Easy Lemon Chicken Piccata
This post may contain affiliate links. Please see our privacy policy for details.
You won’t believe how quick/easy this is with ingredients you already have on hand! Serve over pasta – SO GOOD!
Featured Comment
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.
why i love this recipe
- Restaurant-quality yet so easy. With simple pantry ingredients, this dish comes together so quickly and easily, perfect for a romantic date night, Sunday Supper or even a super busy weeknight.
- Luscious, velvety lemon cream sauce. You could even double the sauce, skip the chicken and put it on a bed of pasta. The chicken would honestly just get in the way anyway.
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.
tips and tricks for success
- Cut the chicken crosswise. Rather than pounding out the chicken, cut the chicken breasts crosswise, slicing horizontally across the thickest part of the breasts – this will help cut down on prep time even more.
- 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 with crusty bread. Serve with all the homemade crusty bread for dipping, sopping and dunking!
- Mix it up. Swap out the chicken for veal or shrimp.
what to serve with lemon chicken piccata
Tools For This Recipe
Large cast iron skillet
Easy Lemon Chicken Piccata: Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, a chicken cutlet is a chicken breast already cut in half horizontally!
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.
Long, thin pasta such as angel hair or spaghetti are both great options.
Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for 3-4 days, reheating over low heat until warmed through.
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.
Video
Notes
Did you make this recipe?
Tag @damn_delicious on Instagram and hashtag it #damndelicious!
Chicken piccata is just so gooooooood!!! Your version with cream looks extra amazing!
Thanks for the recipe, gonna try this
Another awesome recipe! Made this tonight for dinner and it was a huge hit.
Once again you hit us with a dish that is delicious,beautiful in appearance when serving, but most impressive was how easy it was to make this dish at home.
I have one happy husband thanks to you and your down to earth way of putting a meal together with no fear of how it’ll turn out.
Thank you for sharing all of the tips and tricks too!
I look forward to browsing your site each evening for ideas for the week.
Great job and great site 🙂
Chungah,
I was so excited to try this recipe. I ordered Chicken Piccata for a girls night dinner a few weeks ago and it was not good. I’ve been wanting a yummy Chicken Piccata ever since and saw your post on IG today. I knew I needed it for dinner tonight. I loved that it was so simple and easy to make. My husband and I loved it. He asked for it to be put in the rotation 🙂 Can’t wait for some leftovers tomorrow. Also, LOVE your PF Chang lettuce wrap recipe. I make it almost every week to for lunch or dinner.
LOVE all of your recipes!! And chicken picatta- Cant wait to try your version:) One question- in the past, when I add the heavy cream, it seems to almost curdle/separate in the sauce Is there something I am doing wrong to make it do this?? Thanks for your help!
Perhaps your heat source is set too high?
In my experiences, acid curdles dairy- i generally suggest reducing the acid source before introducing dairy. High heat also will have adverse effects on a cream sauce (when it has over-reduced), typically resulting in a “broken” cream sauce- where the butterfat separates from the main sauce. Broken sauces can sometimes be rescued by adding more cream, but are sometimes beyond saving. A curdled sauce will look like tiny white “specks” in the sauce whereas a broken sauce will appear as an oil slick/pools of oil (fat) separate from the main body of the sauce. I’m eager to try this method- as lemon, cream and chicken have a natural affinity. Thanks for the recipe.
Thank you for sharing yet another great recipe. We loved it !!
We love your recipes!!
Our 10 month old Golden Retriever will be having surgery next week on
her knees :(. Your dog recipes will be helping us through the recovery process!
I made this recipe last night. It was delicious and very easy. I do have one comment in that for my liking I thought half of the pasta would have been better. Love all your recipes!
Thank you for sharing your recipe! 🙂
This was delicious! I’d never used cream in mine, but it really made the dish…..that and the wine and the butter! Great dish…..and a 30 minute meal!
Totally just rewatched that episode. I’ll take it as a sign to make this dish this next week 😉
Can you please suggest a dry white wine? Could I use white wine vinegar (I think I have used it in a warm German potato salad I used to make)? I’m not sure if it work here though. Thnx
Sauvignon Blanc would be amazing here.
Yes. Chandler & Janice…. I still love that show so much. Such chemistry & timing between characters! Recipe sounds delish
This looks delicious, I love chicken piccata. When do you stir the chicken and/or pasta back in? Or do you put the sauce over both? Thanks.
You can actually just drizzle the sauce over the pasta and chicken as needed.
Thanks. Also, random question: what aisle of the grocery store do you usually find capers in? I’m going shopping after work today and will try to make this recipe tonight :).
It really depends on your specific grocery store.
Usually where the pickles and olives are.
Imported Italian food section with the little jars of red roasted peppers and marinated artichoke hearts.
I doubled the recipe last night, it really was extremely tart it seemed like the butter and chicken broth flavor was lost by doubling the lemon juice. I think the juice from two lemons is too vague. Perhaps I used large lemons. I also had trouble reducing that much liquid. Two pounds of angel hair was WAY too much for eight servings. I have tons left over. I’ll add shrimp in batches to the leftovers.
I slowly add lemon and taste as I go.
I love piccata and your presentation is gorgeous. Do you not pound the chicken breasts first before cooking? It looks like it, but there are no such directions. I had no idea there was that much heavy cream in the dish, or even any at all! No wonder it is so delicious!
You can choose to pound them out to your liking – it’s up to you! 🙂
Thank you so much for this easy to follow recipe, especially for someone like me who seldom do any cooking. I didn’t pound the chicken, it came out just as good. Hubby loved the pasta with the lemon piccata sauce. We are going to have this dish at least every other week. Thank you again, will be trying other wonderful dishes!
I love this dosh, esy and quick. I always pound my meat (lol) ive never used cream, so im looking forward to using your recipe. Thanks!
Thank you for the nice recipe
I just found dinner tonight! I have never used cream in mine before…just lots of butter. Can’t wait to try!
Exactly what I was thinking while I read the recipe! All a quiver to try this!
I made this dinner for friends. And they loved it. I put half & half cream instead of heavy cream. It was a little watery, so I added two tbsp of flour and the cream sauce turned out to be the right thickness.