CHICKEN PICCATA WITH CAPERS

Chicken Piccata is a quick, easy yet very special Italian dish. Tender, boneless chicken in buttery-caper sauce. Ready in less than 30 minutes.

Chicken Piccata

There isn’t anything I enjoy more than being able to cook and serve a 5 star restaurant worthy meal that my family and friends can enjoy – without having to spend every last penny in order to do so.  That’s one of the reasons why I adore my chicken piccata recipe – it’s simple, delicious and so easy to make – and just about everyone who tastes it thinks I picked it up from our favorite local Italian joint on my way home from work.

Chicken piccata is an old world Italian classic.  Once you taste and prepare it, you’ll never be able to live without it.  Made with chicken, butter and capers, my chicken piccata recipe is a favorite in my home, and an easy go-to-meal for any day of the week.  With a preparation time of less than 20 minutes, and cooking for roughly the same amount of time, dinner served (!) will take on a whole new meaning once this gorgeous dish is put on the table.

What is Chicken Piccata?

Piccata, from the Italian for “larded,” is a term used to describe the method in which the dish is prepared – sliced, sautéed and served in a lemon and butter sauce with spices.  The traditional Italian dish is most commonly made with veal, with chicken being a more popular substitute in the United States.  There are also seafood and meatless versions of piccata served around the world.

Chicken Piccata Ingredients

There are just a handful of ingredients that go into making any chicken piccata: sliced and battered chicken breasts, butter, white wine, and capers.  The sauce is made by scraping up the bits from the pan with lemon juice and white wine added and reduced.  I like to keep my meals as easy and affordable as possible, so my recipe for chicken piccata doesn’t always include white wine.  Feel free to substitute it for chicken broth instead.

How to make Chicken Piccata

When preparing  this dish, you’ll need two types of kitchen utensils: a sharp edged cutting knife and a meat tenderizer.  More than likely you already have a trusty knife in your kitchen drawer.  If you don’t already have a tenderizer, no need to go out of your way to buy one.  Using any kitchen appliance that is large enough and has a flat bottom will do just fine.

 First, make sure to choose skinless and boneless chicken breasts.  Then, you’ll need to slice the chicken along it’s width (a chicken breast that is sliced in this manner is called butterflied).  Then, you’ll flatten the chicken breast.  Place the chicken in between two pieces of wax paper or plastic wrap and beat the chicken until it’s flattened.

Before we go any further: you may end up with skinless and boneless breasts that don’t require a generous pounding: they are already thin enough to cook evenly and nicely in the saute pan.  In that case, you may not need to go full throttle with your tenderizer.  But, you do want chicken breasts that are thinned, but not too much that there isn’t anything left to cook!

Now, back to it.  Once you’ve gotten the chicken to the desired thickness, don’t forget to generously season the chicken with salt and pepper.  Lastly, dredge it in flour before it enters the frying pan, making sure to dust off any excess flour as you go along.

Chicken Piccata Sauce

As I mentioned earlier, the sauce is made using drippings from the frying pan – where all the heavenly flavor for this dish comes from.  It consists, simply, of butter and oil, which the chicken is browned in.  Use lemon juice and white wine (or chicken broth) to scrape the pan bits and let it reduce.

Chicken piccata wouldn’t really be chicken piccata without the addition of capers.  These edible flower buds come from the plant Capparis spinosa (the caper bush in Latin) or, in English, called Flinders rose.  Capers are a popular Mediterranean seasoning and garnish.  And, the fruit or buds, are usually eaten pickled.  You can find capers in almost any food market.

I add capers with the lemon juice and white wine while making the sauce in the pan.  Depending on your tolerance for salty and a pickled flavor that brined capers bring, you might want to consider draining and rinsing them before adding them to the pan.  You can also add sliced shallots and garlic if you want to add any other additional flavors to your sauce.

EASY CHICKEN PICCATA

Chicken piccata can pretty much be described with two words: simple and classy.  This dish literally proves that elegant, delicious food does not have to be fussy or take hours to make.  Also, most of the ingredients you need for making  piccata you probably already have stored away in your food pantry.  Nothing could be simpler than arranging a beautiful dinner with ingredients you already have at home, so always try and consider keeping frozen chicken, butter, lemons, capers, and white wine (or chicken broth) close at hand.

How to serve chicken piccata?

Chicken piccata can be served with fresh linguine, well with homemade pasta, cacio e pepper, mashed cauliflower or mashed potatoes.  Or, just serve as is, with some chopped parsley sprinkled on top.  You won’t be disappointed with the perfect combination of briny, tangy, buttery, and refreshing.   As the saying goes in Italian: Tutti a tavola a mangiare!

Be sure to try other Piccata recipes:

EASY CHICKEN PICCATA

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