It's all about the lemon butter sauce.
Picture tender thin chicken cutlets sauced in a glistening lemon butter sauce, dotted with capers and flecked with parsley leaves, mounted on a bed of orzo or grilled asparagus . . .
It looks like you spent all afternoon cooking and tastes like you’re dining in a classy Manhattan restaurant. In reality? You spent 45 minutes (tops) standing by or near your stove playing with seven ingredients (maybe a few more, if you count the oil and salt) until you walked away with a steaming platter of this luscious entrée. Simple, fast, elegant: Chicken Piccata.
What makes this recipe so astonishingly delicious? I could go on for hours about how the butterflying and pounding of the protein, coupled with the addition of correct seasoning, a light dredge in flour and the perfect application of stovetop heat produces a tender, melt-in-the-mouth chicken cutlet . . . but that would only be a small part of the story. The main reason? Acid.
That tingle on your taste buds that perfectly cuts through and balances richness. We crave that balance. It’s the reason why we squirt ketchup with French fries and squeeze lemon juice on fried calamari. Without it, food can be overly heavy and rich and—worse—boring.
Usually a recipe will have one or two different acidic ingredients to round it out: citrus juice, vinegar, wine. This recipe tastes so fantastic because it contains three different sources of acidity: white wine, lemon juice, and capers. Together, they balance and compliment the rich butter and savory browned chicken, and create a zingy pan sauce that is truly addictive.
When developing this recipe, I was interested to note that different renditions of this classic dish differ on when to introduce these acidic ingredients. Some add the capers with the wine during the deglazing stage, while others thrown them in them with the butter, after the wine has been reduced. Still others pour in the lemon juice with the capers before adding the chicken back in. In the end, I decided to add the capers with the wine so their tang could fully permeate the base of the sauce. However, I left the lemon juice for the very end so it would retain its bright pop of flavor rather than getting muddled with the rest of the flavors and give the dish a fresh finish.
One final note about this beautiful, rich sauce: this recipe makes much more sauce that you will actually need for the chicken, so consider adding a side dish that you can dip it in or toss it with, and then serve with the chicken. Orzo, the small tear-drop-shaped pasta, would be delicious, as would a long strand pasta such as thin spaghetti. Or you could grill some asparagus and serve that on the side, if you’re not feeling the carbs! Do what you want.
Enjoy!
Chicken Piccata
(Serves 6)
For the chicken:
3 chicken breasts, butterflied and pounded (see note below)
3-4 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
Diamond Crystal kosher salt
All-purpose flour, for dredging
For the lemon-caper sauce:
½ cup dry white wine
¼ cup capers
4 tablespoons butter
½ cup water
2 tablespoons lemon juice
Parsley, for garnish
Special equipment: plastic wrap, something for pounding (meat mallet, rolling pin, etc.)
A Note on Prepping the Chicken:
This recipe calls for chicken to be butterflied and then pounded. Do not skip this step! Butterflying creates beautiful thin cutlets, and the pounding slightly breaks down the protein, which helps to give it that delicious tenderness.
To butterfly a chicken breast, place it flat on a cutting board and slice horizontally through its side with a large chef’s knife until the knife is three-quarters of the way to the other side. At this point, pull out the knife, open the chicken breast up like a book, and flatten the separate halves to either side. Cut down through the center to finish separating the two halves. When finished, you should have two pieces of chicken breast that are half the width of the original breast.
To pound the butterflied chicken, place the breasts between two pieces of plastic wrap and pound until they are a uniform thickness (a quarter to a half inch is fine; the key is to make sure the breasts are all a consistent thickness so they cook evenly in the pan).
Method
Season the chicken breasts with salt. Pour approximately a quarter cup of flour onto a plat
e and dredge the chicken breasts in the flour on both sides. They should be thoroughly coated, but not caked with the flour.
Heat a large skillet (steel or nonstick work fine) to medium-high heat and add 2 tablespoons olive oil and 1 tablespoon butter. Add three of the prepared chicken breasts and cook undisturbed for 2 minutes, or until the bottoms have a nicely browned crust. Flip the breasts and cook 1 minute more, or until the chicken is almost (but not quite!) cooked through. Remove to a paper-lined plate.
Replenish the fat in the pan by adding the remaining 1-2 tablespoons oil and the remaining 1 tablespoon butter. Repeat the process with the last three pieces of chicken.
Add wine and capers to the pan and increase the heat slightly. Cook, swirling the pan and scraping up the browned bits from the chicken, until the liquid is almost evaporated. Add water to the skillet and allow it to warm up with the heat of the pan, then add 3 tablespoons butter to the skillet and swirl vigorously (this will help them emulsify and create a smooth, luscious sauce).
Add the chicken breasts back into the pan and simmer 3-5 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through and the sauce is slightly thickened. Remove the chicken to a platter.
Add the last tablespoon of butter to the pan with the lemon juice to the pan and taste for balance and seasoning; add more lemon juice and salt as needed. Pour the sauce over the chicken on the platter and sprinkle with chopped parsley.
Originally posted August 1, 2019.
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