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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This is a great dish! I had to leave out shallots as I am allergic to those and red onions, but for future, can I use white onions as a substitute?
I love damn delicious, most recently, bought the cookbook about meal prep and it has saved me countless hours!
Yes, this is really delicious and I have been following Damn-delicious for a long time. Her food is the best. But I have a problem now in that a family member has pancreatitis and can not have oil or butter. This was his favorite food. So the challenge becomes how to fix this without any butter or oil and produce something similar? There are millions of Americans now with pancreatitis but have no way to turn because there are no recipes that are outstanding without butter, oil or fried. Any ideas?
cook the chicken in the oven with seasoning then add to the pan after or maybe you can use olive oil or a butter substitute?
Use chicken broth instead of the butter and oil. Just make sure the broth doesn’t have any oil. You can still have the lemon and wine, so it will be delicious.
Absolutely delicious and it was easy for me to make. It was received well even for those who don’t normally like to eat Italian. I had the butcher slice the chicken breast thin for me, made more sauce than in the recipe and probably added a little extra butter, but the recipe probably calls for enough. I also reduced it a little, but because I wanted a slightly thicker sauce and didn’t want to wait too much time, I used the method of adding flour to thicken it more – little flour in a bowl then add some sauce and stir, then add to the remaining sauce. Not sure if that takes away from authenticity. I really loved this and this dish is not normally what I order. My husband said he would order this at a restaurant and the in laws loved it as well. I plan to make this over and over again. Thanks!
I made this minus the shallots, and used jasmine rice with thyme & steamed broccoli with feta cheese. The sauce was drenched all over the entire dish. Definitely a repeat dinner
The photographs look as delicious as this dish tastes. It is one of the best Chicken Piccata recipes I have made. It is a breeze to make with little prep. It most definitely a great summer evening diner dish everyone will love even the little ones. I did omit the the dredging of the chicken. I also used coconut cream instead of heavy cream and 1/2 the amount of butter recipe called for. Everyone loved it!!!
Quick and delicious! You can substitute light coconut milk for the heavy cream for a lighter but just as tasty version. I cube the chicken and dredge in flour with lemon pepper seasoning. Use some onion powder if you don’t have a shallot on hand. Get outside the pasta box! Serve over Israeli pearl couscous. Thanks for sharing!
My family loves this dish and it’s so easy to make!!!
Excellent, easy, great raves from the family!!!
Family approved! Made pretty much verbatim. Only added some roasted crispy artichokes when serving. I did dredge the chicken in potato starch instead of regular flour. ( Stays crispy even when covered with the delicious sauce. ) I used chardonnay wine and it worked well. Note, I didnt pound my chicken out like some mention, i just sliced the breast into thin layers horizontally. Its easier to do when chicken is slightly frozen. Then dredge and pan fry in butter mixed with olive oil, one to one ratio. Whenever i cook in just butter, I tend to burn it too fast, so adding the oil helps me avoid that. Will definitely make again and again. My family was stunned when i matter-of-factly served chicken piccata without any warning. I cook a lot but never made this before. Thanks for posting.
Oh goodness, that sauce… I could eat bowls of that stuff. I did have giant chicken breasts, so I pounded them out before dredging, and everything turned out perfect! BTW best tip from you was not to touch the chicken while they were frying- they turned out with a great crunchy crust. Thanks!
I made this for my girl for date night and I’ve never cooked for her yet and it turned out absolutely fabulous. She was actually really impressed and I was surprised I didn’t mess it up. She’s having it again for lunch today! Thank you for the awesome recipe!!
Okay, no, 15 minutes prep time??? Maybe if you’re Martha Stewart or Giada. But for the average man, forgettaboudit. Also, who happens to have ‘shallots’ “already on hand”? I didn’t even know what a shallot was! BUT, AFTER I got all of the ingredients and put ’em together, the meal came out tasting pretty nice! Just like the real thing at Cheesecake Factory. Amazing! It actually works! It wasn’t EASY but it worked. I’ll give ’em credit for that.
Aw, you make me miss a hearty plate of chicken piccata pasta so muchhhh I love when you included the white wine into the ingredients! A great step to make the chicken much more divine~ Yummy!
– Natalie Ellis
OMG I feel like a chef! I don’t cook much lol this was DELISH!! Thank you 🙂
Amazing!
Thank you thank you thank you. D-lish!
This has become my all time favorite recipe!!! I honestly just want to be eating this all the time. It’s perfect and so delicious. Sometimes I serve it with the chicken breast whole over the pasta and other times I’ll slice the chicken up after it has cooked and rested a bit and will stick it back in the pan to get all coated in the sauce. I’ve also made this with shrimp and I think it would also be delicious with pork chops …honestly, this sauce on just about anything could be my favorite food. Thank you for this recipe!! It’s my go-to meal for guests too because it’s simple to throw together after work and people are ALWAYS impressed!
That’s so great to hear! Thanks for sharing 🙂
Hi, this dish was a hit! One thing though, regarding the lemon I chose. The lemon juice’s tartness ultimately was very pronounced in the sauce. When I make this again i will reduce the wine and chicken broth and as it thickens i will add the cream. One secret I learned long ago is after cream has bubbled and simmered in the pan for a few minutes it is unaffected by the addition of lemon juice. The cream will not curdle. It is then that i would add the lemon juice to tame the sweetness of the sauce. Too, a bit of preserved lemon would be a nice addition to the sauce. Tx
This sauce is amazing with pan seared snapper or grouper fillets.
I was really excited about making this for family & guests and it turned out pretty boring and took so much time. The sauce was very watering and bland. 🙁
I really want to make this, but need a suggesting for dairy free substitute. I plan to sub olive oil for butter, but what should I use for heavy cream? My 5yo is allergic to dairy… thanks in advance!
Unfortunately, without further recipe testing, I cannot answer with certainty. As always, please use your best judgment regarding substitutions and modifications.
I have tried at least 10 different recipes for chicken piccata and have had it at atleast 5 different resteraunts and this by far is the best recipe I have found to date. The only slight alteration I added was before adding the capers I added flour to thicken up the sauce more. I also ad extra capers because I love them and I triple the recipe because this left over is amazing, and I usually hate left overs. If you are going to reheat it don’t use the microwave. Put the sauce in a pan and cut the chicken up and then when the sauce is hot add the noodles and continue to warm to your desired temperature.