Easy Chicken Piccata with Pasta
Try this Easy Chicken Piccata with Pasta recipe, or contribute your own.
Try this Easy Chicken Piccata with Pasta recipe, or contribute your own.
- 1/3 cup fresh parsley chopped
- 1/2 cup chicken stock
- 6 tbsp unsalted butter
- sea or kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
- 5 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
- 1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts cut in half lengthwise
- about 1/2 cup all-purpose flour for dredging
- 1/4 cup brined capers rinsed
- Carbohydrate 5.2682466696831 g
- Cholesterol 116.035000001522 mg
- Fat 36.5286700349983 g
- Fiber 0.858133332037304 g
- Protein 29.6709166685201 g
- Saturated Fat 13.8935860049158 g
- Serving Size 1 1 serving (260g)
- Sodium 428.799833417395 mg
- Sugar 4.41011333764579 g
- Trans Fat 2.16487700101602 g
- Calories 466 calories
Step-by-step
- Start heating water in a large pot to make spaghetti for your chicken piccata. Once water starts to boil, drop the spaghetti in and prepare the chicken piccata in parallel.
- Season the chicken breasts with salt and pepper. Dredge in flour, shake off excess and set aside.
- Preheat a large skillet over medium high heat. Melt 4 tablespoons of butter with 5 tablespoons of olive oil. When butter and oil start to sizzle, add the chicken breast and saute for 3 minutes per side, until the chicken is nicely browned (see the note). Take the pan off the heat , remove the chicken and set aside.
- Carefully pour the lemon juice and the chicken stock into the pan. Add the capers. Return the pan to the heat and bring to boil, scraping up brown bits from the pan for extra flavor. Taste and adjust the seasoning, if needed.
- Put the chicken breasts back into the pan and simmer over low heat for 5 minutes. Remove the chicken and set aside. Add the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter to the sauce and whisk really well.
- To serve, make a bed of spaghetti on a plate, add one chicken breast, pour 2-3 tablespoons of the sauce over the chicken and top with chopped parsley.
Brined capers drive the entire profile of this dish, supplying a sharp salinity that cuts directly through heavy fats without requiring additional heavy seasoning. Many home cooks ruin this balance by dumping the entire jar into the skillet without rinsing away the storage brine first, resulting in an overly salty sauce that masks the delicate chicken stock and fresh lemon juice. Rinsing them under cold water for ten seconds stabilizes the final flavor.
Assessing doneness without an instant-read thermometer requires watching the pan edges and the meat surface closely during the three minutes per side sauté. When the exterior develops a golden-brown crust and the center of the breast feels firm rather than spongy under gentle tongs pressure, the protein is cooked through. Overcooking yields rubbery meat, while removing the skillet from the heat entirely before adding the lemon juice prevents violent splattering and burning of the butter solids.
Swapping the butter for plant-based margarine changes the emulsification dynamics entirely because alternative fats lack the milk proteins necessary to thicken the pan sauce during the final whisking step. Stick with dairy butter and extra-virgin olive oil heated over medium-high heat to ensure proper browning without scorching.
