Chicken piccata

Piccata is a way to prepare meat where the meat is tenderized, dredged in flour, sautéed and then served with a sauce. In this case the sauce is a tangy lemon-caper butter sauce. It is quite easy to prepare and a great dish to serve for company.  This recipe also works well with veal.

I like to serve it with brown butter sage tagliatelle noodles (recipe can be found here).

I butterfly the chicken breasts and pound them between two pieces of wax paper using a meat tenderizer until about 1/2 inch thin.

What you will need: 

Serves 4-6

3 large boneless skinless chicken breasts (butterflied and tenderized)

Salt and fresh ground black pepper

All purpose flour for dredging 

6 tbsp of unsalted butter 

4 tbsp of olive oil

1/3-1/2 cup of lemon juice

1/2 cup of chicken stock

1/4 cup brined capers, rinsed

Directions:

 Season tenderized chicken with salt and pepper on both sides.

Dredge chicken in flour and shake off excess flour.

In a large sauce pan over medium-high heat melt 2 tbsp of butter with 2 tbsp of olive oil. Once the oil and butter is hot add 2-3 pieces of chicken and brown on each side (3 min a side).  Transfer chicken on to a place. Add 2 more tbsp of olive oil and butter and repeat process with remaining chicken.

Transfer chicken onto a plate.

In the pan add lemon juice, chicken stock and capers. Bring to a boil and make sure to scrape up all the browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Add one tbsp of butter.

Return chicken to pan and let simmer for 5-7 min until chicken is done.

Place your chicken on a platter and melt the remaining tbsp of butter into the sauce. Pour sauce over the chicken. Garnish with freshly chopped parsley if you wish.

Recipe courtesy of Giada De Laurentiis.