Chicken Piccata with Lemon Sauce: 7 Easy Steps

Chicken is an easy food to prepare, but it depends on your skills to give it an exceptional taste. You don’t need overly complex preparation to cook fantastic chicken. Chicken piccata is an example of how you can make chicken taste great with simple preparation.

In this article, we will make it even easier for you with a step-by-step chicken piccata recipe.

What is chicken piccata?

Piccata is an Italian word that means spicy. Chicken piccata is a type of chicken preparation from Italian cuisine. It uses a relatively simple and inexpensive type of meal like chicken and a type of sauce based on lemon. Similar preparation can be made with fish, and there’s also a vegetarian piccata recipe with tofu.

All have a type of lemon-based sauce in common, and you will also learn how to prepare it in this article.

So, do you want to prepare a chicken piccata? Here’s an easy recipe you can try today!

Chicken piccata by Giada

This recipe is inspired by the famous chicken piccata step-by-step instructions by Giada de Laurentiis. The ingredients are quite the same:

We recommend chicken breasts for this recipe. It is better for the taste and easier to prepare than chicken wings. You will need 1 lemon and ¼ cup of capers for each pair of chicken breasts. You can use any vegetable oil, though Giada Laurentiis recommends olive oil, and that’s a smart choice if you have it. Keep in hand your butter, flour, salt, pepper, and parmesan cheese. We also recommend white wine to give it an exceptional taste.

Once you have your ingredients, follow along with this easy step-by-step chicken piccata recipe:

Step 1: Start by cutting the chicken into fillets

Use a meat knife for this and cut them in medium fillets thickness. You need not season the chicken during this step.

Step 2: Cover your chicken fillets with kitchen paper and flatten each one against the kitchen table

You can use a rolling pin or a steak hammer for this. What you want here is to make your fillets more compact without turning them flat.

Step 3: Now, prepare the breaded cover by adding the flour and salt, pepper, and parmesan cheese

You may find only flour, salt, and pepper in some chicken piccata recipes, and that’s fine. But our experience dictates that parmesan cheese gives this a distinctive flavor that makes this recipe special.

Step 4: Mix well until it is completely uniform

When you do, the result will be almost the same as white flour with black dots here and there. That’s how it should look like.

Step 5: Add the chicken fillets to the preparation and cover them thoroughly

Do it two or three times for each chicken fillet. Press the fillets against the breaded cover to make sure that they are covered.

Step 6: Prepare the pan with oil and 2 tablespoons of butter

You can use two tablespoons of vegetable oil or olive oil. We would recommend olive oil if you have it, but this is not mandatory.

Step 7: Fry the chicken fillets until they golden on both sides

Brown them, and that’s it. You need not overcook them because that would dry them up from the inside.

Sauce for chicken piccata

After you’re finished preparing the chicken, you may realize there’s no lemon in the preparation just yet. What gives a chicken piccata its lemon taste? The sauce. Here’s a short step-by-step to prepare its sauce.

Prepare the sauce after you’re done with the chicken.

1. Take the same pan where the chicken was prepared and add two additional tablespoons of butter. By using the same pan, you will get the taste of chicken and the breaded cover seasoning. This gives extra flavor to the sauce in your chicken piccata.
2. Add the wine to the mix and stir until uniform. You may not find wine in other recipes of chicken piccata. But instead of using more oil, we’re giving more volume and a fantastic taste to the lemon sauce with wine. Just make sure that it is white and not red wine.
3. Add the juice of one lemon to the uniform mix. This step is fundamental for the lemon taste of the sauce.
4. Immediately after, add 1 tablespoon of lemon zest. This step will add to the lemon taste of the sauce. It also gives more thickness to the sauce and a tart flavor.
5. Add the capers and stir. Their salty taste also adds to the flavor of the lemon sauce. It won’t taste the same without capers.
6. Low the heat to the minimum and let it boil on low heat for 5 minutes. Letting it boil with the ingredients will mix them up and give it more thickness.

What to serve chicken piccata with

Once you’re done frying the chicken and preparing the sauce, it is time to serve the sauce on top of the chicken. Spread it uniformly and garnish the plate with lemon wedges. You can add more sauce according to your taste. There you go; it will be ready for you and your guests to enjoy.

Now, what can you serve along with chicken piccata?

In Italia, every type of piccata (chicken piccata, fish, or tofu) can be accompanied by a source of carbohydrates, especially rice or pasta. You can also accompany chicken piccata with polenta, a type of exceedingly popular cornmeal porridge in Northern Italy.

Since you have many choices for your chicken piccata, we have prepared a table to help you decide which one is the best for you:

Accompanying dishes	Advantages	Disadvantages
Pasta	Inexpensive Easy and fast	Requires additional sauce preparation
Rice	Inexpensive and easy to obtain Diverse types of rice available	Rice preparation can be tricky for inexperienced cooks
Roasted veggies	An excellent source of complex carbs and fiber Easy to prepare and heart-healthy	It may not be the best choice for picky guests who do not like veggies
Smashed potatoes	Easy to prepare and inexpensive Different potatoes to try You have instant mashed potatoes for a faster preparation	Too simple for a full meal and may need to be accompanied by a cup of salad
Dinner rolls	Easy to get and requires no preparation Different buns to choose from	You will depend on the skill of the baker and not on your cooking skill
Polenta	A healthy source of fiber and protein It does not require a very complex preparation	Not a typical food in many countries
Wine	Easy and instantly available Appropriate for a romantic dinner	Too simple if you're considering chicken piccata as a full meal

Chicken piccata recipes with pasta

Chicken piccata is an Italian recipe, so it won’t be hard to guess that pasta is one of the top choices.

Now, what chicken piccata recipes are with pasta?

• Chicken piccata with buttered noodles: You already have some butter on chicken piccata. But you can also prepare egg noodles and prepare them with a butter preparation. Just add some butter, parsley, pepper, and garnish to the dish, and you’re done.
• Chicken piccata with angel hair pasta: You can use the same chicken sauce with angel hair pasta. This time, you only need to serve angel hair pasta and your chicken piccata on top, and it will be ready to enjoy.
• Chicken piccata with red spaghetti pasta: If you have some time for preparation, you can also cook tomato sauce and serve your chicken piccata with a traditional pasta preparation.