Chicken Piccata
Course: MainCuisine: AmericanDifficulty: Medium4
servings1
hour40
minutesDuring the quarantine, I became obsessed with perfecting my Chicken Piccata recipe. It has since become a family favorite, so much so that I now make Piccata Sauce in large batches so that I can always have a stash of it in the freezer. I started using it as a sauce for my Caramelized Onion Turkey Meatballs, or to make Cauliflower Steak Piccata which is my personal favorite!
The secret to this recipe is not skimping on the lemon zest. You will be using the zest of two whole lemons and the juice of one in this recipe. It really amps up the lemon flavor which makes the sauce utterly craveable.
Further, for the sauce, I highly recommend using a high collagen broth, like bone broth, that is thicker and more gelatinous rather than the thin broths you find sold in most cardboard containers. I buy my bone broth frozen from Whole Foods or in the refrigerated section at Trader Joe’s.
Also, try not to skip the first step, which is brining the chicken breast in a salt water solution. This step is second nature to me, as I refuse to eat chicken breast that has not been properly brined, but it might seem onerous to you if you’ve never done it before. Brining chicken ensures that it stays juicy and well seasoned while cooking. It imparts such great flavor and texture to chicken breast, that it will likely convert chicken breast “haters” (of which I was once one) to chicken breast enthusiasts.
Updated: 10/7/24
Ingredients
- To Prepare Chicken
1.5-2 lbs chicken breast (3 large breasts or 4 small breasts)
1/2 cup all purpose flour
4 tbsp grapeseed oil (or other neutral oil)
1 tsp seasoned salt or garlic salt
1/4 cup Kosher salt
- For Piccata Sauce
2 tbsp butter
3 tbsp all purpose flour
2 lemons
3 cups chicken bone broth, room temperature or cold (see note above)
1 shallot, finely diced (could also sub 1/4 cup finely diced onion)
3 cloves garlic
1 tbsp capers
Kosher salt
black pepper
2 tbsp chopped parsley (optional, for garnish)
Directions
- To brine the chicken breasts: Dissolve 1/4 cup Kosher salt into 2 quarts cold water in a large bowl. Add the chicken breasts, cover, and refrigerate for 30-60 min.
- While the chicken brines, use a microplane grater to remove the zest from both lemons and set aside. Juice one of the lemons and set aside. Mince the garlic cloves and finely dice the shallot.
- Drain the chicken and rinse once with water. Towel dry the chicken breasts lightly using a paper towel and transfer to a cutting board.
- Cut each chicken breast in half vertically, which will give you a thick half and a thinner half. Then take the thicker half, and cut it horizontally, to create two medallions. This way, each chicken breast will make three medallions of similar size and thickness. Repeat with each chicken breast. Place the medallions between sheets of plastic wrap and gently pound to 1/2 inch thickness.
- Combine the flour and seasoned salt in a shallow baking dish, and working with one piece of chicken breast at a time, coat with flour and shake to remove excess.
- Preheat your oven to 300° (F) and adjust oven rack to lower middle position. Place a small sheet pan in the oven.
- Heat 2 tbsp of your neutral oil in a heavy bottomed 12-inch skillet over mediumhigh heat until shimmering. Place half of the chicken pieces into the skillet and sauté until browned on the first side, about 2-3 minutes. Flip and brown the other side. Remove the chicken from the skillet and transfer to the sheet pan in oven. Repeat the process with your remaining pieces of chicken. Cook the chicken until it has an internal temperature of 165° (F) and remove from oven when cooked through, about 10-12 minutes. Cover the chicken with foil to keep warm.
- Drain the residual oil from the skillet, add the butter to the skillet, and place over medium heat. Once the butter is melted, add the shallot and garlic and sauté until softened. Add the flour to the pan and stir to combine. Cook the flour/butter/shallot/garlic mixture for about 5-10 minutes, stirring frequently. You want the mixture to brown slightly, which will add color and flavor to the sauce. Raise the temperature to medium high and add the bone broth to the skillet in a slow steady stream, whisking continuously to incorporate the broth into the flour/butter/shallot/garlic mixture. Whisking frequently, bring the sauce to a low boil to thicken. This should only take a few minutes. Once the sauce is thickened, add the lemon zest, lemon juice, and 1 tsp Kosher salt. Add the capers, then black pepper to taste. Whisk to incorporate. If you plan on consuming the Chicken Piccata in one sitting, add all the chicken pieces to the skillet with sauce and heat through. Add the parsley and serve immediately. If you aim to have leftovers, read the next step.
- If you aim to have leftovers that you can reheat, keep the sauce and chicken separate, as the sauce will continue to thicken from the chicken’s flour coating. In this instance, remove half of the sauce from the skillet (ladle into a heat safe receptacle), and add only half the cooked chicken breasts to the sauce. Cool the remaining sauce and chicken to room temperature, then transfer to the refrigerator to store for future use. Chicken and sauce should be refrigerated separately, in tightly sealed containers, and eaten within 3 days. You can also freeze the sauce and the chicken, if desired, for longer storage.
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