Chicken Piccata

This is a wonderful Chicken Piccata that I have tweaked through the years. This is an Italian dish that consists of thinly pounded meat, which has been floured, seasoned and then BRIEFLY sautéed. The meat is served with a sauce that has been made from the pan drippings, lemon juice, wine and chopped parsley. This was our oldest son Nathan’s favorite dish I made while growing up. What a joy to cook for loved ones…especially their favorites!

Ingredients:

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 TBS butter, divided use
2 TBS extra virgin olive oil, divided use
¼ cup flour
Salt
Fresh Ground Pepper
2 tsp of your favorite Creole Seasoning like Tony Chachere’s (optional and not typical for true Piccata but we love it)
4 cloves garlic, minced
¾ cup white wine (a wine you would drink)
1 cup chicken stock
¼ cup fresh lemon juice
¼ cup capers, rinsed
¼ - ½ cup Parmesan cheese, grated
1-pound fresh mushrooms, sliced - optional
½ red, green and yellow pepper, cut into strips -optional

Garnish:
½ Cup Italian parsley, chopped
Grated parmesan cheese
Curls of lemon rind

Method:

Mix Flour with salt, pepper and bayou blast.  Melt 1TBS butter and 1 TBS EVOO in skillet on medium high.  Place chicken breasts in Ziploc and pound with mallet to flatten.   Coat chicken in flour mixture and sauté on each side until nice and golden brown…about 4 minutes per side.  Reserve any remaining flour. 

Remove chicken from pan and add remaining butter, EVOO and garlic to pan.  Sauté the garlic for one minute.  At this point add the optional ingredients (mushrooms and sliced peppers). Add wine to deglaze pan.  Add chicken broth, lemon juice, capers and parmesan cheese.  Bring to boil, stirring often.

Use 2 Tbs of remaining flour mixture and mix with 1-2 TBS water, stirring until smooth.  Add this mixture to the sauté pan and boil, stirring often.   If the sauce is too thick, simply add a little chicken stock. 

Place Chicken Breasts back in pan and cover.  Cook for 10-15 minutes until chicken fully cooked.  You can also place chicken breasts in a Pyrex pan, pour sauce over and finish cooking in oven at 350 covered for 15 minutes.  Garnish with fresh Italian Parsley, Grated Parmesan and curls of lemon rind.   This can be served with rice or linguine pesto and sautéed spinach.