Easy Lemon Chicken Piccata

Easy Lemon Chicken Piccata is one of our family’s go-to meals to beat the workday time crunch. Served with rice or pasta, it’s an incredibly flavourful meal in  under 30 minutes.

Lemon Chicken Piccata

This easy lemon chicken piccata recipe is a great example of the kind of recipes I know that people love to find on Rock Recipes. I recently wrote in my new cookbook that one thing I’ve learned from blogging over the past 7 years is that you can never post too many chicken recipes.

They are among the most popular recipes I have ever featured. Our most famous chicken recipe now has had over 2.5 MILLION views since it was posted and plenty of rave reviews too.

Lemons always give chicken a real flavour boost.

In particular, recipes that use boneless skinless chicken breasts always seem to be the most popular. That’s plain to see in the list of our Top Ten Chicken Breast Recipes. This recipe also comes under the banner of quick and easy too, so it certainly ticks all the boxes for a terrific weekday meal.

Deboned chicken breasts for Oven Fried Chicken Nuggets.

NOTE: I like to debone my own chicken breasts so that I can roast the bones and skins for stock later. I freeze them until I have enough to cover a baking sheet then use the instructions in my post on making Chicken Stock here.

 No wine needed for this Lemon Chicken Piccata

Although most chicken piccata recipes that I’ve seen use white wine in the pan sauce I usually do not. We don’t often have it on hand for one thing.

With lemon juice already included, I’ve found that even some versions that I’ve sampled in restaurants are a bit too acidic. You could easily substitute it for 1/2 of the chicken stock in this recipe though if you prefer.

I sometimes add chopped pitted Kalamata olives to this recipe at the last minute.

This recipe is most often served with rice or some sort of pasta at our house. We particularly like to serve this easy chicken piccata with Lemon Pasta Prima Vera or Spinach Orzo Prima Vera on the side for a very satisfying complete meal.

If you liked this Easy Lemon Chicken Piccata recipe you  might also like this 5 Ingredient Fettuccine Alfredo!

Originally published Dec. 2014

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Yield: 4 servings

Easy Lemon Chicken Piccata

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Easy Lemon Chicken Piccata is one of our family’s go-to meals to beat the workday time crunch. Served with rice or pasta, it’s an incredibly flavourful meal in under 30 minutes.

Print

Ingredients

• 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 1 cup flour, approximately, for dredging
• 1 1/2 tsp dry ground thyme
• salt and pepper to season
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 cloves finely minced garlic
• juice of 2 lemons
• 1 cup low sodium chicken stock
• zest of 1/2 lemon, finely minced
• 1 or 2 tsp honey
• pinch of salt and pepper
• 4 tbsp capers, optional
• a few tbsp of chopped Italian parsley

Instructions

1. Add the dry thyme to the flour and mix together well.
2. Pound the chicken breasts between two pieces of plastic wrap to about half their original thickness, or using a sharp knife, lay them flat on a cutting board and carefully cut them in half horizontally to create two thin chicken fillets.
3. Dredge the chicken pieces in the flour and thyme mixture. I like to press it on very firmly to get good contact.
4. Heat the olive oil and butter over medium heat in cast iron skillet or non stick pan.
5. When the pan is fully heated add the chicken pieces and cook for about 2 minutes per side or until lightly browned. You don't need a lot of color on the chicken at this point.
6. It is better to cook the chicken in two batches so as not to crowd the pan and risk drying out the chicken. Just hold the first batch in a warm oven while you cook the second.
7. Remove the chicken from the pan and quickly add the minced garlic.
8. Cook for only a minute before adding the chicken stock, lemon zest and juice,honey, pinch of salt and pepper and capers.
9. Stir in well before returning the chicken to the pan to coat it in the sauce and cook for just a couple of minutes more until the chicken is heated through.
10. Taste the sauce to see if it needs a final seasoning.
11. Serve immediately with a sprinkle of Italian parsley on top.

Nutrition Information

Yield

4

Serving Size

1 grams
Amount Per Serving Calories 491Total Fat 20gSaturated Fat 4gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 15gCholesterol 145mgSodium 593mgCarbohydrates 22gFiber 2gSugar 11gProtein 55g

The nutritional information provided is automatically calculated by third party software and is meant as a guideline only. Exact accuracy is not guaranteed. For recipes where all ingredients may not be used entirely, such as those with coatings on meats, or with sauces or dressings for example, calorie & nutritional values per serving will likely be somewhat lower than indicated.

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