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Chicken Piccata made with tenderized chicken breasts, fresh lemon juice, capers, and a white wine butter sauce is a delicious and easy dinner recipe.
Whether you’re looking for an easy weeknight dinner idea or something to feed a crowd for a dinner party, you can’t go wrong with this super tasty and flavorful recipe!
Classic Chicken Piccata is a favorite of mine. I pretty much love any recipe that calls for wine and butter, but throw in the lemons and capers for that extra punch and I’m a happy girl.
I recently had the pleasure of watching a chef create her version of chicken piccata. It was extremely simliar to how I’ve always made it, but she added a secret ingredient that made all the difference. Want to know what it was? Keep on reading!
How to make this recipe:
- First step is to pound or roll your chicken breasts so that they are a uniform thickness. Not only does this break down the tissue and make the meat more tender, but a uniform thickness cooks evenly.
- Next you’ll dredge the breasts in flour. You can certainly use a gluten free flour or even a nut flour like almond meal or hazelnut meal if you’d like. This thin coating gives it a nice golden brown crisp when you set it in the hot oil.
- You will then brown the chicken in the perfect pairing of olive oil and butter. You just want to brown it and not cook it all the way through since you’ll continue cooking the chicken in the sauce.
- With the chicken removed from the pan, you’ll make your sauce. My recipes uses chicken broth, white wine, lemon juice and zest, and capers. To get through all that acid, some honey (that’s the secret ingredient) and butter mellows it out.
- Finally, you’ll return the chicken to the sauce to heat it through.
Best side dishes to serve with it:
There are two obvious choices, in my opinion: pasta or mashed potatoes. You absolutely cannot go wrong with homemade pasta. Ever. It is the best.
If you’re staying away from pasta for some crazy reason, but will allow yourself to indulge in mashed potatoes, that’s a wise choice. I would recommend anything from Gorgonzola Celery Root Mashed Potatoes to Brown Butter Mashed Potatoes or even Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes. YUM!
A nice dark green leafy veggie like Wilted Garlic Spinach would round the meal out nicely.
If you love chicken and capers, you’ll love my Lemon Pepper Chicken or even Chicken a la King recipes!
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Ingredients
- 2 pounds chicken breasts 4 boneless skinless
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp butter
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 cup white wine
- 1 cup chicken broth
- 1 tbsp lemon zest
- 1/4 cup lemon juice
- 4 tbsp capers drained
- 4 tbsp butter
- 1 tbsp honey
- 4 tbsp fresh Italian parsley minced
Instructions
- Cover the chicken breasts with plastic wrap and pound with a rolling pin or meat tenderizer until uniformly thick. Season the chicken breast pieces with salt and pepper and dredge them in flour. Shake off excess flour.
- Heat the olive oil and 2 tablespoons of butter over medium high heat in a large skillet. Pan-fry the chicken pieces until golden brown on both sides, about 3 minutes per side. Work in batches if necessary so as to not over crowd skillet (more oil and butter can be added as needed, however it must be heated before adding additional chicken). The goal is to give the chicken a nice golden brown on each side but not cook it all the way through. It will finish cooking in the sauce at the end. Place the chicken pieces onto a plate and tent with foil.
- Using the pan you cooked the chicken in, cook and stir the minced garlic in the skillet until fragrant, about 20 seconds. Pour in the chicken broth and white wine as well as the lemon zest. Scrape and dissolve any brown bits from the bottom of the skillet. Let cook, stirring occasionally, until the sauce reduces by about half, 5 to 8 minutes.
- Add the lemon juice and capers. Simmer until the sauce is reduced and slightly thickened, about 5 minutes more. Drop the remaining butter and honey into the skillet and swirl it into the sauce by tilting the skillet until the butter is melted and incorporated.
- Add the chicken as well as any juice from the plate back to the pan with the sauce and spoon sauce over chicken. Continue cooking over low heat or transfer to 200 degree F oven to finish cooking, about 5-10 minutes.
- Add the parsley, stir, and remove from heat and serve.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
This chicken piccata looks so delicious and inviting!! My family is a big chicken eaters 😉 and I am always serach for different and quick chicken recipe! Can’t wait to try this !
I love chicken piccata! Looks so delicious and perfect for a balanced dinner or lunch!
“I pretty much love any recipe that calls for wine and butter”—same here! This recipe is definitely a keeper!
Thank you for this easy to make recipe! Loved the use of fresh parsley and garlic – yum!!
Oh, I have already made Chicken Piccata a few times. I usually serve it with some pasta. This meal is now the favorite one in our house! Thanks for sharing.
hi, what temp on step 2? medium?
Hi Sarah, Thanks for catching that. I just updated the recipe to say medium high heat. You want the pan hot enough to not burn the butter, but you want a nice sear on the chicken. -Krissy
Hi I was wondering if you would help me. How do I convert this to feed 40 people? Would you please help me and give me the measurements? Thank you e
Hi Ellen, If you use your mouse to hover over the serving size in the recipe, you can slide it to the right. The slider will only go up to 20 servings, so I would do that and then double the ingredients. That’s quite a party you’ll be having!
You list 1/2 cup and 1 cup of chicken broth. Are both actually used? I can’t tell from the instructions.
Doh! My mistake! I had written out the recipe as I had envisioned making it and then added more broth than originally planned. I forgot to take out the original amount. Should just read 1 cup. You can totally vary this amount based on preference, though.