Because lemon and capers exist.
(And because we can swap out the chicken for fish and make this pescatarian friendly. We’re an all-inclusive food blog kids).
It’s safe to say that my favorite food in the world is chicken piccata. It’s also safe to say that bad chicken piccata fills me with the rage. How do you mess up lemon and butter???
Madness I tell you. And it happens more often than you would think!
In an effort to remedy this poor piccata pandemic (Am I the only one who finds alliteration sexy??? Yes? OK then, you all are weird, it’s totally fine…), I made it my mission to master it at home. I believe I have. I’m gonna tell you how. You are SO welcome.
Here’s what you need.
-Olive Oil, about 5 tbsp. (But keep the bottle handy, you may need more and I’m the one in charge here right?).
- All-purpose flour. We’ll go with about 3 cups (This is for what we call dredging, which is the “cheffy” word for dipping in flour. As you can see dredging was way more elegant and fancy and since WE are elegant and fancy we’re going with that).
-The juice of one (fresh) lemon (No I’m never ever going to stop reiterating FRESH. If you buy that little squeezy bottle, you and I are in a fight).
-2 cups of low sodium chicken broth (if you are doing the fish version of this, first of all hats off to you it’s gonna be so good and secondly you can use fish or vegetable broth here in its place).
NOTE: The boxes of broth are totally great for this recipe and most of my recipes actually. I want so desperately to be the girl who makes her own broth and freezes it. I also want to look like Christina Hendricks circa Madmen. Neither of these things are gonna happen. We just have to be OK with it.
-2 lbs. chicken breast tenders (which just feels weird to type).
NOTE: The traditional recipes call for 4 or 5 chicken breasts that have been butterflied (cut to look like a butterfly… weird right?) and pounded super thin but I really like the way this comes out with the chicken breast tenders (and I’m never gonna be OK with typing that). If you are using fish, something thin and flaky (a description that is only flattering to fish) will be perfect. Fillet of sole perhaps.
-1/4 cup of brined capers drained.
NOTE: If you don’t know what capers are, allow me to help.
Here is what Wikipedia has to say about it: Capparis spinosa, the caper bush, also called Flinders rose, is a perennial plant that bears rounded, fleshy leaves and large white to pinkish-white flowers. The plant is best known for the edible flower buds, often used as a seasoning, and the fruit, both of which are usually consumed pickled.
That’s right kids you’re getting an education with your snark!
-3 tbsp. butter.
-1 tbsp. garlic powder.
-Fresh parsley (about 1/3 cup chopped, but this is your call).
-1 heaping tsp. of crushed garlic (this may be controversial to some. However if you don’t love garlic I’m scared for you. What happens when we get attacked my vampires?!?! Also it’s delicious and you’re living your life wrong maybe…).
-1 tbsp. salt (and yeah it sounds like a lot but this gets mixed in with the flour and you lose a lot of it. Also why are you questioning my methods here???). You will want to keep this around too as we may want to add some to the sauce later if we need to.
-2 tsp. black pepper (again keep this around. We like to season to taste. We’re crazy like that).
So now that the annoyingly long list of ingredients is over (For which I am NOT sorry), let’s cook!
In a shallow (like me) dish place the 3 cups of flour.
Mix in the 1 tbsp. salt, 2 tsp. pepper and the 1 tbsp. garlic powder.
In a good size skillet (this is one of those times I wish I had one of those fancy Le Crueset shallow Dutch ovens. Alas we don’t have a billion dollars lying around for such things… which a shame really. I use my full size Dutch oven for this, but any skillet with higher sides will do), heat up 1-2 Tbsp. Olive Oil over medium high heat.
Dip the chicken breast tenders (ugh) into the flour/seasoning mixture and place in the preheated pan.
NOTE: you will most likely need to do this in batches. This is annoying. I get it. But sometimes we have to do things we don’t want to in life. Especially when the end result is lemon butter sauce.
ALSO NOTE: If you’re using fish for this, the cook times will be vastly different. Just cook until the fish is opaque (and as usual we’re finding excellent band names in our recipes. Ladies and gentlemen I present to you OPAQUE FISH!!!).
Cook the chicken for about 3-4 minutes on each side or until golden brown and remove.
WARNING: The chicken will NOT be cooked through at this point. DO NOT EAT THIS CHICKEN!!! It’s going to look delicious but it will be raw. It pains me to have to share this warning. It also pains me that I have had to stop a guest from stealing a piece of undercooked chicken because he couldn’t wait for dinner to be done! Ugh…
Finish off the chicken in this manor, adding more olive oil to the pan if necessary, and set aside.
Reduce the heat on your pan to medium low (which never really makes sense to me. So just ya know lower the flame a little).
Pour in the 2 cups of chicken broth and the juice of one lemon and stir. It is vital here that you scrap up ALL of the little brown bits and pieces of flour from the bottom your pan (The fancy people call this deglazing. We’re fancy. We call it deglazing too). Those brown bits are full of chickeny (or fishy) goodness and will add flavor. The flour remnants help thicken our sauce.
Add in the tsp. of crushed garlic and allow to simmer for a few minutes (three minutes should do, just to get the rawness out of the garlic and for all those flavors make out a little…they’re saucy that way… pun totally intended).
Add your partially cooked chicken back to the pan and ensure that each tender is submerged in the liquid.
Cover and simmer all together like a sexy chicken Jacuzzi for about 10 minutes (three-ish if its fish).
At this time you will notice (or maybe you won’t notice, I don’t know your life) the sauce has thickened and the chicken should be completely cooked (it will have a minimum. internal temp of 165 and will no longer be pink in the center). If the chicken is fully cooked, taste the sauce and add any missing salt and or pepper.
Add in your 1/3 cup drained brined capers and allow to cook for a minute to so more.
Stir in the 3 tbsp. butter and allow to melt completely (This is going to make your sauce richer… If only butter made me richer… I use so much better I would be swimming in gold like Scrooge McDuck… which would be painful really. I never understood how he did that).
Remove from the heat and toss in your fresh parsley. This is going to make it look SO pretty. It also adds freshness to the dish but that’s WAY less important to me.
I like to serve this on top of Trader Joe's Lemon Pepper Pappardelle because I’m that kind of gal. Any pasta will do. Zucchini noodles are good too. There are no limits! You have no idea how high you can fly!!!
No matter how you serve it, it’s going to be delicious. It’s too many steps. I hate that. I do. But I sort of don’t really care either. I’m tricky that way. Also, it’s totally worth the work!
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