This is a recipe I came up with during a weeknight when there wasn't much food in the house, so, of course, it's simple, quick, and doesn't require a lot of ingredients.
Chicken piccata is a simple and delicious Italian dish. It's just lightly-breaded chicken that's topped with a lemony pan sauce with capers. In my version, the breading is a simple batter made from lemon juice and flour. The extra lemon in the batter makes it exceptionally flavorful.
I strongly recommend using a non-stick frying pan for this. The batter can be a little bit loose, so using non-stick cookware will help keep the batter on during cooking. You'll also need to be extra careful when you flip the chicken over. The heat needs to be fairly low to avoid burning the batter. I normally flip the chicken a few times while it's cooking to help prevent it from burning. When the chicken is cooked, the batter should be a nice golden brown.
The sauce is very simple—it's mostly just chicken stock and lemon. Making the sauce in the same pan that the chicken was cooked in gives it a nice richness. I toss in some flour to help thicken the sauce. I recommend using chicken stock for the sauce because it gives you a richer flavor, but if you don't have any, broth is perfectly fine. I also strongly recommend using fresh lemons if you can. If you want your meal to be even more lemony than this (probably not necessary, but if you like lemon, go for it!), then you can also add some lemon zest to the batter. Enjoy!
Chicken Piccata
Makes: 4 servings
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 30 mintues
For the chicken
½ cup all-purpose flour, plus more for dredging
Juice of 2 lemons
Freshly ground salt and pepper
Garlic powder
2 medium chicken breasts, butterflied and cut in half
For the sauce
2 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp all-purpose flour
Juice of 2 lemons
2 cups chicken stock
¼ cup capers
1. Preheat oven to 250°F.
2. Season the chicken with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Then, dredge the chicken through flour to coat. Shake off excess.
3. Whisk together the lemon juice and 1/2 cup flour to make the batter.
4. Heat up oil and butter in a large non-stick frying pan over medium-high heat. Coat the chicken in the batter, then place in pan immediately.
5. Cook chicken for about 1 minute, then flip and reduce to medium heat. Flip occasionally, until fully cooked (about 15 minutes). Use a thermometer to be sure chicken is thoroughly cooked. Transfer to a plate in oven while making sauce. Remove any pieces of batter that fell off chicken from frying pan.
6. Now for the sauce, heat up oil and butter over medium-high heat.
7. Add flour to pan and heat, stirring constantly, until golden.
8. Add lemon juice and chicken stock, then simmer until thickened.
9. Add capers for last 30 seconds to 1 minute of cooking. Serve chicken on a bed of pasta, then top with sauce.