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Sometimes it amazes me how a simple combination of basic, on-hand ingredients can yield such delightful results.
Chicken piccata is nothing more than chicken breast cutlets, dredged in flour, browned, and served with a sauce of butter, lemon juice, capers, and either stock or white wine.
It can be prepared in 20 minutes or less and is so easy and delicious it should be part of every home cook’s repertoire. It’s perfect for a quick midweek meal!
How to make Chicken Piccata
Chicken Piccata Recipe
Ingredients
- 2-4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (1 1/2 pound total), or 4-8 chicken cutlets
- 1/2 cup flour
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- Pinch ground black pepper
- 3 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
- 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 1/2 cup chicken stock or dry white wine (such as a Sauvignon Blanc)
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1/4 cup brined capers
- 2 tablespoons fresh chopped parsley
Method
1 Prepare chicken cutlets, pound them thin: To make chicken cutlets, slice the chicken breast halves horizontally, butterflying them open. If the breast pieces you are working with are large, you may want to cut them each into two pieces.
If the pieces are still thick after butterflying, put them between two pieces of plastic wrap and pound them with a meat hammer to 1/4-inch thickness.
2 Dredge cutlets in seasoned flour with Parmesan: Mix together the flour, salt, pepper, and grated Parmesan. Rinse the chicken pieces in water. Dredge them thoroughly in the flour mixture, until well coated.
3 Brown cutlets in butter and oil: Heat olive oil and 2 tablespoons of the butter in a large skillet on medium high heat. Add half of the chicken pieces, do not crowd the pan. Brown well on each side, about 3 minutes per side. Remove the chicken from the pan and reserve to a plate.
Cook the other breasts in the same manner, remove from pan. Place the breasts on a rack over a roasting pan and keep warm in a 225°F oven while you prepare the sauce.
4 Add stock or wine, lemon juice, capers, reduce by half, stir in butter: Add the chicken stock or white wine, lemon juice, and capers to the pan. Use a spatula to scrape up the browned bits. Reduce the sauce by half.
Whisk in the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter.
Plate the chicken and serve with the sauce poured over the chicken. Sprinkle with parsley.
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Elise Bauer is the founder of Simply Recipes. Elise launched Simply Recipes in 2003 as a way to keep track of her family's recipes, and along the way grew it into one of the most popular cooking websites in the world. Elise is dedicated to helping home cooks be successful in the kitchen. Elise is a graduate of Stanford University, and lives in Sacramento, California.
Chicken Piccata
Love this dish.
xxxxxyyyyy
Absolutely delicious!! I cooked the chicken half way on the stove then put in oven at 375 for 30 mins to finish cooking.
Saute mushrooms on stove and added on top of chicken as it was cooking in oven. Capers don’t go over in my family.
Followed the recipe to the tee and used wine instead of broth!
My son who doesn’t like much had 2 pieces! Chicken Piccata is one of his favorites when we go out..so I was glad he liked the homemade version!!
It is a keeper in my house!!
xxxxxyyyyy
Delicious! I did add more wine, and whisked a tablespoon of cornstarch into a bit of chicken broth, added that to the sauce to make more of ot and slightly thicken it. About 1 cup total extra liquid. Spooned some over the finished chicken , then swirled the linguine thru sauce. Also I slightly froze the chicken breasts first, made them so easy to split horizontally, let them rethaw on cutting board about 15 minutes before coating/cooking. Way better that pounding them thinner-that makes them tough!
xxxxxyyyyy
I added chopped garlic mellowed in lemon juice for a bit. Fabulous Recipe! Made it when I visited my brother in law in Chicago. A hit
xxxxxyyyyy
This was utterly delicious
I forgot the Parmesan on flour but hey it was soooo good.
Going to be a dinner party staple.
xxxxxyyyyy