Skip to Content

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 shown on white serving platter

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.

Lemon cut in half on a wooden board

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 Chicken Parmesan Lasagna.

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.

Kalamata Olives in a white bowl.

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!

Fettuccine Alfredo image with title text

Originally published Dec. 2014

Like this Easy Lemon Chicken Piccata recipe?

For hundreds more fantastic chicken meal ideas be sure to follow: Our Best Chicken Recipes Board on Pinterest or check out the recipes in our Chicken Category.

It’s easy to keep up with the latest home style cooking & baking ideas from Rock Recipes. Be sure to follow Rock Recipes Facebook Page and follow us on Instagram

Plus you’ll see daily recipe suggestions from decadent desserts to quick delicious weekday meals too. 

Easy Lemon Chicken Piccata image with title text overlay

You can also sign up for our FREE newsletter to know immediately when we add new recipes. You’ll also get weekly suggestions for great family friendly  meals and desserts too!


Rock Recipes a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. Our product recommendations are almost exclusively for those we currently use or have used in the past.

 

Lemon Chicken Piccata shown on white serving platter
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.

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.

Did you like this recipe?

Do you love our "Real food recipes for real people'? Share the recipe on Facebook to let your friends know about us. They'll thank you for it.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Janet

Monday 2nd of May 2022

We had two sets of neighbours for dinner on Friday evening and we made this recipe and it turned out perfect! I got compliments from everyone and one guest said it was even better than the chicken picatta he recently had at a restaurant! Definitely making this again.

Bayan

Tuesday 2nd of January 2018

can you use meat instead of chicken ! and what kind of meat, please

Barry C. Parsons

Tuesday 13th of March 2018

thinly sliced pork or veal would be good.

Anna Gillis

Wednesday 1st of February 2017

Would like to belong to your FB page

Barry C. Parsons

Saturday 4th of February 2017

You can follow the our Facebook page here.

Gail

Tuesday 16th of February 2016

Great recipe, fast to prepare and I love the lemon sauce.

Gerry caudle

Thursday 5th of February 2015

Hi, We made this tonight and wonder if you are supposed to reduce the sauce before adding the chicken back into the sauce to rewarm?

Barry C. Parsons

Saturday 7th of February 2015

Kind of depends how thick you want the sauce. Generally the coating on the chicken helps to thicken the sauce.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Skip to Recipe

Sharing is Caring

Help spread the word. You're awesome for doing it!