Chicken Piccata – A Beautiful Mess

This easy chicken piccata recipe is a great weeknight dinner option when you are looking to make something flavorful with chicken breasts. We eat chicken often at our house and I am always oscillating between different flavors and this hits the Italian/Mediterranean profiles for me. Chicken piccata is an Italian American dish made with butter, lemon and capers. I like to add cream to my sauce, as it makes it a bit more like Olive Garden. Lol.

Capers are packed in brine and usually found near the green olives in the grocery store. They taste similar to green olives, but with a slightly lemon/floral undertone. They are perfect for this traditional chicken piccata recipe, which I like to serve over pasta.

Related: Love Italian American food? Next up, try our Alfredo Sauce, Pomodoro Sauce or homemade Pizza Sauce.

Ingredients

• Chicken breast
• All-purpose flour
• Garlic powder
• Cayenne
• Salt
• Black pepper
• Butter
• Olive oil
• Chicken stock
• Lemons
• Capers
• Cream – half and half or heavy cream
• Parsley
• Parmesan cheese

I serve chicken piccata on fettuccine noodles usually, but any noodle (penne, ziti, spaghetti, or angel hair pasta) you prefer can work just fine. You could also serve this with gnocchi, mashed potatoes or rice if you wanted.

Directions

Cut the chicken breasts in half, lengthwise. Season all sides with a little salt and pepper. On a plate with a lip or a pie pan combine the flour, garlic powder and cayenne. Dredge the chicken pieces in the flour mixture, coating all sides.

If you are making pasta or rice with this recipe, go ahead and begin that preparation along with the chicken and sauce.

In a large skillet or sauce pan, heat one tablespoon of the butter and the olive oil over medium-high heat. Cook the chicken cutlets for 3-4 minutes on each side (6-8 minutes total). Use a meat thermometer to check that the interior has reached 160°F. If you don’t have a meat thermometer, cut one of the pieces open to check the chicken is fully cooked and no longer pink. Then remove the chicken to a plate, covering with aluminum foil to keep warm as you make the sauce.

In the same pan, melt the remainder of the butter. Add the fresh lemon juice, lemon zest and chicken broth. Whisk to combine and remove any brown bits from the pan. Stir in the capers and cream.

You can add the cooked chicken back into the pan and simmer for a few minutes, or you can pour the chicken piccata sauce over the chicken after plating with pasta (or whatever side you are serving this with). Either way! Top with fresh parsley and Parmesan cheese if using.

Tips and Notes

• If you can’t find capers, you could substitute sliced up green olives instead.
• You can substitute the chicken stock for dry white wine, like Chardonnay, if you like.
• My favorite way to plate this is to toss the pasta in the piccata sauce (using tongs), then I plate the pasta, slice the chicken and add it over the top. And lastly, I drizzle or spoon the remaining sauce from the pan over the chicken.
• If you have leftovers, the best storage IMO is to store the chicken and sauce separately in airtight containers in the fridge and then rewarm each before combining. Otherwise, I think the chicken gets kind of soggy.

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