Easy Chicken Piccata - Plain Chicken (2024)

FAQs

What is piccata sauce made of? ›

Most chicken piccata sauces are made with a combination of white wine, butter, and lemon juice, but I have a pathological fear of cooking anything without adding heavy cream! So this one has some heavy cream to thicken it up, and some chicken broth to thin it out. It's light and zesty but still decadent.

I also found the whole lemon slices included in many traditional recipes left my sauce with a bitter aftertaste from the lemon's pith. To avoid this, but maintain the acidic brightness this dish depends on, I added a bit of white wine to the sauce instead of lemon slices.

Golden, crispy chicken breasts lightly dredged in flour and parmesan cheese, pan fried until a soft golden crust forms and finished off in a buttery, silky, lemon garlic sauce with capers and white wine or stock! It doesn't get any better than this easy chicken piccata for dinner!

Capers aren't everyone's cup of tea, so feel free to leave them out even though they do add a briny bite to the dish. Or, if you don't have capers but do have meaty green olives in the pantry, you can chop them small and add them to the dish. They'll give that briny bite.

This happens when there's too much fat or liquid in the mixture. This can happen when there are not enough emulsifiers (which help keep your ingredients together). Sauces are usually made from multiple ingredients that include both oil and water. Oils and water will naturally separate.

The taste of a caper is reminiscent of the lemony tang and brininess of green olives, but with a smack of floral tartness all their own. Because they're packed in brine, capers also have a very salty, savory flavor profile.

Chicken Piccata can be partially made ahead to save time. You can bread the chicken and refrigerate it for up to 4 hours before cooking. However, for the best texture and flavor, I recommend cooking the chicken and preparing the sauce right before serving.

Chicken or vegetable broth can be a flavorful replacement for white wine. You can even swap it in equal amounts (go for low-sodium broth so your dish doesn't end up too salty). Just keep in mind that broth won't add any acidity, so you might want to add a touch of white vinegar to achieve a similar tang.

What is the best cooking wine for piccata? ›

For the sauce, use a dry Italian white wine such as Pinot Grigio or Vermentino and have it ready to pour into the pan the minute the garlic turns golden so that nothing burns.

Piccata, though, is an Italian word meaning larded. It seems to be a translation of the French word pique (sharp, as in piquant). When used in a reference to a way of preparing food (particularly meat or fish) it means sliced and sauteed in a sauce containing lemon, butter, and spices.

If your recipe calls for ½ cup chicken broth or less, dry white wine is an easy and flavorful substitute. It will add a slightly acidic flavor and it's great for when you need to deglaze a pan or thin out a sauce. Don't worry, at high heat, most of the alcohol will evaporate.

What's the Difference Between Scallopini and Piccata? Scallopini is the name for a thin slice of meat, usually chicken or veal. When dredged in flour and pan-fried, it is called scaloppine. One type of scallopini dish is piccata, which includes a pan sauce of lemon, capers, white wine or sherry, and butter.

Chicken piccata has capers. So for you caper haters out there, the Francaise version is for you. Chicken Francaise is dredged in flour and egg, whereas chicken piccata is dredged only in flour, so the Francaise has a bit more (delightfully) substantial coating.

The taste of a caper is reminiscent of the lemony tang and brininess of green olives, but with a smack of floral tartness all their own. Because they're packed in brine, capers also have a very salty, savory flavor profile.

While both chicken piccata and chicken Marsala are cooked in the same way, there are a few key differences between the two dishes. Chicken piccata isn't creamy. It's cooked with white wine, chicken broth, capers, and lemon juice. It's tangy and bright instead of rich and creamy.

The best thing to reach for is a dash of quality white wine vinegar mixed with chicken or vegetable stock. The rule of thumb is 1 tablespoon of vinegar per 1 cup of stock. For this chicken piccata, that would be 1/2 cup stock mixed with 1 1/2 teaspoons white wine vinegar.