This easy chicken piccata recipe is a bright, savory dish with a touch of elegance!
This is a fast skillet meal that looks and tastes fancy! Tender chicken breasts are cooked in a buttery lemon-caper sauce.
This dish is easy enough for every day, yet elegant enough to serve to guests.
Chicken Piccata Is Easy to Make!
This chicken piccata recipe is delightfully zesty and full of flavor! Pan-fried chicken breasts are simmered in a buttery lemon, wine, and capers sauce. It’s an easy-to-make dish that adds a touch of luxury to everyday cooking.
In addition to favorites like Carbonara and Alfredo, Italy has some beautiful savory and lemony sauce dishes, like piccata. In North America, we more often see chicken piccata although in Italy this dish is more frequently made with veal.
Ingredients in Chicken Piccata
Chicken: Use boneless, skinless chicken breasts or ½-inch thick chicken cutlets. If you’re using full chicken breasts, flatten them to ½ inch thick with a meat mallet.
Chicken Piccata Sauce – A fresh lemon is needed for the best flavor. For the wine, choose a dry white variety that you’d enjoy drinking; cooking wines aren’t recommended.
Extra Flavor: Capers add a pop of salty flavor and a liittle texture. If capers aren’t to your liking, feel free to substitute or add chopped olives, sun-dried tomatoes, or sautéed mushrooms.
How to Make Chicken Piccata
The chicken will come out tender and delicious when you follow these steps.
- Dredge the pounded chicken breasts in flour and lemon zest mixture, lightly brown both sides, and set aside.
- In the same pan, add chicken broth, butter wine, lemon juice, and capers and cook until slightly thickened.
- Add the chicken back to the pan to finish cooking (as per the recipe below).
While it’s not traditional, a little heavy cream can be added at the end of cooking.
What to Serve with Chicken Piccata?
- Serve with rice or pasta, and one of these fabulous side dishes, below.
- Feeling ambitious? Elevate your dinner with tender, fluffy homemade egg noodles.
- For a welcome contrast to the savory richness of chicken piccata, try low-carb and low-cal sauteed zucchini, parmesan roasted brussels sprouts, tender, and tasty roasted broccolini, or green beans almondine.
More Chicken Skillet Recipes
These chicken recipes all skillet favorites!
Did you love this Chicken Piccata Recipe? Be sure to leave a comment and a rating below!
Chicken Piccata Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
- 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts pounded to about ½ inch thick or cut in half crosswise
- ½ cup all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
- 2 tablespoons olive oil more as needed
- salt & pepper to taste
Sauce
- ¼ cup salted butter
- 1 ½ tablespoons all purpose flour
- 1 cup chicken broth
- ½ lemon juiced (about 1 ½ tablespoons)
- ½ cup white wine or chicken broth
- 3 tablespoons capers drained
- 2 tablespoons fresh parsley chopped
Instructions
- Combine the all purpose flour, lemon zest, salt, and pepper in a shallow bowl. Dredge each chicken breast in the flour mixture, shaking off any excess.
- In a 10-inch skillet, heat olive oil over medium high heat. Cook the chicken in two batches for 4 to 5 minutes per side, or until just cooked through. Cook in batches to avoid overcrowding the skillet. Remove from pan and place in a dish to keep warm.
- Using the same skillet, melt the butter. Whisk in the flour until smooth and let cook for 1-2 minutes.
- Gradually add the chicken broth, whisking until smooth after each addition.
- Add lemon juice, white wine and capers. Simmer for 3 minutes, whisking occasionally.
- Add the chicken back into the skillet, letting it simmer in the sauce for 2-3 minutes or until heated through. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Stir in the chopped parsley and serve.
Notes
- Use fresh lemon juice for the best flavor.
- Chicken piccata pairs well with long pasta like linguini or angel hair pasta, but can also be served with mashed potatoes or rice pilaf.
- Fresh minced garlic can be added to the butter in the skillet if desired.
- Veal works wonderfully in this recipe.
- Serve with roasted asparagus, steamed broccoli, or roasted cauliflower.
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Chicken, Dinner, Entree, Main Course
Cuisine American, Italian, Mediterranean© SpendWithPennies.com. Content and photographs are copyright protected. Sharing of this recipe is both encouraged and appreciated. Copying and/or pasting full recipes to any social media is strictly prohibited. Please view my photo use policy here.
Very tasty and I should have used flour not panko. And I added too much flour to the gravy and little green things were a bit old. Not your fault! I will do it right next time. Fresh capers!
This recipe is phenomenal! My husband who is very aware of the Italian cuisine noted that this was the best chicken piccata he has ever had. Light with a very balance flavor …. definitely a keeper and a 5 star rating! Thank You
What type of white wine do you recommend to use? Going to make this for the first time.
Thank you!
For the wine, choose a dry white variety that you’d enjoy drinking; cooking wines aren’t recommended.
This was super easy and really delicious! I had a lot of sauce so I added pasta to it and served it with steamed broccoli. Thank you!
wow! best chicken piccata I have ever made, hands down. rivals any restaurant I’ve had it at. definitely going to be on our regular rotation. Thank you!
This was so wonderful. My wife loves Piccata so I promised I’d make some for her. I made it for my daughter her fiancé and my wife and they absolutely adored me for it! Thank you for this wonderful recipe!
Made this tonight for the second time. I used chicken breasts that I had brined in buttermilk and salt and frozen. Defrosted then made this with them. Followed the recipe exactly. My partner said it was the best chicken he’s ever eaten. Definitely a hit!!
This recipe is a staple in my home. It is delicious each and every time. While it’s the main recipe I use, it’s not the only one. Whenever I want to make something I check ‘Spend with Pennies’ first.
it would be nice to know the measurements of the ingredients for this recipe
Hi Pam, all measurements can be found in the recipe towards the bottom of the page. Or you can access the recipe by using the jump to recipe button at the top. Hope that helps!
This is one of my go to recipes and what a crowd pleaser!! I am catering it for a party and was wondering how you recommend to do that? (Make it night before or reheating options?)
You could prepare up to step 5 and then add the chicken to the sauce to reheat before serving.
Always a hit at all my parties!
I made this easy, quick recipe tonight. I
served the chicken and sauce over ribbon pasta with sautéed spinach. My husband loved it and I did, too. Great recipe!
Enjoyed this recipe very much. I didn’t have whole chicken breast on hand, rather I had a package of chicken tenders in the refrigerator.
I guessed that I had something equivalent to “4 chicken breasts”, and it seemed that I did!
To eliminate guess work, would you give us about the weight of meat you built this recipe on? Thank you so much. Ruth
I use approximately 1.5 pounds of chicken breasts.
I am so glad you enjoyed this recipe Ruth!
This is an amazing recipe! After browning chicken in the pan, I transferred chicken to the oven to finish cooking for 20 min while I made the sauce. I added lemon zest to the sauce as well for extra lemony flavor. Served in a bowl of uncooked baby spinach on the bottom, topped with angel hair. Placed the crispy cooked chicken on top of it all and poured the sauce over all of it! So delish-restaurant quality!! ♥️
made this for dinner tonight with lemon fettuccine and roasted asparagus, it was delicious! this will definitely be part of our rotation of recipes!
Holly,
Every dish (recipe) I make of yours is outstanding. I love to cook and have many of my own recipes, but, I just love all of yours that I have tried. Believe me, there have been plenty. About 14
recipes have caught my eye. Kudos Holly, great job on all. Continue to shine.
Thank you so much for the kind words Patricia, you just made my day! I am so glad you are enjoying the recipes.
Had ours over egg noodles, very good.. loved the lemon flavor and capers! when I make again, 1.5-2 lb chicken would be enough for us.. make sure to slice or pound thin! (Maybe 1/2″)