Chicken Piccata
Chicken piccata is easy to make, ready in 20 minutes and features seared chicken breasts with a delicious lemon, butter and caper sauce. Great served over spaghetti for a quick dinner!
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients
- 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, pounded to ½ inch thickness (see notes)
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
- 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
- ½ cup dry white wine (see notes)
- ¼ cup fresh lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons capers
- 2 teaspoons minced fresh garlic
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
For serving:
- Hot cooked spaghetti (thin or regular)
- 2 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley
Instructions
- Pound out chicken breasts until an even thickness, about ½ inch. See notes below for details.
- Heat butter and oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.
- Place flour in a low, shallow dish. Dredge each chicken breast in flour then add to the hot skillet. (Work in batches to cook the chicken, if needed.)
- Cook the chicken for 3 minutes per side, until well browned and cooked through. Remove from pan and keep warm.
- Add white wine, lemon juice, capers and garlic to the pan. Scrape pan to loosen browned bits. Cook for 2 minutes. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
- Serve chicken over pasta and top with the sauce. Sprinkle with parsley, if desired, and serve hot.
Notes
White wine: If you don’t have any or would like to cook this recipe without the white wine, simply sub a ½ cup of low-sodium chicken broth. (If you have some white wine vinegar, add a couple of teaspoons of that to the chicken broth for some acidity and flavor that’s a little closer to the wine.)
Capers: Capers are usually sold in small jars packed in liquid, and you’ll need to be sure to drain the liquid before you add them to your pan.
Butter: If you’d like some extra richness, feel free to add another tablespoon or two of butter to the sauce at the very end, just before serving.
Pounding out the chicken:
- Place your boneless, skinless chicken breasts between two layers of wax paper on a flat surface. I recommend doubling up the top layer of wax paper because it can start to break and tear as you pound.
- Use a meat mallet or a heavy rolling pin and pound the chicken. Specifically, it helps to pound straight down and then out from the center of each breast, to help flatten the chicken breasts evenly.
- Continue pounding until the desired level of thickness is reached. For this recipe, the breasts need to be about ½-inch thick. If yours are thicker, your cook time will be longer. Make sure the chicken cooks through. I recommend using a digital thermometer.
- Other ways to prep this chicken would be to butterfly the chicken breasts, so they are an even size. (Again though, they also need to be an even thickness.) You can serve them whole or cut each one in half and give everyone a thin half-breast of chicken.
Video
Nutrition
Serving: 1serving | Calories: 313kcal | Carbohydrates: 9g | Protein: 38g | Fat: 11g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 6g | Cholesterol: 110mg | Sodium: 324mg | Sugar: 1g
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