oil used in chicken piccata

[CTyankee]

I have two recipes for this dish. They are nearly identical but one calls browning the chicken in vegetable oil and the other calls for olive oil. The remaining ingredients wine, parsley, lemon juice, capers and butter are the same (altho one does call for chicken broth, too).

My question is which of the two oils do you think would be better? I usually cook such recipes in extra virgin olive oil but I do have canola oil...

[Warpy]

1. I use olive oil for any recipe with strong flavors like yours

I use the lighter oils like safflower or peanut for Chinese cooking, fish and deep frying.

Olive oil is traditional. One recipe writer is a weenie who can't handle its flavor, obviously.

[CTyankee]

2. They are both from Bon Appetit, interestingly!

But your view is one that I subscribe to!

[Lucinda]

3. Olive oil. - It took me a few years to find one I like -

and now that I have it, I use it often. I use vegetable oil for deep frying and not much else these days.

Oddly enough, the "good" oilve oil is the market label brand. It's light and fruity and delicious. It's much better than all the expensive imported OO's that I have tried.

[Warpy]

4. We finally got a TJs on our side of town

and I understand their store brand is pretty good, so when I run out of Bertolli (mid priced, good flavor), I'll give it a try.

As long as you stay away from the yellow stuff that is just labeled olive oil without the "virgin" or "extra virgin," you'll do fine. That yellow stuff requires a pretty nasty chemical process to extract it from the waste left over after the first pressing.

[CTyankee]

5. I had olive oil in Florence that I wanted to pour into a glass and drink it!

I have never experienced anything like the taste of this olive oil! I didn't even know it existed! It was richer and deeper and more flavorful than anything I had ever tasted...

I don't think we have any idea of what really good olive oil tastes like.

BTW, in Europe they don't have any such thing as "Light Olive Oil." That is for the U.S. market because Americans don't like green oil...

[Warpy]

6. You can get that if you know small farmers with their own presses

anywhere circling the Mediterranean. For the rest of us, it has to be flavored at least with garlic and a little hot pepper before it goes over pasta or is sopped up with bread.

Right about the light olive oil. That's the stuff that's extracted by chemicals out of the trash left over from pressing the good oil out.

[Stinky The Clown]

7. Olive oil.

Which, I might add, is a vegetable oil.

[CTyankee]

8. of course. it is only a matter of taste....

[hippywife]

9. I thought olives

were considered a fruit. Non? :D