Prepare chicken: Using a sharp knife, divide breasts in half lengthwise. Mix salt, pepper and garlic powder together in a small bowl then use to season chicken on both sides. Dredge chicken in flour and transfer onto a large plate or platter.
Cook chicken: Place a large skillet or cast iron pan on stovetop and heat to medium high. When pan is hot, add butter and once melted, added oil, moving pan to combine the two. Add chicken and leaving to cook for about 3 minutes per side or until a rich golden colour. Transfer seared chicken to a clean plate.
Prepare sauce: Reduce temperature of pan to moderate. Stir in the lemon juice, capers and white wine, scraping the brown bits from the pan to add to the sauce. Add the sprig of thyme. Cook stirring occasionally until sauce comes to temperature and thickens.
Add lemon slices and chicken: Add lemon slices to the pot followed by the chicken. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 3 minutes, spooning the sauce over the chicken.
Serve: Transfer saucepan to work surface. Garnish with parsley. Serve from pan or arrange in an attractive manner on a serving platter. Enjoy with mashed potatoes, rice or polenta plus a favourite side dish or salad.
Lemony Chicken Piccata
Ingredients
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon garlic powder
½ cup flour for dredging
3 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
½ cup white wine or chicken stock
1 sprig fresh thyme
juice from 1-½ lemons, about ¼ cup
1 tablespoon butter
½ lemon, quartered lengthwise then sliced
3 tablespoons capers
¼ cup fresh parsley, chopped
Directions
Prepare chicken: Using a sharp knife, divide breasts in half lengthwise. Mix salt, pepper and garlic powder together in a small bowl then use to season chicken on both sides. Dredge chicken in flour and transfer onto a large plate or platter.
Cook chicken: Place a large skillet or cast iron pan on stovetop and heat to medium high. When pan is hot, add butter and once melted, added oil, moving pan to combine the two. Add chicken and leaving to cook for about 3 minutes per side or until a rich golden colour. Transfer seared chicken to a clean plate.
Prepare sauce: Reduce temperature of pan to moderate. Stir in the lemon juice, capers and white wine, scraping the brown bits from the pan to add to the sauce. Add the sprig of thyme. Cook stirring occasionally until sauce comes to temperature and thickens.
Add lemon slices and chicken: Add lemon slices to the pot followed by the chicken. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 3 minutes, spooning the sauce over the chicken.
Serve: Transfer saucepan to work surface. Garnish with parsley. Serve from pan or arrange in an attractive manner on a serving platter. Enjoy with mashed potatoes, rice or polenta plus a favourite side dish or salad.
Lemony Chicken Piccata
5 / 5. 1
Seared, seasoned chicken breasts in a white sauce flavoured with lemon, capers and fresh parsley…
A quick and easy weeknight dinner idea just got an upgrade thanks to this LEMONY CHICKEN PICCATA recipe.
As with all of our recipes, the primary goal with this LEMONY CHICKEN PICCATA is to craft something that wows our taste buds. This recipe is one of those weeknight meal ideas where you make it once and think, “This is so good, we’re having this once a week!” We also worked through the process to make it as easy as possible. If you came here looking for a chicken recipe with superb taste that’s also easy to make, this piccata recipe delivers. It’ll get you from the very first bite.
Here’s why this chicken dinner recipe works:
You’ll see how easy it is to prepare the boneless, skinless chicken breasts we use in this recipe.
The chicken is dredged in flour and seared in a hot skillet. You don’t need special culinary skills, and no crash course is required to prepare this meal.
This sauce for a classic CHICKEN PICCATA is made using just a few readily available ingredients: lemon, garlic, capers and white wine.
You can serve this main course with little more than a simple rice dish or freshly tossed side salad.
Getting excited to make it? Here are a few more tips on making LEMONY CHICKEN PICCATA.
INGREDIENTS
The ingredients needed to make this very flavourful meal are easy to assemble. You’ll find everything at your local grocer if you don’t already have them in your fridge or pantry. Beyond the chicken breasts, you’ll need butter, white wine, capers and garlic. You’ll also need lemons, plus some fresh parsley to be added at the very end as both a flavour enhancer and garnish. Speaking of flavour enhancement, we include one additional ingredient not normally found in a piccata recipe, fresh thyme. Though not essential, we find that adding a few sprigs of fresh thyme adds pleasing, earthy, peppery notes. They pair perfectly with the lemon. Include it or not, it’s up to you.
CHICKEN BREASTS
In the VIDEO instructions created for this post, I explain that there are options when making a piccata. By definition, piccata is an Italian dish of thin pan-fried flour-dredged meat in a sauce of lemon juice, butter, parsley, and often, capers. Though most often made using chicken, this dish can also be made using other meats. Try the recipe with pork, turkey or provimi veal cutlets. For our seafood fans out there, there’s a seafood option: swordfish. We went with chicken as it’s readily available and budget-friendly.
When selecting the chicken for this recipe, you can use either chicken breasts or chicken thighs, but for best results, choose a skinless, boneless variety. We cut the chicken breasts in half lengthwise to yield thin cutlets. Thin cuts of meat cook more quickly, which in turn keeps this recipe ideal for busy weeknights. For the cooking of the chicken breasts, you’ll need seasoning, butter, olive oil and flour.
HOW TO DREDGE CHICKEN BREASTS
Unlike our famous CRISPY KOREAN CHICKEN or this popular LEMON CHICKEN RECIPE, preparing the chicken for this recipe does not require eggs or breadcrumbs, panko or cornflakes. Instead, we season the chicken with a mix of kosher salt, black pepper and garlic powder. Then we dredge the pieces in unbleached all-purpose flour. To dredge the pieces, simply place them onto the flour spread out in an even layer on a flat plate. Push the chicken down into the flour to coat completely, then flip and repeat. Transfer the chicken to a second plate as it’s ready to be cooked. No need to shake the chicken to release excess flour; that flour is important. Later in the recipe, it’s scraped up off the pan to help thicken the tangy, lemon-caper sauce. Yum!
SKILLET-SEARED
The first step of cooking the chicken is to pan-fry and sear it in a skillet or large cast-iron pan set over moderate or medium-high heat. We do so using a combination of olive oil and unsalted butter for flavour. Searing the meat is easy, and we found leaving the chicken to cook for 2 – 3 minutes per side works like a charm. If you’re serving a crowd, you can cook the chicken in batches. The goal is to have golden-brown pieces that can then be transferred to a clean plate to rest while we complete the recipe by making the piquant lemon sauce.
PICCATA SAUCE
The sauce portion of the program is so easy, we know you’ll be impressed by the simplicity of it all. After removing the chicken, we add garlic and briny capers to the pan along with dry white wine and fresh lemon juice. If you’d rather, you can also make the sauce, swapping the wine with chicken broth for an alcohol-free version. Make sure to scrape up and brown bits from the bottom of the pan.
You can whisk or simply mix everything together as the liquid warms and comes to a boil. Then add the fresh thyme, the additional tablespoon of butter and the lemon slices before returning the cooked juicy chicken breasts to the pan. We like to spoon the sauce over the chicken at this point as the chicken heats up.
SERVE
Right before serving this LEMONY CHICKEN PICCATA, follow our lead and garnish the pan with some freshly chopped parsley. You can use curly parsley or the more aromatic flat-leaf Italian parsley. The other good news about this one-pan wonder of a dinner idea is that you can keep things extra-simple by serving the meal right from the pan. We think this meal is best enjoyed with MASHED POTATOES or a favourite pasta. Rice is also an option, or try a favourite side dish like our BUTTERED VEGETABLES with asparagus and a light vinaigrette or a SIMPLE SALAD. No need to share storage tips for leftovers. There won’t be any!
PIN IT!
Remember this lovely LEMONY CHICKEN PICCATA for your next weeknight meal and save it for future reference. Click that BOOKMARK tab at the top of your browser and also PIN it to one of your PINTEREST boards for easy access. Good idea to also forward it to friends; everyone loves a solid weeknight meal idea.
When you need a quick, easy, and super tasty dinner, make this LEMONY CHICKEN PICCATA.
Cook Mode Use cook mode to keep your screen on while cooking.
Ingredients
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon garlic powder
½ cup flour for dredging
3 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
½ cup white wine or chicken stock
1 sprig fresh thyme
juice from 1-½ lemons, about ¼ cup
1 tablespoon butter
½ lemon, quartered lengthwise then sliced
3 tablespoons capers
¼ cup fresh parsley, chopped
Directions
Prepare chicken: Using a sharp knife, divide breasts in half lengthwise. Mix salt, pepper and garlic powder together in a small bowl then use to season chicken on both sides. Dredge chicken in flour and transfer onto a large plate or platter.
Cook chicken: Place a large skillet or cast iron pan on stovetop and heat to medium high. When pan is hot, add butter and once melted, added oil, moving pan to combine the two. Add chicken and leaving to cook for about 3 minutes per side or until a rich golden colour. Transfer seared chicken to a clean plate.
Prepare sauce: Reduce temperature of pan to moderate. Stir in the lemon juice, capers and white wine, scraping the brown bits from the pan to add to the sauce. Add the sprig of thyme. Cook stirring occasionally until sauce comes to temperature and thickens.
Add lemon slices and chicken: Add lemon slices to the pot followed by the chicken. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 3 minutes, spooning the sauce over the chicken.
Serve: Transfer saucepan to work surface. Garnish with parsley. Serve from pan or arrange in an attractive manner on a serving platter. Enjoy with mashed potatoes, rice or polenta plus a favourite side dish or salad.
Until Cottage Season
