Chicken Piccata (Fried Chicken Cutlets With Lemon-Butter Pan Sauce) Recipe (2024)

Why It Works

Japanese panko bread crumbs form a coating that becomes shatteringly crisp but still light and tender, not dense and tough.
The pan sauce whips up quickly after frying, so the cutlets don't have to wait long.

Several months ago while working on afried chicken cutlet recipe, I stumbled on the single most important factor in elevating those cutlets from mere greatness to brain-melting splendor. It's butter. I had some clarified butter kicking around in the fridge, and on a whim decided to fry my chicken in that instead of the more economical neutral-flavored cooking oil I normally use. The results were so amazing I couldn't believe I hadn't been frying in butter all along.

Butter Adds Flavor

In retrospect, it's not much of a shock that butter would taste so much better. But it's sort of like the difference between knowing that it'd be awesome to get daily massages and actually getting a massage every single day—understanding that something is great in theory isn't the same as making it a reality. The fact is, cost and convenience are often the things that stand between the ultimate version of something and just a really good version of it. And so it is with frying chicken in ample amounts of clarified butter.

Luckily, there's a pretty freaking delicious workaround, and it's chicken piccata—fried chicken cutlets bathed in a lemon-butter pan sauce.

Crispier Piccata With Panko

Technically, chicken piccata doesn't have to be made with breaded fried cutlets. Some people just sauté plain chicken cutlets and then make a buttery pan sauce for them. It's quick and easy, but can be a little bit boring. In all honesty, if I'm going to eat an unadorned sautéed cutlet, it will almost never be made from chicken; skinless white breast meat really needs a profoundly crisp and flavorful golden crust to be interesting.

Making incredibly crispy chicken piccata starts with the same basic procedure asmy basic fried chicken cutlet recipe: Take chicken cutlets that are about 1/4 inch thick, season them with salt and pepper, dredge them lightly in flour, then dip them in beaten eggs, and finally coat them in a mixture of panko bread crumbs and grated Parmesan cheese.

Panko, a Japanese style of bread crumb, is light and chunky, and when fried, it forms an incredibly crisp and crunchy crust, one that manages to be delicate without a trace of toughness. I'll take them any day over the Italian-style bread crumbs sold in tubes at the supermarket.

I fry the cutlets in oil until golden on both sides. There's no need to worry about trying to judge the doneness of the chicken—when the coating is fully browned on both sides, the 1/4 inch thick cutlets are guaranteed to be cooked through as well. That's the beauty of thin cutlets: They're always done inside when they're browned on the outside.

How to Make a Creamier Sauce

To make the pan sauce, drain off all but one tablespoon of frying oil from the skillet, then add a good dose of dry white wine and simmer until the raw alcohol smell has cooked off (it takes a couple of minutes). Toss in some capers for a salty, briny punch, and then add the butter, whisking until it's fully melted.

The trick with the sauce is to simmer it down until it takes on a cream-like consistency, that perfect moment where enough of the wine has cooked down to form a tight emulsion with the butter and the mixture transforms from watery to creamy, but not so much that the emulsion breaks into something resembling an oil spill (if it does break, though, you can always bring it back together by whisking in a couple tablespoons of water).

Some lemon juice and parsley at the end brighten the sauce up, giving a fresh flavor and an acidic counterpoint to all that butter, much the same way one balances oil and vinegar for a vinaigrette. Pour the sauce all over the cutlets and you're done.

January 2017

Recipe Details

Chicken Piccata (Fried Chicken Cutlets With Lemon-Butter Pan Sauce)

Prep25 mins

Cook35 mins

Active45 mins

Total60 mins

Serves4 servings

Ingredients

1 cup all-purpose flour (5 ounces; 140g)
3 large eggs, beaten
2 cups panko bread crumbs (4 ounces; 115g), roughly crushed by hand if very large
2 ounces (60g) grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
8 boneless, skinless chicken cutlets (3 or 4 ounces each), pounded to about 1/4 inch thick
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
Vegetable oil, for frying
1/2 cup dry white wine (120ml)
1 1/2 tablespoons drained capers (15g)
5 tablespoons unsalted butter (70g)
2 tablespoons fresh juice from 1 lemon (30ml)
1 1/2 tablespoonsminced flat-leaf parsley

Directions

Set 3 wide, shallow bowls on a work surface. Add flour to the first one, beaten eggs to the second, and panko and Parmesan cheese to the third. Mix panko and Parmesan thoroughly.
Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Season chicken cutlets all over with salt and pepper. Working with one at a time, dredge a cutlet in flour with your left hand, shaking off excess. Transfer to egg dish, then turn cutlet with your right hand to coat both sides. Lift and allow excess egg to drain off, then transfer to bread crumb mixture. With your left hand, scoop bread crumbs on top of chicken, then gently press, turning chicken to ensure a good layer of crumbs on both sides. Transfer cutlet to prepared baking sheet and repeat with remaining cutlets.
Fill a large skillet with 1/4 inch oil. Heat over high heat until shimmering and just shy of smoking, about 375°F (191°C) on an instant-read thermometer.
Working in batches and using tongs or your fingers, gently lower cutlets into the pan, laying them down away from you to prevent hot fat from splashing toward you. Fry, gently swirling pan and rotating cutlets for even browning, and adjusting heat as necessary for a steady, vigorous bubble, until bottom side is browned and crisp, about 3 minutes. Flip cutlets and fry until other side is browned and crisp, about 3 minutes longer. Transfer to paper towels to drain and season with salt right away. Repeat with remaining cutlets, topping up oil if necessary.
Drain all but one tablespoon oil from skillet. Add wine and bring to a boil over medium-high heat, cooking until raw alcohol smell has mostly cooked off, about 2 minutes. Add capers and butter, whisking constantly, until butter has melted. Lower heat to medium and continue whisking and reducing until a creamy, emulsified sauce forms (the time this takes will depend on your burner power and the size of your pan). If sauce over-reduces and breaks at any point, add 1 tablespoon cold water and whisk to emulsify it again. Whisk in lemon juice and parsley, season with salt and pepper, and remove from heat.
Arrange cutlets on a platter and drizzle warm butter sauce all over. Serve right away.

Special Equipment

Rimmed baking sheet, large skillet, instant-read thermometer, whisk

Notes

You can prepare the cutlets yourself from whole boneless, skinless chicken breasts followingthe instructions here.

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Chicken Piccata (Fried Chicken Cutlets With Lemon-Butter Pan Sauce) Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is chicken 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.

Get More Info Here ›

Is it better to fry chicken cutlets in olive oil or vegetable oil? ›

What's the best oil to fry chicken cutlets in? You can fry chicken cutlets in either high heat vegetable oil or olive oil. Just note that olive oil has a lower smoke point and is more likely to burn, so you need to keep a close eye on them as they cook and adjust the heat as needed.

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What does piccata mean in Italian? ›

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.

How do you thicken piccata sauce? ›

How to thicken piccata sauce without flour

Make a slurry with 1 1/2 tablespoons corn starch and 1/2 cup COLD chicken stock.
Add this after adding the 2 cups chicken stock.
Bring to a boil, stirring constantly, then reduce to a simmer.
Add chicken, lemon juice, and capers to sauce.

Nov 15, 2021

Why is my chicken piccata bitter? ›

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.

What is the difference between chicken piccata and chicken francaise? ›

Chicken Francaise vs.

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.

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What's the difference between chicken francese and chicken Picatta? ›

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What does piccata taste like? ›

Chicken Piccata is a quick dinner comprised of a crispy pan seared chicken breast with a Lemon Butter Caper Sauce. This chicken has a bright, lemony sauce that's just on the right side of tangy. It's incredibly easy and amazingly tasty!

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What is a substitute for white wine in chicken Picatta? ›

Broth. 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.