Easy Lemon Chicken Piccata — 🍋 Learn how to make this EASY Italian classic complete with juicy chicken breasts in a creamy lemon sauce that’s studded with capers! Ready in just 30 minutes, made in one skillet, and rivals chicken piccata from a fancy restaurant! Serve the chicken with angel hair pasta, steamed rice, or mashed potatoes to soak up every last drop of the creamy sauce!
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Chicken piccata is one of those Italian dishes that most people order regularly when they dine out, but rarely make at home because they assume it’s complicated to prepare. Wrong! It’s actually one of the easiest Italian dinners you can make! 🙌🏻
Chicken cutlets are dredged in a seasoned flour mixture before being cooked in a mixture of olive oil and butter for perfectly seared chicken and the best flavor. Once the chicken is done, it’s removed to a plate while the creamy lemon sauce cooks.
It’s a 30-minute dinner recipe that’s made in one skillet, but the combination of heavy cream, lemon juice, garlic, and capers makes this taste just like the chicken piccata you get at your favorite Italian restaurant!
Keep this recipe on hand for anything from busy weeknights to easy entertaining. Lemon chicken piccata pairs especially well with angel hair pasta or mashed potatoes for soaking up the creamy sauce. Add a green side salad, and dinner is served!
Recipe Ingredients
The ingredients needed for this recipe are easy to find, and you likely have most of them on hand. When possible, I’ve listed ingredient swaps you can use in this recipe.
Gather the following:
- Boneless skinless chicken breasts
- Kosher salt
- Ground black pepper
- Garlic powder
- All-purpose flour
- Unsalted butter
- Olive oil
- Shallot (or a small yellow onion)
- Garlic
- Dry white wine (or chicken broth)
- Heavy whipping cream
- Fresh lemon juice and zest
- Capers
- Fresh parsley (optional, for garnishing)
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.
How to Make Chicken Piccata
Classic creamy chicken piccata made with capers and white wine is a cinch to prepare. Shh, don’t tell your dinner guests this restaurant-quality dish only took you 30 minutes to assemble!
Let’s go over the basic recipe steps:
- Prep the chicken: Slice each chicken breast in half horizontally if they are a full-sized thick, large chicken breasts. The two chicken breasts should create four thinner filets, aka chicken cutlets. Or simply purchase 4 average-sized chicken breasts. If the filets are too thick, place them between two pieces of plastic wrap and gently pound with a meat mallet or rolling pin until they’re ¼-inch thick all over.
- Season the chicken with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Dredge in a bit of flour to coat evenly.
- Cook the chicken: Melt some of the butter and olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Cook the chicken for 3 to 4 minutes on each side, then remove to a clean plate.
- Make the lemon cream sauce: In the same skillet, melt additional butter and olive oil. Saute the shallot and garlic until soft.
- Add the broth, heavy cream, lemon zest, and lemon juice. Simmer for about 3 minutes, then stir in the capers.
- Finish the dish: Return the chicken to the skillet and spoon the lemon caper sauce over top. Cook for just 2 minutes to reheat the chicken before serving. Garnish with parsley, if desired.
Recipe FAQs
If your local grocery store sells chicken cutlets, sometimes labeled as thin-sliced chicken breasts, buy a pack of four and use those to make the lemony chicken piccata.
If you can’t find chicken cutlets, use regular chicken breasts instead. Slice the chicken breasts in half horizontally to create a total of four thinner filets.
Depending on their thickness, you may need to pound each piece with a meat tenderizer until they’re about ¼-inch thick.
Whether you DIY the chicken cutlets or buy them pre-made at the grocery store, they’re essential for this recipe because they cook so much faster than thicker chicken breasts, yet remain super juicy after being pan fried.
If you don’t have heavy whipping cream on hand or are opposed to using it, you should be able to use half-and-half, which is equal parts whole milk + heavy whipping cream. However, using half-and-half will result in a less creamy, less decadent piccata sauce. There’s only ¼ cup of cream in the entire recipe, so I highly recommend using it!
However, do NOT substitute milk for the heavy cream 🛑. Using milk would result in a thinner, less flavorful piccata sauce and just won’t be as tasty.
Yes! Butter makes the chicken taste extra rich, and the olive oil helps prevent the butter from burning. Use both for best results and the best tasting chicken piccata sauce!
Personally, I am all about using a dry white wine rather than chicken broth in the sauce for a deeper, richer, more incredible tasting sauce. However, if you don’t have a bottle of wine such as chardonnay, pinot grigio or sauvignon blanc open, or you don’t drink alcohol, feel free to use chicken broth. It’s only 1/2 cup liquid so not a huge difference either way. If you’re concerned about serving this to children, the alcohol in the wine burns off as the sauce simmers.
Sure! You’ll likely need to cook the chicken in batches to avoid overcrowding the pan. If you try to cook the double batch of chicken all at once, you’ll wind up steaming the chicken rather than frying it and the meat won’t develop as much color or crispness.
No, this is one chicken dinner that’s best prepared and enjoyed right away. If you end up with leftovers, of course you should save them to reheat the next day. But if you wanted to assemble the lemon chicken piccata a day before serving to guests, for example, that would be a big NO since the chicken would lost its crispness in the fridge.
Sides Dishes for Chicken Piccata
We prefer eating this chicken piccata with angel hair or spaghetti pasta, buttered noodles, mashed potatoes, or steamed rice, or garlic bread. I highly recommend some kind of starchy base to soak up that lemon caper sauce!
As far as sides go, pretty much any side salad or roasted vegetable pairs well with this dish.
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Creamy Lemon Chicken Piccata
Ingredients
- 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts*, See Notes
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- ½ to 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
- 4 tablespoons olive oil, divided
- 1 shallot, finely chopped* (See Notes)
- 2 to 3 garlic cloves, finely minced
- ½ cup reduced sodium chicken broth OR dry white wine, chardonnay, pinot grigio, sauvignon blanc
- ¼ cup heavy whipping cream, half-and-half may be substituted
- Zest from ½ lemon
- Juice from ½ lemon
- 2 tablespoons capers, drained
- 3 tablespoons fresh parsley, finely minced; optional for garnishing
Instructions
- Prepare the chicken as directed in the Notes below if you did not purchase thin-sliced chicken breasts or 'chicken cutlets' as they're sometimes labeled.
- Place the 4 pieces of chicken in a large bowl, and evenly season with salt, pepper, and garlic powder.
- Evenly sprinkle the flour over the chicken, and toss and flip the chicken pieces around so they're all evenly coated on both sides. It's okay if you don't use every last bit of flour. Shake off any excess.
- To a large skillet, add 2 tablespoons of butter, 2 tablespoons of olive oil, turn the heat to medium-high, and allow them to begin to bubble a bit, and then add the chicken.
- Sear the chicken on the first side for about 3-4 minutes, flip, and sear on the second side for about 3 minutes, or until done. Tips – Once you add the chicken to the skillet and it begins to sear, just leave it alone. Don't move it around, peek, and check on it unnecessarily. After 3-4 minutes, then flip it. It should be nicely golden. The second side tends to cook a bit quicker than the first side, so be mindful of that.
- When chicken has been seared and is fully cooked through, remove it from the skillet and set it aside on a plate.
- To the skillet (don't clean it or drain anything off!), add the remaining 2 tablespoons butter, 2 tablespoons olive oil, shallot, minced garlic cloves, and cook for about 2-3 minutes; stir nearly continuously so they don't burn.
- Turn the heat to medium, and add the chicken broth, heavy cream, lemon zest, lemon juice, and simmer gently for 2-3 minutes.
- Add the capers, stir to combine, and simmer for 2-3 minutes.
- Add the chicken back to the skillet, and using a spoon drizzle the lemon cream sauce over the chicken. Flip the chicken over a couple times, repeating the drizzling process, or until it's nicely coated; do this for about 2 minutes, or until the chicken is coated, saucy, and warmed through.
- Turn off the heat, taste the sauce and if desired, add a bit more salt and pepper.
- Optionally garnish with fresh parsley, and optional lemon slices or lemon wedges, and serve immediately.
Storage
- Recipe is best warm and fresh but will keep airtight in the fridge for up to 5 days. Reheat gently in the microwave for about 30 seconds or in a skillet on the stove if preferred. I don't recommend freezing this recipe due to the cream sauce and many times they don't fare well in the freezing/thawing process.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Averie does it again! SO GOOD! For just the two of us I halved the chicken but kept the sauce ingredients the same because we love lots of sauce and it was great over flat noodles.
Hi Evelyn, thanks for the five star review and I’m so glad that you loved this chicken! Great call to halve the portion of the chicken but not the sauce if you love sauce – I’m a huge sauce fan as well!
Hi Averie,
Hope you had a great Easter! Thanks for all of the fantastic friendly recipes you create and share with us. So grateful for your streamlined instructions!
Recently, I ate at Matteo’s in Boca Raton, Angry Chicken. However, I think it is more of Shoemaker’s Chicken.
Do you have any recipes similar? It was amazing.
Thank you again for making the kitchen less scary.
Thanks Kelley for the nice comment and message! I am glad you appreciate my instructions and recipes!
As for the chicken, I just tried to google that particular recipe and find some images of it so I can steer you in the right direction but I don’t know for sure if the images I am seeing correspond. I am thinking no. Since the menu says ‘sausage, potatoes, onions, spicy cherry peppers’ In that case…I don’t think I have anything like that. For a match on some of the ingredients I have https://www.averiecooks.com/easy-one-skillet-sausage-and-peppers-with-rice/ or something like this https://www.averiecooks.com/sheet-pan-sausage-and-potatoes/ and you can do half and half cubed chicken breasts with the sausage? I wish I could know for sure what the dish looked like and I could steer you better!