A burrito on a plate with guacamole and sour cream

As chefs, we spend years mastering sauté work. I remember my early days working the sauté station for lunch in a French restaurant in NYC. We served over one hundred guests in an hour-and the food was excellent — a dozen hot pans on the flat top, stocks simmering, mise en place of freshly chopped herbs, minced shallots, butter for mounting into sauces à la minute. There is rhythm to good sauté cooking.

You learn quickly that great sauté work is not about rushing — it is about organization and control.

Chicken Sauté for beginners

There are certain dishes that remind chefs why technique matters.

Sautéed ,Chicken Fines Herbs is a classic French dish I enjoyed preparing at the CIA in Skills class.

At first glance, it appears simple — a sautéed chicken breast with white wine, chicken veloute, a splash of cream and fresh herbs. But simplicity in classical cooking is often deceptive. Dishes like this demand proper technique, attention to detail: proper heat control, timing, seasoning, reduction, and sauce work. When executed correctly, the chicken is tender and delicious, the sauce is elegant and deeply indulgent-especially with rice pilaf .

Exceptional ingredients allow classical techniques to shine.


Chicken Breast Sauté

Prep Time: 30 min

Cooking Time: 15 min

Yield: 2 portions


Ingredients       

2 ea                   Chicken Breast, (skin removed)                                                                            

tt                       Salt and Black pepper

4 Tbsp             AP Flour, sifted

3  Tbsp            Clarified Butter

2 Tbsp             White Wine, dry (dry Champagne optional)

6 Tbsp             Chicken Stock

4 Tbsp             Chicken Velouté

2 Tbsp             Shallots, minced

6 oz                  Heavy Cream


4 Tbsp              Fresh Herbs, minced (tarragon, Italian parsley, chives)


How to Sauté Chicken 

A pot filled with rice and greens is being cooked
A tortilla with meat rice and cheese on it
A close up of a tortilla with meat and rice on a cutting board.
A person is rolling a burrito on a cutting board.

Step 1

Set up an area to season the chicken, in this photo I'm using a chicken breast I've cut into two similar sized pieces. I lightly pound the chicken with a mallet to flatten the chicken breast for even cooking. (trying to have the protein the same thickness)


Season the chicken (I prefer to simply use kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper), and let the chicken sit at room temperature for 10 minutes so the seasoning gets into the chicken breast. Dust with AP Flour. Pat the chicken so the flour sticks to the flesh.


Step 2

Add clarified butter (or olive oil) to a warm, sauté pan. It's important to use a pan which is the correct size for the amount of chicken being sautéed.


Step 3

Carefully place the seasoned, floured chicken breast into the hot oil and let the chicken brown for 2-3 minutes. You should hear a sizzle when placing the chicken into the hot fat I like to gently 'jiggle' the pan so the chicken doesn't stick and browns evenly. When you see browning on the sides, carefully invert the chicken with tongs, be careful not to splatter the hot oil.

When the chicken is golden brown on both sides, place the chicken onto a sizzle plate to rest.


Step 3

Add mushrooms and minced shallots into the fond (the nice brown bits of chicken and flour in the oil) and sauté for three minutes; add white wine and reduce until 'sec'-almost dry so the sauce has a mild wine flavor but not overpowering.

Add chicken velouté and stock and reduce to napé (sauce consistency when the sauce coats the back of a spoon) (about 3 minutes), then add the cream and simmer for 2 additional minutes. The sauce will be thick and velvety and delicious!


Add the herbs, place the chicken (and juices in the sizzle plate from the resting chicken) into the sauce and bathe the chicken with the sauce.

I like so serve with rice pilaf.

Beyond Sweet Basil: An Herb with History, Health, and Global Range

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Dessert; Italian Wheat Pie

By Tom Griffiths • April 11, 2026
Our Easter and Christmas meals were feasts... my mother's family all met at Aunt Flora's home in Jersey City to enjoy and celebrate the holidays. Dinner began with platters of fresh mozzarella, roasted peppers, olives, Italian bread, then a pasta course (manicotti or lasagna for the religious holidays), a roast or sausages with plenty of vegetables and traditional Italian desserts with dark coffee.We ate Italian Easter Wheat Pie one day each year—and it was never store-bought. My Aunts brought Easter cookies and baked goods-the wheat pie was my favorite. I loved the slight 'bite' of the wheat and flavors of cinnamon, vanilla and citrus. My father sometimes let me have a sip of his espresso with the dessert. I'm not sure if my mother used lard for the pie crust-she was a fan of butter and Crisco but the crust was always flaky.

Roast Leg of Lamb

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There are certain dishes that stay with you—not just for their flavor, but for what they represent. For me, roasting a leg of lamb over Pommes boulangère is one of those meals. I don't recall having lamb at any occasions growing up so this was a dish that I proudly introduced to our family. As a young cook, it was something I could prepare with limited experience, and it provided deeply satisfying results. The lamb roasts in the oven over a bed of potatoes, onions, and garlic, allowing its natural juices and fat to baste the vegetables below. It's actually a simple preparation but becomes a complete, delicious meal—the potatoes absorbing flavor and becoming just as important as the roast itself. These days I'm developing delicious recipes using spice blends such as Ras el hanout, Baharat, Za'atar, Togarashi and even Harissa. I also love roasting leg of lamb outdoors on a grill or rotisserie. I like the subtle smokiness from applewood or dried herbs when I'm roasting lamb outdoors.

Potatoes Boulangère

By Tom Griffiths • April 8, 2026
There are certain dishes that stay with you—not just for their flavor, but for what they represent. For me, Pommes boulangère is one of those dishes. As a young cook, it was a delicious meal I could prepare for my family with my limited culinary experience. I often return to this preparation when roasting whole chicken, pork, or lamb—letting the potatoes, onions, and garlic absorb the natural juices from the protein as it cooks. The potatoes becomes more than a side dish; it’s the foundation of the meal.

Holiday Au Graten Potatoes

By Tom Griffiths • April 7, 2026
There are countless versions of Potatoes au gratin , many of them heavy with cheese. I prefer a more restrained approach—using little or no cheese—so the flavor of the potatoes remains the focus rather than being masked. Milk produces a lighter, more delicate gratin, while light or heavy cream creates a richer, more structured dish. Both are valid—it simply depends on the desired outcome. One constant, however, is nutmeg. Used sparingly, it acts as a quiet “secret weapon,” adding depth without calling attention to itself. This recipe is inspired by Xavier LeRoux, one of the finest chefs I’ve had the privilege to work with. His method includes an extra step—gently simmering the potatoes in cream before baking—which yields a noticeably superior result. The potatoes begin to release their starch into the cream early, ensuring a more uniform texture and a fully integrated dish from the first bite to the last.

My favorite Brownies

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There are plenty of brownie recipes—and then there is the one that lives in memory. This is the only brownie recipe I bake, from Julia Child, whose influence reached far beyond French cuisine and into the home kitchens of passionate bakers like my mother. A devoted admirer, she baked these brownies often—usually for the dessert trolley at my restaurant. We featured a brownie freeze... brownie cubes with homemade vanilla ice cream, warm melted chocolate and freshly whipped cream-amazing! For me, this recipe is more than a classic—it’s a reflection of how great cooking is passed down: through admiration, repetition, and a deep love of craft.

Curing Salmon fillet

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I taught garde manager for many years at the CIA and this is one of my favorite recipes from class. I actually developed this recipe with one of my students, inspired by a recipe he had learned on his externship.

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We ate Irish soda bread one day each year—and it was never store-bought. Soda bread wasn’t part of our cultural lineage, but it earned its place through something more universal: respect for tradition. My mother was not an occasional baker— growing up, her baking centered on Italian traditions: special Christmas cookies, the Vigna family birthday cake, and beautifully braided Easter breads that reflected heritage. Later, like many serious home bakers of her generation, she was influenced by Julia Child . That influence expanded her repertoire into classic European pastry—Paris-Brest, pound cakes, even German chocolate cake. The iconic cross cut into the top of the loaf is often said to “let the fairies out,” though in professional kitchens we recognize its functional role: allowing heat to penetrate and the loaf to expand evenly during baking.

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Beginners recipe: Vegetable Stock

By Tom Griffiths • January 16, 2026
I recently volunteered to prepare vegetable paella for a church Bible group potluck. I was very excited to develop a delicious, new paella recipe and spent time preparing fresh vegetable stock with flavors of the Mediterranean. I always prepare vegetable and fish stocks fresh, as I intend to use them. I’m not a fan of bases or frozen stocks but I sometimes add a small amount of quality base to my stocks.  A vegetable stock with mirepoix, cabbage, mushrooms makes sense in certain applications, for certain recipes—but why would we use a mushroom or cabbage-forward stock in a paella? It doesn’t make culinary sense. Paella is a Mediterranean dish originating in the Valencia region of Spain as a humble meal cooked on an open fire. I’ve enjoyed wonderful paella meals in Valencia prepared with water-not stock, prepared with rabbit, snails and local beans. While traveling through Spain this spring I researched and sampled many styles of paella… no mushrooms, no carrots, no celery and no cabbage.