Lemon Chicken Piccata
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Lemon Chicken Piccata – a simple yet super impressive chicken piccata in a tasty lemon, butter and capers sauce. Perfect with pasta for a quick and delicious dinner.
Ah, this chicken piccata.
This could be that romantic dish for that special occasion. For that special someone. I truly believe that a way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, and if you don’t believe me, I dare you to try it, and cook him a meal like this. All I can tell you is that my man sure enjoyed it. But hey, this dish isn’t only for men, all men out there can make this dish for their special someone.
Although I believe this chicken piccata is an impressive dish, it’s so simple to make. It’s amazing sometimes how you can turn a few simple ingredients into a fabulous and totally delicious dish.
What Is Chicken Piccata
Piccata is a method of preparing food where meat is sliced, coated, sautéed and served in a sauce. The dish is Italian as the name would imply, but it is originally made with veal. Here I chose to make mine with chicken breasts, thinly sliced, or butterflied.
Ingredients
You really only need a few ingredients for this wonderful dish.
- Chicken Breasts – you want them boneless and skinless. You can also do this with boneless skinless chicken thighs, for the dark meat lover.
- Flour – all purpose flour for dredging our chicken through.
- Seasoning – salt and pepper to taste.
- Butter – I always use unsalted, this way I can control how much salt is in my food.
- Olive oil – pretty much my oil of choice all the time, especially for dishes such as this.
- Lemon juice – this is the star of this recipe, so you want to make sure is freshly squeezed for best flavor.
- White wine – a dry white wine will work great such as Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Grigio.
- Capers – this is another key ingredient in this recipe, they’ll give the dish more lemony, oily and salt flavor.
- Parsley – as always, a little bit for garnish because we eat with our eyes first.
How to Make Chicken Piccata
The chicken breasts are skinless and boneless, and thinly sliced lengthwise or butterflied. They are generously seasoned with salt and pepper then dredged through flour. The chicken is then pan fried to a golden perfection on both sides in butter and olive oil.
The chicken is then removed from the skillet, and the lemon juice, white wine and capers are added, at the same time scraping all those delicious brown bits from the bottom of the skillet.
That’s where all the flavor is, so you want to make sure you scrape real well. I chose to use a dry white wine here, but chicken broth would work just as well.
You then add the chicken back to the skillet and simmer the chicken in the sauce for another 5 minutes, after which you remove the chicken to a platter.
The sauce is then thickened with a bit more butter and cooked for a couple more minutes until it just thickens a bit. At this point you can pour this delicious sauce over the chicken, or as I did mine, put the chicken back in the skillet, and garnished with lots of parsley.
It’s such an easy dish to make, so full of flavor, if you love Meyer lemons this dish is for you. Of course you don’t have to use Meyer lemons, but if you have them, please do.
I had Lemon caper chicken piccata at a restaurant recently and so enjoyed it. Found your recipe and it is every bit as good and exactly what I was looking for… AND I had everything needed on hand (even better)! Thank you!!!
How To Serve
This chicken piccata is perfect over buttered egg noodles or mashed potatoes.
You can also serve this over rice and a side of roasted broccoli or green beans.
Looking for More Chicken Recipes? Try These:
- Creamy Lemon Chicken Piccata Fettuccine
- Chicken Marsala
- Oven Roasted Chicken Shawarma
- Bourbon Chicken
- Chicken Lo Mein
- Chicken Piccata Pasta
- Lemon Pepper Chicken
Check out the video for the Creamy Lemon Chicken Piccata Fettuccine!
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Lemon Chicken Piccata
Prep: 15 mins
Cook: 25 mins
Total: 40 mins
Serves: 4
Lemon Chicken Piccata – a simple yet super impressive chicken piccata in a tasty lemon, butter and capers sauce. Perfect with pasta for a quick and delicious dinner.
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 chicken breasts skinless and boneless, cut in half lengthwise
- 1/4 tsp salt or to taste
- 1/2 tsp pepper or to taste
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour for dredging
- 4 tbsp butter unsalted
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1/3 cup lemon juice freshly squeezed
- 1/2 cup white wine dry
- 1/4 cup capers brined
- 1/3 cup parsley fresh, chopped
Instructions
- Season chicken with salt and pepper. Dredge chicken in flour and shake off excess.
- In a large skillet melt 2 tbsp of butter with the olive oil, over medium to high heat.
- Add chicken pieces to the skillet and cook for about 3 to 4 min per side until browned. When chicken is cooked, remove chicken from skillet.
- Remove skillet from heat. Add lemon juice, chicken stock or wine, capers and scrape up the brown bits from the pan for extra flavor. Return skillet to heat and bring to a boil. Taste the sauce and season with additional salt and pepper if needed. Add chicken back to skillet and simmer for about 5 minutes. Remove chicken to a platter and add remaining butter and whisk for about a minute. Sauce will thicken a bit.
- You can return chicken to skillet and garnish with parsley. Alternatively you can pour the sauce over the chicken and garnish with parsley.
Recipe Notes
- Chicken stock would be a good substitute for the white wine.
- Please keep in mind that nutritional information is a rough estimate and can vary greatly based on products used.
Nutrition Information:
Serving: 1chicken pieceCalories: 290kcal (15%)Carbohydrates: 9g (3%)Protein: 13g (26%)Fat: 20g (31%)Saturated Fat: 8g (50%)Cholesterol: 66mg (22%)Sodium: 520mg (23%)Potassium: 278mg (8%)Vitamin A: 810IU (16%)Vitamin C: 15.7mg (19%)Calcium: 20mg (2%)Iron: 1.2mg (7%)
Gareth Pritchard says
This is one of my all time favorites! The lemon and wine give the meal a great tart flavor with the butter to tame it down just the right amount. I recently tried adding a little heavy cream, to stretch the sauce, and tame the tart flavor a bit more, and I must say it was a gamble that paid off! I also add just a touch of corn starch to thicken the sauce, which in my opinion is a must, so that sauce will stick to pasta.
Jo Cooks Team says
That’s a great idea! Now time to make some good crusty bread to help soak up all the sauce 😋
Frances Anderson says
I really enjoyed this recipe. Am making it again today!
jo says
Glad to hear it!
Lynn Brown says
This is a lovely recipe with a good balance of flavours, and I wouldn’t add or take away a thing. I doubled the sauce and served the chicken over capellini with a bit of roasted broccoli on the side. Quick and easy, and eminently guest-worthy.
Djo says
Easy, great flavor! Make it weekly,😄
Hannah Neufeld says
This was so, so delicious! I paired it with steamed green beans covered with toasted almonds and toasted garlic in olive oil. Am really sad I only have one portion left. Guess I will have to make again this week!
Jo Cooks Team says
Yes you will! We’re so glad you love the recipe.
CNUdino says
Excellent and very easy to prepare
Bj atwood says
I really liked this, and would make it for guests.
Sandra says
Delicious and so easy to make.
Michael Ryan says
Made this for my wife and we both loved it … this recipe is a keeper.
Jo Cooks Team 2 says
Awesome to hear! So happy you liked it 🙂
Alena Williams says
These are such great recipes! Thanks so much for sharing!!
Mack Farmer says
Does it greatly change the flavor of this dish to exclude the capers? Not a fan.
Jo Cooks Team says
You can leave them out! The dish might need a bit more salt without them.
barbie merkel says
in the video heavy cream is added at the end, but its not in the ingredient list nor in your instructions
jo says
That video is for a different twist on the recipe, it’s for the creamy lemon chicken piccata fettuccine. This recipe is the classier version.
Jenn says
Wow! This was awesome! I’ll be making this all the time. It was amazing! I added chipotle powder to the chicken. Then I chopped garlic to add to the sauce as well as a bit of chipotle powder. I added a bit extra on the capers and some of the caper juice instead of extra salt.
I just poured the sauce over the entire dish after.
Soooooo yummy!
Jo Cooks Team says
Yum! What an awesome idea. We’re so glad you love the recipe 🙂
Shirley McGuire says
Awesome recipe!!
Anita Klein says
I love this recipe!! I added some garlic to the wine/olive oil/lemon juice, because I love garlic. I also add some of my can’t do without chicken spices to the chicken before dredging in flour (ground mustard, cumin, turmeric) and add a bit of oregano to the flour. This is so super yummy. I also add bit of chicken stock to make more sauce, so I can dredge some angel hair pasta in the sauce to serve over pasta. Thank you for this! Have made many times.
jo says
I’m so glad to hear you like it!
Tania says
This dish impressed the entire family! I served it over quinoa noodles and used GF flour to coat the chicken! Will definitely make it again.
Renee says
How much chicken stock? not listed in ingredient list?
Joanna Cismaru says
It’s 1/2 cup, it’s listed as white wine, so you can either use white wine or chicken stock instead.
Dabney says
I’m going to try to cook this in my cast iron skillet over a campfire this weekend… Has anyone tried this? Wish me luck! My only concern is being able to control the temperature, but if I’m putting the skillet on a raised grill over hot charcoals, I think it should work…
Nic says
Does this recipe call for half a stick of butter or a stick and a half??
Joanna Cismaru says
1/2 a stick or 4 tbsp as stated in the recipe.