Chicken Piccata

Chicken Piccata: Step by Step

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1. Pat the cutlets dry, season, and dredge in the flour, shaking off the excess.

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2. Heat the oil in a large frying pan over medium-high and cook in two batches, 3 minutes a side, until golden and just cooked. Set aside.

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3. Lower the heat to medium, add 15 g of the butter and the garlic, and stir for 30 seconds.

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4. Pour in the wine and let it bubble for 2 minutes, scraping the base clean, until reduced by half.

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5. Add the stock and the lemon slices and simmer 4 minutes until slightly syrupy.

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6. Stir in the lemon juice and capers and taste — it should be assertively sharp.

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7. Take the pan off the heat and swirl in the remaining cold butter a cube at a time until glossy.

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8. Return the chicken and its juices, turn once to coat, and scatter with parsley.

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Keep an Eye on These

1. Rinse the capers. Straight from the jar they carry enough brine to oversalt the whole sauce.
2. The lemon juice goes in at the end. Boiled lemon juice tastes of pith.
3. Serve immediately. A butter emulsion held warm for twenty minutes will separate.

If You're Missing Something

• An eighth of a teaspoon of garlic powder per clove is the stand-in usually given when you are out of fresh garlic; it will not brown the same way, and it burns easily, so add it with the liquid.
• A dry vermouth keeps for longer than an open bottle of white wine and is the closer swap than a random white left in the fridge; for an alcohol-free version, use the same amount of stock with a squeeze of lemon.

Good to Know About Chicken Piccata

Piccata is a butter emulsion held together by acid and starch, which is why the sauce is finished off the heat: butter beaten into a hot pan splits into oil and milk solids, while butter swirled into a pan below a simmer stays suspended. The flour on the cutlets supplies the starch. Deglazing with wine before the lemon goes in matters too, because lemon juice boiled hard turns bitter — it belongs at the end, where its brightness survives.

On the Table Alongside

Angel hair pasta or a plain risotto · Steamed asparagus · A cold Vermentino

Sides from the same cuisine on this site: Ciabatta, Fave e Cicoria, Focaccia Barese.

Keeping Chicken Piccata

Refrigerated for 3 days, though the sauce is best fresh. Reheat gently and add a squeeze of lemon to wake it up.

Nutrition per Serving

Per serving, an approximate calculation from the ingredient list. Treat it as a rough guide: weights that include bone are counted as if all of it were eaten, so the figures run high. The calories include 3 g of alcohol a serving, which is not part of the protein, carbohydrate or fat. How the figures are worked out.

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