Chicken Piccata
on Nov 25, 2019, Updated May 07, 2025
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In its lemony light sauce, chicken piccata is seriously one of the best chicken breast dinners in the world. Easy, pretty, and weeknight-friendly.
Lemony chicken piccata is absolutely one of my go-to dishes for both entertaining and family dinners. It’s fast, a crowd-pleaser, and absolutely bursting with flavor, thanks to a simple pan sauce made with shallots or onions, lemon, butter, capers, white wine, and broth.
This is a great dish to make if you are having a family with kids over and you don’t know how finicky or open the kids’ palates are. It’s a Mom 100 Cookbook favorite recipe for me and many others.
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Serve this with rice, mashed potatoes, or any starch you love. Spinach Parsley Pesto Garlic Bread would be spectacular on the side.
Table of Contents
In its lemony light sauce, chicken piccata is seriously one of the best chicken breast dinners in the world. Easy, pretty, and weeknight-friendly.
What Is Chicken Piccata?
Chicken piccata, or piccata di pollo, is an Italian dish in which chicken cutlets are dredged in seasoned flour, then sautéed in butter or oil, and finished in a pan sauce with broth, lemon juice, and butter spiked with salty capers. In Italy, veal is more commonly the star of this dish than chicken (that is called veal piccata, obviously), but in the U.S., chicken reigns supreme.
Coating the chicken with a dusting of flour gives them a beautiful golden brown color when are sautéed in the skillet. The seasoned flour enhances browning, which elevates the flavor, and also helps to thicken the pan sauce.
Chicken Piccata is similar to the French dish Chicken Francese.
Ingredients
- All-purpose flour – This creates a nice breading for the chicken, and the residue in the pan after cooking will thicken the sauce.
- Boneless skinless chicken cutlets – You can either pound the hell of out some chicken breasts or slice thicker chicken breasts horizontally. OR, simply buy thinly sliced chicken cutlets and save yourself the work.
- Olive oil – For cooking.
- Shallots or onions – For a sweet depth of flavor.
- Garlic – Minced so that it appears in every bite.
- Dry white wine – Optional, but it really elevates the flavors.
- Chicken broth – For a richer sauce.
- Fresh lemon juice – Please use fresh!
- Unsalted butter – For richness in the sauce.
- Capers – For the beautiful saltiness and texture; read more about capers below.
- Fresh parsley – To serve.
How to Make Chicken Piccata
- Prepare the chicken: Mix together flour, salt, and pepper, and coat the chicken breasts in the flour mixture, tapping off any excess flour.
- Cook the chicken: In a large skillet with hot olive oil, cook the chicken over medium-high heat. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes on each side, until golden brown and almost cooked through, then move to a plate.
- Sauté the aromatics: Don’t clean the pan! Add the shallots and garlic and sauté until translucent and tender, about 2 minutes.
- Finish making the sauce: Add the wine and stir to scrape up any browned bits on the bottom (you’re deglazing the pan, look at you!). Add the chicken broth and cook; it will begin to thicken. Then, add the slightly undercooked chicken to the pan and let them simmer for 2-3 minutes.
- Finish and serve: Remove the chicken to a serving platter. Add the lemon juice, butter, and capers to the sauce and stir, season with salt and pepper, and pour the sauce over the chicken. Sprinkle parsley on top and serve.
Variations
You can make chicken piccata with regular skinless boneless chicken breasts without pounding them thin. Just sauté regular thicker breasts for about 5 minutes on each side, until the chicken is almost cooked through, and make sure they finish cooking all the way through in the sauce.
Capers in Chicken Piccata
I adore capers. Love them. Capers are pickled flower buds, often grown and packaged in Italy, though also available from other areas of the Mediterranean, Australia, or Asia. They may be packed in salt or bottled with a brine. They are a magical little ingredient to keep in the door of the fridge, adding briny-ness and salinity to all kinds of dishes.
My family is ambivalent. Let’s actually be clearer than that. For the most part, they like them, but they don’t like to see them or know that they are there.
If you think your kid (or partner) MIGHT like the sauce but might be thrown off by the capers, leave them whole. You can pretty easily pluck out whole capers, but once they are chopped up into the sauce, they are quite hard to retrieve.
Storage
Store leftover Chicken Piccata in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week. Reheat in the microwave, in a 300-degree oven, or in a pan over medium-low heat just until heated through.
What to Serve With Chicken Piccata
More Chicken Skillet Pan Sauce Meals
- How to Make a Pan Sauce
- Chicken with White Win e, Leek, Spinach, and Arugula Pan Sauce
- Chicken with Arugula and Mustard Pan Sauce
- Chicken with Tomato and Leek Pan Sauce with Jasmine Rice
Also see: How to Safely Thaw Frozen Chicken
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Chicken Piccata
Ingredients
- ⅔ cup all-purpose flour
- Kosher salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 6 boneless skinless chicken breasts (pounded thin and cut into two pieces OR sliced horizontally in half)
- 2 to 3 tablespoons olive oil (divided)
- 3 tablespoons minced shallots or minced onions
- ½ teaspoon minced garlic
- ½ cup dry white wine (optional)
- 1 ½ cups chicken broth
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 2 teaspoons unsalted butter
- 1 tablespoon rinsed chopped capers (or leave them whole if you prefer)
- Minced fresh parsley (to serve)
- Cooked rice (white or brown to serve, or small cooked pasta shapes, or potatoes of any kind)
Instructions
- In a wide shallow bowl, mix together the flour, 1 1/2teaspoons salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Dredge (coat) the chicken breasts in the flour.
- Heat a very large skillet over medium-high heat, and add 1 tablespoon of the olive oil. When it’s hot, place 2 or 3 of the chicken breasts, whatever will fit comfortably in a single layer in the pan, and cook for 2 to 3 minutes on each side, until golden brown. Transfer to a plate, and repeat with another tablespoon of oil, and 2 or 3 more breasts, until all of the chicken is almost cooked (it will be slightly pink inside). If you are planning to serve some of the chicken without any sauce, cook for 4 minutes on each side, making sure the chicken is cooked through, and set those breasts aside on a different plate.
- Don’t clean the pan! Add the shallots and garlic and sauté until translucent and tender, about 2 minutes. Add the wine, if using, and stir to scrape up any browned bits on the bottom (you’re deglazing the pan, look at you!). Add the chicken broth and cook for 2 more minutes until it reduces slightly and begins to thicken from the leftover flour in the pan. Add the slightly undercooked chicken (any pieces that are going to be finished in the sauce) to the pan and let them simmer for 2-3 minutes.
- Remove the chicken to a serving platter. Add the lemon juice, butter and capers to the sauce and stir until the butter is melted. Taste the sauce and season with salt and pepper. Pour the sauce over the chicken, and sprinkle it with parsley, if desired. Serve with the starch of your choice.
…Here we go again, with yet another amazingly written, perfectly delicious recipe! :-)
We loved everything about this Chicken Piccata. I especially loved chopping the capers. It gave it more of a “pop” than leaving them whole, in my opinion. (I love capers!)
Thank you for this recipe. It is fabulous!
thank you!!