CHICKEN PICCATA

Lightly battered chicken breast with a  rich lemon butter sauce make this Chicken Piccata a family favorite. Try it and you will see why.

         

There is an Italian restaurant near our home that is known for its chicken piccata. When the restaurant is spoken about by the locals, you are almost certain to hear; “Have you had their Chicken Piccata?” or “I love their Chicken Piccata”. Once you have had it there, eating it anywhere else will not compare. 

The dish’s popularity is the lemon butter sauce. Lots of butter!  It is deliciously decadent and stands out from the rest.

This is my recreation of the popular dish. The good news is that it comes pretty darn close to the original. The bad news is that my family can have it more often, which is not so good for the old ticker and waistband. 

Try it out and enjoy…in moderation! Happy eating!

To start, butterfly each breast with a sharp knife and pound out to one third inch thick.

Season well with salt and pepper. Dredge in flour, then in milk, and then bread crumbs.

Cook chicken in skillet until golden brown and cooked through.

Moving on to the sauce, to get it to the desired consistency and richness, a beurre blanc (white butter) sauce is an option. It requires a ridiculous amount of drop-dead-while-eating-at-the-table-butter. I find that a roux based sauce provides the same flavor profile and uses quite a bit less butter to be a better option.

To make it, cook the shallot and garlic in some butter. Add flour.

Next, whisk in chicken broth, lemon juice and salt. Allow to boil, reduce, and slightly thicken.  Remove from heat and add the rest of the butter in increments. 

 Serve over chicken. Drooling!!

CHICKEN PICCATA

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INGREDIENTS:

5 boneless skinless chicken breast halves, about 3 1/2 pounds

1 1/2 cups flour for dredging

1 1/2 cups bread crumbs

1 1/2 cups milk

Salt and pepper for seasoning chicken
Oil for cooking

Lemon Butter Sauce:

1 (14.5 oz.) can chicken broth

10 tbsp. butter (12 tbsp. if you want to be really bad)
4 tbsp. fresh squeezed lemon juice

2 tbsp. flour

2 tbsp. finely diced shallot, 1small bulb

2 garlic cloves, finely diced

1/4 tsp. salt

INSTRUCTIONS:

Butterfly each breast by making a slit all the way down the middle, stopping about 1/3 inch short of cutting all the way through. The chicken should open up like a book. Use a meat mallet to evenly flatten the chicken to 1/3 inch thick. Season each side with salt and pepper.

Place the flour, milk, and bread crumbs in separate shallow plates.  

Dip each piece of chicken into the flour, tap off excess. Dip into milk. Dip into bread crumbs, tap off excess.   

Preheat a large skillet on medium to medium high heat. Add enough oil to coat the bottom of skillet. Working in batches, cook chicken until golden brown, about 3 minutes on each side. Place on a rack on a cookie sheet and keep warm in a 170 degrees oven. Continue cooking all of the chicken pieces, adding oil when necessary. 

To make the sauce, wipe out skillet with a paper towel.  On medium heat add 2 tablespoons  butter.  Once melted, stir in shallot and garlic and cook for about 2 minutes.  Add flour, whisking constantly for 1 minute.  Increase heat to medium high.  Add chicken broth, lemon juice and salt.  Allow to come to a boil, stirring constantly. Once boiling, turn the heat down to medium, stirring constantly to reduce and thicken sauce (takes about 4 to 5 minutes).

Remove skillet from heat. Whisk in 2 tablespoons of butter at a time. Allow butter to completely melt into sauce before adding more. Repeat adding and whisking until all of the butter is gone. Serve drizzled over chicken. Garnish with parsley, optional. 

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Picnic Fried Chicken

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