The Best Chicken Piccata recipe is easy to make with thin chicken cutlets topped with a buttery, lemon garlic-wine sauce. It’s a favorite on an Italian restaurant dinner menu, and now you can make it at home!
Chicken Piccata is an amazing dinner recipe. It’s one of those things I make for dinner where I’m pretty sure everyone is going to be quite happy with what lands on the table. The flavor of the sauce with tangy lemon, butter and salty capers is so simple, but it works wonders when served with pan-fried chicken.
Ingredients needed:
- thin-sliced chicken cutlets
- all purpose flour
- canola or vegetable oil
- white wine
- garlic
- chicken broth
- lemon juice
- capers
- butter
How to make Chicken Piccata:
Season the chicken cutlets with salt and pepper, and then coat the chicken with flour. Add the chicken to oil in a hot skillet and brown both sides. Then remove the chicken from the pan and keep it warm on a foil-covered plate.
To make the sauce, add wine and garlic to the pan and simmer. Then add chicken broth, lemon juice and capers.
The chicken is then added back to the pan and cooked in the sauce until heated through. Then it can be moved to serving plates.
Finish off the sauce for this Chicken Piccata by adding butter and lemons to the sauce in the pan. Once the butter melts, the sauce is done and can be spooned over the chicken.
Be sure to spoon the lemons over the chicken too. You won’t eat them, but they will add an amazing amount of flavor to your meal.
You may end up with two pieces of chicken, as you see in the photos here. Or you may have several cutlets that are cut much thinner. This recipe serves two people, but you can certainly double the recipe to serve more!
The Best Chicken Piccata recipe is one that tastes like you would have it on a restaurant menu. This recipe is darn close. It’s so easy to make, and I think you’ll be impressed with the results.
Is there a substitute for wine when making Chicken Piccata?
If you don’t cook with wine, you can use chicken broth instead. So in this recipe, you’ll use 1/3 cup chicken broth in place of the 1/3 cup white wine. And then you’ll add another 1/2 cup of chicken broth later in the recipe.
Sprinkle individual servings with freshly chopped Italian parsley. That makes it pretty. Enjoy!
Here are a few more classic Italian recipes you might like to try:
- Chicken Marsala
- Rigatoni in Vodka Sauce
- Classic Light Lasagna
- Veal Piccata
- Pasta Primavera
- Spaghetti Carbonara
- Spaghetti and Meatballs
- Cacio e Pepe
Best Chicken Piccata
Ingredients
- 1 pound chicken cutlets
- kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1/2 cup all purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons vegetable or canola oil
- 1/3 cup dry white wine
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- 1/2 cup chicken broth
- 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons capers
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 medium lemon, sliced
- chopped fresh Italian parsley, for garnish (optional)
Instructions
- Season the chicken cutlets with salt and pepper, then coat them in flour. Coat a sauté pan with nonstick spray, add the oil, and heat over medium-high.
- Sauté the chicken cutlets 2 to 3 minutes on one side. Flip the chicken over and sauté the other side, covered for 1 to 2 minutes, until cooked through. Transfer the chicken to a warmed platter and cover with foil; pour off the fat from the pan.
- Add the wine to the hot pan and then and add the minced garlic. Cook until the garlic is slightly brown and the liquid is almost evaporated, about 2 minutes.
- Add the chicken broth, lemon juice, and capers. Return the chicken to the pan and cook on each side for 1 minute. Transfer the chicken to serving plates.
- Finish the sauce with butter and lemons. Once the butter melts, spoon the sauce over the chicken. Garnish with chopped fresh parsley and serve immediately.
Notes
- *My market sells chicken cutlets already sliced thinly (if you're not into cutting and pounding them yourself, you might look for those). If you have to buy thicker cutlets, cut them in half horizontally and pound them out to an even thickness.
- *I don't like to skimp on the oil on this one- you can certainly use less, but I think the chicken turns out to have a nicer crust and a better flavor when sautéed in a good amount of oil. You can always rid the pan of excess oil after sautéing- before you deglaze and make the sauce.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
This is an excellent recipe. The sauce is delicious and pairs so well with the chicken . Thank you Lori for another winner to be added to my dinner choices.