantuan servings of pasta, which were drenched in cream and topped with an entire chicken breast per serving.

The new recipe still features a chicken breast per person, but the meat is served with a more reasonable amount of linguine. Chicken broth is the foundation of the sauce instead of cream, but there is still enough cream to satisfy the senses.

Like the original recipe, Light Lemon Chicken with Mushrooms and Artichokes is a dish to prepare on special occasions because each serving contains close to 600 calories. Yet, the recipe has been tailored so health-conscious diners can indulge themselves without blowing their diets.

Light Lemon Chicken With Mushrooms and Artichokes

4 small boneless, skinless chicken breasts, about 4 to 5 ounces each

Juice of 1 lemon

1/4 cup flour

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 clove garlic, crushed through a press

3 green onions, chopped (about 1/2 cup)

4 ounces mushrooms, sliced

1/2 cup dry white wine or dry sherry

1 (14-1/2-ounce) can fat-free, low-sodium chicken broth

1/8 teaspoon ground hot red pepper

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon dried basil leaves

1 (13-3/4-ounce) can quartered artichoke hearts, drained

1/4 cup heavy cream

6 ounces linguine, cooked according to package directions

Cut the chicken into strips and marinate at least 30 minutes in lemon juice. The chicken can marinate overnight, if desired.

Drain the pieces and dredge lightly in the flour. In a 12-inch, nonstick skillet, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the chicken and saute for 5 minutes. Remove the chicken and transfer to an oven-safe platter; keep warm in a 250-degree oven.

Add the garlic, green onions and mushrooms to the pan and saute for 5 minutes or until the onions are soft and the mushrooms are beginning to brown. Add the wine to the pan and bring to a boil, scraping up any brown bits on the bottom or sides.

Add the broth, red pepper, salt, basil, artichoke hearts and cream. Return the chicken to the pan and simmer together for 5 minutes. Serve over linguine.

Yield: 4 servings.

Nutrition information per serving: 588 calories, 19 grams fat (29 percent fat calories), 56 grams protein, 49 grams carbohydrate, 141 milligrams cholesterol, 835 milligrams sodium.

The following fields overflowed: SUPCAT = COLUMN, RECIPE - On the Light Side