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If you are in need of an easy peasy dinner chock full of amazing flavor, then you have come to the right place!
Chicken Scallopini with Piccata Sauce absolutely fits these criteria. This dish is perfect for a busy weeknight, and elegant enough for date night.
Let me tell you a bit about this wonderful Italian dish!
What Is Chicken Scallopini?
Scallopini (also known as scaloppine) is a thin slice of meat. Chicken scallopini is then thin slices of chicken. Veal and beef are also used for scaloppine dishes. One benefit I love with scallopini is that the meat cooks up quickly, as you will see here in this recipe.
What is Piccata Sauce?
Piccata sauce is a lemon, butter, and caper sauce. The combination of these 3 ingredients is absolutely heavenly! The sauce has the lovely briny taste of the capers, the zestiness of the lemons, and the richness of butter.
In this dish, we'll prepare this sauce using the pan drippings from the cooked chicken. It will then be poured over our scallopini ready to devour to your delight!
🥘 Ingredients
You will need the following ingredients for this quick and easy Italian chicken recipe:
- Chicken breast, sliced extra thin to ¼" thickness; buy it this way at your grocery store, or we can use a meat mallet to pound it down
- Butter
- Olive oil
- White wine
- Chicken broth
- Fresh garlic
- Lemon zest - we will use zest from ½ lemon
- Lemon juice - we will use juice from ½ lemon
- Salt
- Black pepper,
- Capers
- Italian parsley (as a garnish)
You should be able to find all of these lovely fresh ingredients at your local grocery store.
Now let's gather our ingredients and make this mouthwatering dish!
🔪 Instructions
I hope you were able to find some extra thin sliced chicken breast prepared this way and ready to use. If not, no worries!
Prepping the Chicken
Begin by examining your chicken breasts. You want them to be around ¼" thick. If they are not, then use a meat mallet to pound them down to this thickness. To use the meat mallet, place the chicken between two sheets of plastic wrap and pound.
Please note that if you buy very thick slices of chicken breast, it's best to cut them in ½ horizontally using your knife prior to using the meat mallet. For 1 pound of chicken, it's likely we will have between 5-6 pieces of chicken for this scallopini.
Now season both sides of your meat with ½ ts salt and ½ ts pepper.
Cooking The Chicken
Most likely you will have more chicken than will fit in your skillet at one time. Therefore, I'm including instructions to fry the chicken in 2 batches (I assume 2 batches will be enough to cook the 1 lb of chicken that you have).
For the first batch, add 1 tablespoon of butter and ½ tablespoon of olive oil to a large skillet on medium heat. Add half the chicken to the skillet, and cook each side approximately 2 minutes - 4 minutes, or until each side is lightly browned.
Remove to a plate, and then repeat these instructions with the 2nd batch (add another tablespoon butter and the remaining ½ tablespoon of olive oil at this time). Add this to the plate with the other chicken, and keep warm while we prepare the sauce.
Preparing The Sauce
Add the white wine into the pan, scrape up the brown bits from frying the chicken and deglaze the pan. Now add the chicken stock and garlic and bring to the boil for around 2-3 minutes. You'll want the sauce to reduce to about half, so if you need to continue boiling more than 2-3 minutes to achieve this, then adjust this time as necessary.
Reduce the heat to a low simmer, and add the lemon zest, lemon juice, the remaining tablespoon of butter and capers. Cook on this low simmer for about 2 minutes. Taste the sauce, and add additional salt or pepper if desired.
Pour this sauce over the chicken, and garnish with Italian parsley. Enjoy!
Suggestions For Serving Chicken Scallopini With Piccata Sauce
This delicious dish is perfect served with pasta, such as spaghetti. I've also served it over rice, as the rice is ideal to soak up the beautiful piccata sauce.
Consider serving some Italian side dishes to accompany your Chicken Scallopini. I'd love to suggest Italian Broccoli With Garlic and Lemon, or Easy and Elegant White Asparagus.
I do hope you will love this dish as much as I do!
Buon Appetito!
FAQ
Scallopini refers to thin slices of meat, and piccata refers to a type of sauce made of butter, lemon, and capers.
Scaloppine dishes are most commonly made with thin slices of veal, beef, or chicken.
Some Other Dishes You May Enjoy!
Here are some other dishes you may enjoy:
- Veal Parmigiana (Classic Italian-American dish)
- Spaghetti Aglio Olio e Peperoncino
- Easy Everything Bagel Breadsticks Recipe
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Grace
Chicken Scallopini With Piccata Sauce Recipe
Equipment
- Large skillet
Ingredients
- 1 lb chicken breast very thinly sliced to ¼" thickness; buy it this way at your grocery store, or we can use a meat mallet to pound it down
- 3 tablespoon butter split
- 1 tablespoon olive oil split
- ½ cup white wine
- 1 cup chicken broth
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- ½ each lemon zest zest from ½ of a lemon
- ½ each lemon juice juice from ½ of a lemon
- ½ ts salt
- ½ ts pepper
- 2 tablespoon capers drained
- 1 tablespoon Italian parsley chopped as garnish
Instructions
- Begin by examining your chicken breasts. You want them to be around ¼" thick. If they are not, then use a meat mallet to pound them down to this thickness. Please note that if you buy very thick slices of chicken breast, it's best to cut them in ½ horizontally using your knife prior to using the meat mallet. To use the meat mallet, place the chicken between two sheets of plastic wrap and pound. Then season both sides of your meat with ½ ts salt and ½ ts pepper.
- Most likely you will have more chicken than will fit in your skillet at one time. Therefore, I'm including instructions to fry the chicken in 2 batches (I assume 2 batches will be enough to cook the 1 lb of chicken that you have). For the first batch, add 1 tablespoon of butter and ½ tablespoon of olive oil to a large skillet on medium heat. Add half the chicken to the skillet, and cook each side approximately 2 minutes - 4 minutes, or until each side is lightly browned. Remove to a plate, and then repeat these instructions with the 2nd batch (add another tablespoon butter and the remaining ½ tablespoon of olive oil at this time). Add this to the plate with the other chicken, and keep warm while we prepare the sauce.
- Add the white wine into the pan, scrape up the brown bits from frying the chicken and deglaze the pan. Now add the chicken stock and garlic and bring to the boil for around 2-3 minutes. You'll want the sauce to reduce to about half, so if you need to continue boiling more than 2-3 minutes to achieve this, then adjust this time as necessary.
- Reduce the heat to a low simmer, and add the lemon zest, lemon juice, the remaining tablespoon of butter and capers. Cook on this low simmer for about 2 minutes. Taste the sauce, and add additional salt or pepper if desired.
- Pour this sauce over the chicken, and garnish with Italian parsley. Enjoy!
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