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Chicken scallopini or thin slices of chicken cooked and garnished with Italian parsley with a sauce of capers, garlic, lemon juice, chicken broth and butter poured over the chicken.

Chicken Scallopini With Piccata Sauce Recipe

Grace
Chicken Scallopini With Piccata Sauce is a quick, easy and delicious Italian dish which your whole family will love! Thin slices of chicken breast accompanied by a buttery lemon and caper sauce is absolutely mouthwatering! Buon Appetito!
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 12 minutes
Total Time 27 minutes
Course dinner
Cuisine Italian
Servings 4 people
Calories 206 kcal

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.
    Chicken breast placed between plastic wrap with a meat mallet poised over it.
  • 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.
    Thin slices of seasoned chicken breast cooking in a cast iron skillet in a mixture of olive oil and butter.
  • 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.
    Brown bits left from frying chicken in a cast iron skillet being deglazed by wine with a blue kitchen turner resting on the skillet at the top left.
  • 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.
    Chicken broth, white wine, butter, garlic, capers, lemon juice and lemon zest in a cast iron pan.
  • Pour this sauce over the chicken, and garnish with Italian parsley. Enjoy!
    Seasoned thinly sliced chicken breast cooked in a lemon and caper sauce garnished with Italian parsley.

Notes

For 1 pound of chicken, it's likely we will have between 5-6 pieces of chicken for this scallopini.
This dish is great served over pasta.  I've actually also enjoyed it over rice as the rice soaks up the delicious piccata sauce. 
Buon Appetito!

Nutrition

Calories: 206kcalCarbohydrates: 3gProtein: 26gFat: 7gSaturated Fat: 1gPolyunsaturated Fat: 1gMonounsaturated Fat: 4gTrans Fat: 0.01gCholesterol: 74mgSodium: 565mgPotassium: 525mgFiber: 0.3gSugar: 1gVitamin A: 143IUVitamin C: 4mgCalcium: 32mgIron: 1mg
Keyword chicken scallopini, lemon caper sauce, scallopini
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