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This bright and tangy chicken piccata brings golden cutlets and a million dollar sauce to your plate with no fuss at all. The best part? It only takes 30-minutes so it’s weeknight friendly! Your family will totally think you’ve outdone yourself with this one.
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With its tart lemon-y flavors and velvety smooth sauce, Chicken piccata is a work of culinary genius in my books—and your family or friends will be left impressed, mark my words. It’s elegant but approachable, and it’s ready in just 30 minutes.
Looking for more easy chicken recipes? If you have an air fryer, I highly recommend these golden crispy air fryer chicken cutlets. Or if you want a cozy chicken dish, chicken paprikash never disappoints. For a nice change, you can get adventurous and serve this creamy spinach artichoke chicken skillet!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- It’s super flavorful—Lemon and capers work beautifully together, and they’re really tangy! Which is why we need the butter, wine, and chicken stock. They smooth things out and create a perfectly balanced sauce.
- It’s easy—Despite the beautiful flavor, texture, and presentation, bringing this dish together is incredibly simple.
Chicken Piccata Ingredients
A full ingredient list with exact measurements can be found in the recipe card below.
- Chicken—Chicken cutlets are used in this recipe. You can either buy your chicken already prepared as cutlets or you can make your own cutlets with chicken breasts. If you need help with this, check out my post on how to make chicken cutlets out of chicken breasts.
Recipe Variations & Modifications
- Wine—If you prefer to cook without alcohol, you can simply replace the wine with chicken stock.
- Better Than Bouillon—This is optional, but I like to add a tsp of Better Than Bouillon Chicken base to my sauce for some extra oumph. It’s a total flavor enhancer. This is a trick I use in my chicken marsala!
How to Make Chicken Piccata
This is a quick rundown. Full instructions can be found in the recipe card.
Step 1. Season the chicken cutlets with salt and pepper. If you have chicken breasts, check out my tutorial on how to make chicken cutlets from chicken breasts. It’s quick and easy!
Step 2. Mix the flour, garlic powder, onion powder, and cheese in a shallow dish. Dredge the chicken cutlets in the flour mixture, then place them onto a plate and set aside.
Step 3. Melt half of the butter in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add the olive oil. Once sizzling, transfer two chicken cutlets to the skillet. (You’ll be cooking in batches.) Cook them for 3 minutes, then flip them over and cook for another 3 minutes. Both sides should be nice and golden brown. Transfer the cutlets to a paper towel-lined plate and add the rest of the butter and olive oil to the pan. Repeat with the two other chicken cutlets.
Step 4. For the sauce, we don’t need high-heat, so reduce the heat to medium-low. Add the white wine to the pan and deglaze it. Add the finely minced garlic and sauté for about 30 seconds, stirring. In a small bowl, whisk together the chicken broth, lemon juice, and flour. Add it to the pan along with the capers. Bring everything to a low simmer and let the mixture thicken. Stir in the lemon zest and (optional) lemon slices; transfer the chicken cutlets back to the pan and let everything simmer on low for 3-5 minutes, spooning the sauce over the chicken.
Step 5. Transfer the chicken cutlets to a serving platter. Spoon extra sauce over the chicken, then top with the softened lemon slices and garnish with fresh chopped parsley.
How to Serve Chicken Piccata
I love serving my chicken piccata over plain long noodles. Though if you want to jazz things up, it would be great served over spaghetti aglio e olio. It also goes great with simple oven roasted mini potatoes, creamy mashed potatoes, grilled asparagus, or these air fryer green beans.
Storage & Reheating
- Chicken piccata can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days.
- To reheat, you can transfer it to a microwave-safe plate and reheat in 35-second increments until warmed through. Or, you could heat it in a saucepan on the stove over low heat until warmed through.
Frequently Asked Questions
Chicken piccata is made with lemon, capers, and white wine. It comes with a light golden sauce and the flavors are bright and tangy. Chicken Marsala is served with a mushroom sauce made with marsala wine, and it has a deeper, richer flavor with a dark brown sauce.
These two dishes have very similar flavor profiles. However, with chicken francese, the cutlets are dipped into flour and egg before hitting the pan—and the sauce only includes lemons. With chicken piccata, cutlets are only dipped in flour, no egg, and the lemon sauce includes capers. Both are delicious!
I always opt for a Sauvignon Blanc because it’s light and carries out bright citrus notes. This works well with the lemon in the piccata sauce. However, you could totally get away with using a chardonnay or pinot grigio. I say, use whatever wine you’re serving with the dish!
More Weeknight-Friendly Chicken Recipes…
If you try this easy chicken piccata, please pop back in and leave a 🌟 star rating and let us know how it went in the 📝 comments below.
Easy Chicken Piccata
Ingredients
- 2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts or 4 chicken cutlets
- Sea salt and cracked black pepper
- 1 cup all purpose flour, + 1 TBSP
- 2 tsp freshly grated Pecorino Romano or Parmesan
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter
- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1/2 cup white wine, like sauvignon blanc or pinot grigio
- 1/2 cup chicken stock
- 2 garlic cloves, smashed and minced
- 1 tsp Better Than Bouillon chicken base, *See notes
- 1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (approx. 2 medium lemons)
- 1 tsp lemon zest
- 1 lemon, thinly sliced (optional)
- 3 TBSP capers, drained
- Chopped fresh parsley
Instructions
To prepare the chicken:
- In a shallow dish, mix together the flour, garlic powder, onion powder, and cheese; set aside.
- With a sharp knife, butterfly the chicken breasts by slicing them in half lengthwise, and then place them into a large freezer bag two at a time. Pound them down to about 1/4-inch thick with a meat mallet. Remove them from the freezer bag and repeat with the other chicken breasts. (If you're using thin chicken cutlets, skip this step.) Season the cutlets with salt and pepper.
- One by one, dredge the chicken cutlets in the flour mixture, and then place them onto a plate.
To cook the chicken:
- Heat a skillet over medium-high heat, melting half of the butter into it. Once the butter is mostly melted, add the olive oil.
- Once the butter and oil are lightly sizzling, bring two chicken cutlets to the skillet and cook them for 3 minutes. Flip them over and cook for another 3 minutes. Both sides should be nice and golden brown.
- When done, transfer the cutlets to a paper towel-lined plate and add the rest of the butter and olive oil to the pan. Repeat with the two other chicken cutlets and move them to the paper towels when done.
To make the sauce:
- Pour the white wine into the pan and deglaze it by scraping up all of the brown bits in the pan with a spatula or large spoon. This will give you TONS of flavor!
- Add the garlic and let it simmer for about 30 seconds, stirring.
- Whisk together the chicken stock, lemon juice, and flour together in a small bowl or cup, making sure that the flour completely dissolves. Add it to the pan, and then add the capers; simmer and let the mixture thicken.
- Stir in the lemon zest and (optional) lemon slices; bring the chicken cutlets back to the pan and simmer on low for 3-5 minutes. Spoon the sauce over the chicken.
- Transfer the chicken cutlets to a serving platter and spoon some extra sauce over the chicken. Top with the softened lemon slices and garnish with fresh chopped parsley.
My husbands favorite! Delicious seasoning and reheats well. Such a nice blend of chicken, sauce and acidity. Seriously my favorite recipe!
Thanks so much for the feedback, Lizzy! This is such a great way to enjoy chicken. So happy you found my recipe!
Our go to favorite chicken recipe!!!
At least 3x a month hubby (italian)
I insists
Thank you so much for the awesome feedback and review! I’m so glad you guys enjoy this one. It’s a favorite here also—Italian hubby and all!
What a delicious chicken recipe! The lemon flavor and slight saltiness of the capers complement each other nicely.
This seemed like a lot of ingredients and a bit intimidating but it was so easy and SO good!! Like amazingly good. Thanks for the awesome recipe!
You’re welcome, Penny! So glad you went for it ;)
I really enjoyed this – the lemon added such a nice flavor profile!
It’s definitely a must in piccata!
Your recipe truly inspired me. I appreciate the creativity you bring into the table. Thank you for sharing your quick recipe that have saved me much time.
Thanks, Alison! That’s really sweet of you!
This fabulous, quick and easy chicken piccata is a perfect meal for my family.
Great!
I’m so excited to try this recipe, it looks so yummy! Making my shopping list and on my way to the store!
Keep me posted!