Easy Lemon Chicken Piccata
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This easy lemon chicken piccata is perfect for a quick weeknight dinner or entertaining company! With juicy chicken and the best pan sauce.
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This recipe is awesome! Just made last night, and will be making again. So easy, and not spending forever in the kitchen. I did double the sauce recipe after reading other reviews. I made with angel hair pasta and, of course, a glass of wine! Enjoy
why you’ll love this lemon chicken piccata
- Restaurant-quality yet so easy. With simple pantry ingredients, this dish comes together so quickly and easily, perfect for a romantic date night, company dinner, or even a super busy weeknight.
- The chicken is so juicy. Say goodbye to dry chicken! Coating the chicken in flour will help create that light golden crust, thicken the pan sauce, and help the sauce cling to the juicy, tender meat.
- Luscious, velvety pan sauce. The bright, zesty cream sauce is pure gold, best served over a bed of pasta to sop up all the rich, lemon, buttery goodness.
what is chicken piccata?
Chicken piccata is an Italian-American dish typically made with pan-fried chicken breast cutlets, capers, and a lemon butter sauce served with pasta, mashed potatoes, roasted potatoes, or crusty bread.
How to make easy lemon chicken piccata
- Prep the chicken. Cut the chicken breast in half horizontally to create two even cutlets. Pound out the chicken using a meat mallet, heavy metal pan (ex. cast iron skillet), or rolling pin to reach an even thickness, if needed.
- Cook the pasta. Cook the pasta (angel hair or spaghetti) in boiling salted water until al dente, draining well.
- Season and coat. Season the chicken cutlets with salt and pepper, then dredge lightly in flour, shaking off any excess flour.
- Cook the chicken. Cook the chicken, in batches, in a large cast iron skillet over medium high heat until golden brown and cooked through (165°F), about 4-5 minutes per side. Set the chicken aside and keep warm.
- Make the pan sauce. In the same pan, melt the butter, then sauté the aromatics until fragrant. Deglaze the pan with the wine, scraping up the browned bits from the bottom of the skillet. Finally, stir in the chicken broth and lemon juice, simmering until slightly reduced, about 5 minutes.
- Make it creamy. Lower the heat and slowly stir in the heavy cream until thickened, about 3-4 minutes, then stir in the drained capers.
- Serve. Return the chicken to the skillet until warmed through, then serve over pasta and garnish with parsley.
what to serve with lemon chicken piccata
Tools For This Recipe
Easy Lemon Chicken Piccata: Frequently Asked Questions
Can I use chicken cutlets?
Absolutely! A chicken cutlet is actually a chicken breast already cut in half horizontally.
Can I make this without the wine?
Yes! Additional chicken broth can be used for white wine as a non-alcoholic substitute.
What is heavy cream?
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.
What is a good substitute for the capers?
Chopped green olives will provide a similar salty and briny punch.
Which pasta is best for chicken piccata?
Long, thin pasta such as angel hair or spaghetti are both excellent options.
How can I store leftovers?
Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for 3-4 days, gently reheating on the stovetop until warmed through.
Easy Lemon Chicken Piccata
This easy lemon chicken piccata is perfect for a quick weeknight dinner or entertaining company! With juicy chicken and the best pan sauce.
Video
Ingredients
- 1 pound spaghetti
- 1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut in half lengthwise
- 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
- ¼ cup dry white wine
- ¾ cup chicken broth
- 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 wine, scraping any browned bits from the bottom of the skillet.
- Stir in chicken broth and lemon juice. Cook, stirring occasionally, until slightly reduced, about 5 minutes.
- Reduce heat to low; gradually stir in heavy cream until slightly thickened, about 3-4 minutes.
- Stir in capers; season with salt and pepper, to taste. Return chicken to the skillet.
- Serve immediately with pasta, garnished with parsley, if desired.
Equipment
Notes
- Cut the chicken lengthwise. Rather than pounding out the chicken, cut the chicken breasts lengthwise, slicing horizontally across the thickest part of the breasts – this will create uniform cutlets and allow fast cooking so the meat stays tender without drying out.
- Avoid an overcrowded pan. Cook the chicken cutlets in batches to ensure proper browning for a golden brown crust. An overcrowded pan will steam the chicken instead!
- Deglaze the pan. This will help build the pan sauce by adding all the deep, concentrated flavors from the caramelized browned bits stuck to the bottom of the pan.
- Choose a wine you will drink. A dry white wine (pinot grigio or sauvignon blanc) is great here – it does not have to be anything fancy or overpriced. Just something you don’t mind sipping on since you will have an open bottle.
- Add the cream slowly. Always add the heavy cream at the very end, pouring very slowly to prevent curdling.
- Serve over a bed of pasta. The pasta will soak up all the extra sauce, transforming a simple chicken dish into a hearty dinner without requiring heavy sides.
- Mix it up. Swap out the chicken for veal or shrimp.
Did you make this recipe?
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We love this recipe I make it for my husband all the time
I wouldn’t call it easy but directions were easy to follow and it was better than most restaurant versions. I followed the recipe exactly, but doubled it because I had a group of six. Only one piece of chicken was left and I made 2 and 1/2 pounds. It tasted so good and was tender and was perfect with angel hair pasta. I had picky eaters who really gave their approval as well. My sauce was a little thin so I might not use as much liquid next time. Thanks for a tasty dinner.
Absolutely delish! Thanks for sharing this recipe!
Three of us ate every bite! I doubled the sauce and it was amazing!!!
Flavor was delicious. Too much pasta for the amount of sauce in the recipe. I cooked a lb of pasta and used half. Still was too dry. Ingredients were tasty but ratios were wrong. Next time I’ll flatten the chicken, triple the sauce, and prep in the morning.
Try this variation, it is amazing!
Cook more chicken piccata than you need and refrigerate the leftovers. It gives the remaining leftovers time to absorb the lemon/wine/butter sauce.
Take the leftovers out of the refrigerator after hours of refrigeration or overnight. For example, put a single serving of pasta in a small saucepan. Turn the heat on medium high, but keep an eye on it. Mince 2 cloves of garlic and sautee it in 2 tablespoons of butter for 2 minutes. Add the leftovers to the pan. Add some white wine (1/2 cup) to loosen up the leftovers, 2 tablespoons of parmesan cheese, a tablespoon of italian bread crumbs, a teaspoon of dried oregano, a teaspoon of dried basil, and a quarter teaspoon of black pepper. And the juice of a whole lemon; yes a whole lemon! I even slice up slivers of the rind and sautee them as well. Keep stirring it until it is ready. Add a teaspoon of capers at the last minute, stir, and let cool enough to serve.
The pasta/lemon sauce will jump off your plate with a WOW! If you don’t get rave reviews for having ‘invented’ this, I’ll be amazed!
The best chicken piccata recipe I’ve ever made, hands down. And I’ve made a lot through the years. Such a quick, easy and delicious meal that feels like restaurant quality. Thanks so much for your recipe!!
This was absolutley delicious- better than any restaurant Lemon Chicken Piccata. I tripled the sauce recipe so there would be a lot of sauce and it all went for 7 of us for dinner. I used 2 bulbs of garlic minced through my little food processor- its never too much garlic! I didn’t have shallots but I used 1 large vidalia onion instead. Sauvignon Blanc( 1cup+) and 3 lemons, 2 quarts of Chicken Broth. Need to rinse the capers super well, double/triple rinsed, as these can make the sauce bitter. If you want to make your sauce thicker/creamier just mix the whipping cream mixed with a tablespoon or 2 or flour before you add it to the pot. If your sauce is too lemony, add more chicken broth or whipping cream – can’t go wrong with this and you will have more sauce too. This was the best Lemon Chicken Piccata by far! Thank you for a great recipe- a keeper! I’m looking forward to making more of your recipes.
Definitely double the sauce! Awesome recipe!
This recipe deserves a chef’s kiss! ! This is the first recipe I’ve tried of yours and I’m making it again this week (just made it last week).
Good recipe. Definitely double the sauce for 1 lb of pasta. Very dry otherwise.
Quick and easy yet delicious. I will make it again. I didn’t serve with pasta as we had just had pasta the night before. Served with rice and broccoli.
Made this for dinner tonight and paired with feta and spinach chicken sausage instead of chicken. A garden salad for a side and my husband said it was “Off the charts delicious!” We will surely be making this again and again!
This recipe is simply delicious.
So easy and so delicious. I made it according to the recipe, except I added a few more capers…don’t be stingy with the capers!!
I printed this recipe along with a few other recipes from your site and love them all! I just happen to have a day off and have time to send a review. We absolutely love this recipe! Some people commented that they added somethings to thicken the sauce but I think it was perfect. I also love the fact that you added just a 1/2 cup of heavy cream. It is the perfect amount to make it rich but not “guilty” rich. To readers just make sure you reduce the wine, chicken stock liquid for 5 minutes. Yummy!!!
I made this for my daughter’s bday and everyone loved it. I doubled it, thickened a bit, and sprinkled some grated parm in while cooking to give it even more flavor.
I love this recipe!! Fast, easy and delicious. I added baby artichokes to the sauce, made the sauce seem a little thicker.
This recipe was freaking amazing. I send it to all my friends to try. Definitely restaurant quality (as good as dishes I’ve had all over Italy). I’m making it for the 2nd time today, but I am going to attempt to make it more of a veggie recipe (rather than the chicken) by cooking some frozen veggies separately and adding them into the sauce (the chicken was GREAT, but I’m just not eating enough veggies, lately, and this sauce is SO GOOD, it will definitely support “hiding” some veggies in it). Also the capers were a bit concentrated for my taste, but that’s just personal preference, so will likely cut those in half this time around. Thank you for a wonderful recipe!
I have made this multiple times and have also wanted to add some vegetables to the dish. Two ways that have been successful is to add some mushrooms and saute with the onion and garlic, t hff en proceed with the recipe. Another option is to add and wlit fresh spinach in the step where you are reducing the sauce just before adding the cream and the capers. Both delicious says to up the veggie content. And yes, true confession, I also add freshly grated pecorino romano.
The chicken was delicious, but I had some trouble with the sauce. I doubled the sauce, so I used two lemons. I don’t know if I juiced them too efficiently, or if it’s just my personal preference, but it was too lemony for my family. I wish there was a definite amount (like 2 tablespoons?) listed since the amount of juice obtained from a lemon varies. When I tasted before serving and discovered this, I tried to rescue the sauce by adding cheese at first. Then I looked up how to counteract lemon flavor and found that baking soda works, so I added a small amount, and this actually seemed to thicken the sauce a little, which was nice, and it did neutralize the sour taste some. I liked it after this, but my family still wasn’t crazy about the sauce. Oh well. By the way, since I was doubling, I used one can of chicken broth and no wine (don’t keep wine in the house). Other than that, followed the recipe.