Wowing the In-Laws

I got this recipe from Laurel (thanks for pre-screening it for me). I meant to make it earlier, but didn't get around to it and the chicken needed to be cooked the night my parents-in-law came into town, so I went ahead with it. Actually, I was a little embarassed that it looked so fancy. I couldn't stop giggling as I put everything on the plates! Seriously, it was an easy recipe and had a ton of great mexican flavor, which always does well in our house. The pinenuts made the breading extra crunchy. Another bonus is that since each piece of chicken is only a half a breast pounded out, you can fool yourself into eating less (it's satisfying enough for sure). Anyway, here's the recipe:
Chicken
1/2 c. buttermilk
2/3 c. cornmeal
1/2 c. pine nuts, coarsely chopped
1 tablespoon chili powder
1/2 tsp. salt
4 skinless boneless chicken breast halves, pounded to 1/2 to 1/2-inch thickness
Corn or Olive Oil for frying

Green Chili Sauce
2/3 c. chicken broth
1 c. medium to hot bottled green salsa
3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
3 tablespoons heavy cream

Garnish
1 Thinly sliced avocado
Sour Cream
Cilantro

Pour buttermilk into a shallow dish. Combine cornmeal, chili powder and salt in separate shallow dish. Stir in pine nuts. Place chicken in buttermilk and turn to coat. Dredge chicken in pine nut mixture, pressing mixture firmly into chicken to coat.

Heat 1-2 tablespoons oil in a large, non-stick skillet over medium heat. Add chicken breasts, sauteing until cooked through, about three minutes per side. Make sure that chicken is not overly crowded. If necessary, turn the heat to medium low if the pine nuts are browning too quickly. Transfer chicken to a plate covering it loosely with foil.

Add broth to drippings in skillet. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, stirring to scrapte up browned bits. Stir in salsa and cream, simmering until slightly reduced, about three minutes, or desired thickness. Stir in cilantro.

Plate chicken, spooning sauce over each piece and topping with avocado, cilantro and sour cream if desired. I added some mexican rice underneath the chicken and served it all with some fresh cut-up veggies (a salad would have been nice too).