Easy Lemon Chicken Piccata
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You won’t believe how quick/easy this is with ingredients you already have on hand! Serve over pasta – SO GOOD!
For today’s recipe, we need to do a quick FRIENDS recap – it’s the one with the metaphorical tunnel.
Chandler: Okay, last night at dinner, when the meals came, she put half her chicken piccata on my plate and took my tomatoes.
Ross: And that’s bad because…, you hate chicken piccata?
Chandler: Noo.
Ross: You didn’t want to share your tomatoes, tomatoes are very important to you.
Chandler: No, it’s like all of the sudden, we were this couple. And this alarm started going off in my head: ‘Run for your life! Get out of the building!’
Rachel: Men are unbelievable.
So yes, this recipe is pretty much dedicated to Chandler and Janice because that’s the only thing that comes to mind when I think of chicken piccata.
Except it’s really just a super fancy-looking chicken dish that’s unbelievably easy to whip up with ingredients you already have on hand, making it perfect for date night, Sunday Supper, or even a busy weeknight.
But more importantly, can we talk about the lemon cream sauce? I mean, you could even double the sauce, skip the chicken and just put it on a bed of pasta.
I mean, the chicken would honestly just get in the way anyway.
Tools For This Recipe
Large cast iron skillet
Easy Lemon Chicken Piccata: Frequently Asked Questions
Additional chicken broth can be used for white wine as a non-alcoholic substitute.
Heavy cream (or heavy whipping cream) has one of the highest fat contents with about 36-40% fat. Half and half or whole milk are suitable substitutes, but will yield a lighter result.
You can serve with these easy skillet dinner rolls, buttery mashed potatoes, sauteed garlic butter mushrooms and cauliflower, or a light salad.
Easy Lemon Chicken Piccata
Ingredients
- 1 pound spaghetti
- 1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut crosswise in half
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- ½ cup all-purpose flour
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- ¼ cup diced shallots
- ¾ cup chicken broth
- ¼ cup dry white wine*
- 3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
- ½ cup heavy cream
- ¼ cup capers, drained
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves
Instructions
- In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook pasta according to package instructions; drain well.
- Season chicken with salt and pepper, to taste. Working one at a time, dredge chicken in flour.
- Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a large cast iron skillet over medium high heat. Add chicken and cook, flipping once, until cooked through, about 4-5 minutes on each side. Set aside and keep warm.
- Melt remaining 2 tablespoons butter in the skillet. Add garlic and shallots, and cook, stirring frequently, until fragrant, about 2 minutes.
- Stir in chicken broth, wine and lemon juice. Cook, stirring occasionally, until slightly reduced, about 5 minutes.
- Gradually whisk in heavy cream until slightly thickened, about 3-4 minutes; season with salt and pepper, to taste. Stir in capers.
- Serve immediately with pasta and chicken, garnished with parsley, if desired.
Notes
Did you make this recipe?
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Delicious! I browned our chicken breast in Olive Oil, but used the butter to make the sauce. I made Mashed potatoes instead of the pasta. Placed the chicken & yummy sauce on top of the potatoes. We liked the idea you could taste the lemon in the sauce too. Steams Gr. Beans on the side. W/make it again!
Thanks for relating your story about Chandler and Janice, it sort of makes the recipe come alive, not that it needs help. I am not a big chicken fan, but hey you are supposed to eat healthy so I try and avoid too much red meat. I couldn’t believe how easy this recipe was and the taste is scrumptious, even with gluten free pasts.
This was super tasty! I have always made Chicken Piccata almost the exact same way. I never added cream and always served it over rice.
Made this for a last minute dinner last night….had everything on hand except for cream. It was delicious and will be a go to meal for this family weekly. thanks so much for sharing 🙂
It’s so nice to be able to go to a blog and confidently know that the recipe you choose is going to be delish! Thanks for always sharing great recipes. I will make this again and again.
WOW, this is something you would expect to eat at a restaurant. Thank you! This recipe will become a family favourite for sure. Exquisite! (I doubled the sauce )
Very good & easy to make!
So good! Loved the sauce so much! Instead of cream I used a can of coconut cream (just the top cream part) and used more broth instead of wine. Turned out amazing. Also subbed GF flour for the chicken coating. Everyone loved it and I could seriously drink the sauce. Thank you!!!
Very good!
This was very tasty but had some issues. I cooked on a cast iron which did get very hot after cooking the chicken medium-high for 10 minutes or whatever it was. The butter immediately browned and the garlic and shallots completely burned within seconds of adding it to the pan. Had to start from scratch on that with a nonstick skillet. Luckily I had enough garlic and shallots leftover. I’m surprised that these instructions would work for others.
I don’t think the recipe is the problem. Cast iron holds heat longer. It definitely changes the way you need to cook. Try a different type pan or take your cast iron off the heat for a bit to let it cool down before sautéing the shallots and garlic. It’s worth another attempt. IMO
This recipe was simple and DELICIOUS. Will absolutely be making again.
I ended up doubling the sauce ingredients as well and it worked perfectly. Served it over some thick spaghetti with a squeeze of extra lemon and some parmesan. The whole family loved it!
SO GOOD even with substitutions for what I had on hand. Swapped chick broth for veggie, heavy cream for sour cream mixed with water (1:1), and shallot for white onion. No capers or wine, sadly. Threw in a little salted pasta water. I am cooking for one so I halved the sauce and just made one breast. Tossed the pasta and breast with the sauce – Would make even more sauce ration for company (or maybe I let it thicken too much).
I did have to restart the sauce because it burned and tasted terrible. Determined it was a combo of: too high of heat with chicken (the butter turned brown) and most importantly, too small of chop on onion and garlic – they burned up fast but I kept on cooking for the full two minutes. In my second attempt I turned the heat down slightly and kept the chop to a dice (I had mindlessly done a fine mince). Even with all the caveats that remove delicious benefits like chicken juice, wine, etc., I was still very happy eating the results – def satisfies my restaurant cravings and I will make again!
First: I LOVE this recipe. Second: I find that, no matter what any recipe says, adding garlic at the same time as onion (shallots, etc.) is never a good idea. Garlic burns quickly and creates a bitter flavor. I cook the onion (shallots, etc.) until I’m pretty pleased, THEN add the garlic and only cook for a minute or so. Just my two cents…
This is so good. There’s something about lemon and chicken together. I made this for a potluck and it was a hit, of course, even among the tougher food critics at the party. I added garlic and onion powder, as well as Italian seasoning. Saving this recipe for sure. Thank you!
I was excited to try this but was afraid it wouldn’t be saucy enough for me but OMG this was so delicious. I will definitely make this again. My only thing is I wanted more seasoning on the chicken but still good as is too.
I don’t even want to order this when I go out for a fine Italian Dinner anymore… it’s just not as good as this recipe! Thank you so much for sharing this.
Very tasty.
I made it with normal sea salt, not kosher. Is it much better with kosher?
Fam jam loved this but I needed to quadruple the sauce recipe to have enough for the pasta! Added mrs dash to the chicken before I dredged in the flour. Turned out super!
WOW WOW WOW this recipe turned out phenomenal! I’ve tried several other and something always goes wrong when adding the heavy cream. This taste just like the restaurant minus having to go out! I mean this was so good I’m making more sauce in the morning. THANK YOU SO MUCH !
Delicious! My family loved it. Especially my two year old daughter who is ultra picky. Thank you so much for sharing. I did add one extra garlic clove because we love garlic. And, fresh grated Parmesan to the pasta. Ultra good.
What can I use instead of capers? Not a big fan.
We made it exactly as written. AMAZING!!!!