Easy Healthy Chicken Piccata Recipe

This healthy and easy Chicken Piccata recipe is intensely flavorful, with sautéd lemons and garlic. It’s a fail-proof Italian chicken recipe that’s an absolute keeper.

chicken piccata in a pan

Easy, Healthy Chicken Piccata

If your regular chicken dinner routine craves some jazzing up, you’ve. come to the right place. We’ve got non-boring chicken on the menu for your busy weeknight dinner.

As is our motto, we’re making food that tastes extraordinary using ordinary ingredients. Simple yet scrumptious. We’re talking scrumptious meals in 30 minutes, with 10 ingredients or less (in one single pan.) No compromise on flavor.

It’s easy to get into a rut with humdrum chicken recipes when schedules keep us hustling on our toes all week long. That’s a common dinner time reality. You know it’s time for some zest in the dinner routine the eaters aren’t all fired up about chicken on the menu.

Thankfully, it’s totally easy to sprinkle some spunk into an otherwise average chicken meal with the addition of a few simple ingredients.

chicken piccata with lemon slices

Buying Capers

This Chicken Piccata recipe is made up of a handful of ingredients you probably already have in your kitchen. Unless you serendipitously have a jar of capers sitting in your pantry, it might be the only ingredient you’ll need to buy for your chicken piccata dish. Luckily, it’s usually easy to find a little jar of briny capers on your grocery store shelves.

Capers are reminiscent of pickles, in miniature morsel form. In fact, you’ll usually find little jars of capers next to jars of pickles and olives at the grocery store. Because jars of capers are typically brined in salt, water, and vinegar, they keep really well in your fridge after opening (unopened jars can keep for a long time in your pantry.) These tiny capers provide the  salty/tangy flavor that’s classic in chicken piccata.

Just a light sprinkling of capers adds huge flavor, so you’ll have plenty left over in your little jar to keep for all your future chicken piccata nights.

Serve with Noodles or Rustic Bread

Besides the briny kick of capers, this chicken piccata is intensely flavored with plenty of garlic, onion, and fresh lemon slices that are sautéd until gloriously browned. It’s a winning combination that results in tender, luscious chicken in one single pan.

There’s plenty of intensely flavorful sauce for dipping this rustic rosemary bread into, or you can serve all the goodness over this super easy spaghetti aglio e olio.

chicken piccata in skillet

Whether it’s a casual, quick weeknight dinner or you’re hosting a weekend meal for friends, this chicken piccata is destined to be an instant hit.

Jazz up your chicken dinner routine with a handful of ingredients and one pan. Enjoy.

You’ll probably really like this recipe, too:

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Easy Healthy Chicken Piccata Recipe

★★★★★

5 from 13 reviews

This Easy, Healthy Chicken Piccata Recipe isn’t just another chicken dinner recipe. Chicken Piccata is an deliciously intense with flavorful dish with sauteéd lemons and garlic. This is an Italian chicken recipe you’ll want to add to your dinner rotation now.

  • Prep Time: 20 mins
  • Cook Time: 8 mins
  • Total Time: 28 mins

Yield: 4 1x

Ingredients

Scale
  • 4 chicken breasts
  • 1/2 cup flour
  • 3 TB extra virgin olive oil
  • 1/2 cup onion, chopped
  • 8 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 TB freshly squeezed lemon juice (about 1 large lemon)
  • 1 lemon, thinly sliced
  • 1/2 cup regular chicken broth
  • 1 TB capers, drained
  • 1 TB salted butter
  • kosher salt + freshly ground black pepper, to taste
  • Optional garnish: freshly chopped parsley

Instructions

  1. Place chicken breasts on cutting board and cover with plastic wrap. Pound to even thickness. Use paper towels to dab off excess moisture from chicken.
  2. Sprinkle each piece of chicken with a thin layer of kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper on both sides. Place flour in a shallow dish. Coat each piece of chicken in flour, shaking off excess.
  3. In an extra large skillet, heat 2 TB olive oil over medium high heat until oil is hot. Add chicken to skillet (cook in batches if needed, to avoid overcrowding.) Cook for 2-3 minutes of each side or until no longer pink in center; don’t overcook. Use tongs to transfer chicken to a separate plate; keep warm.
  4. Without cleaning the skillet out, add 1 TB olive oil to same skillet over medium high heat. When oil is hot, add onion and garlic, stirring 1-2 min until fragrant. Add lemon juice and lemon slices, scraping pan if needed to loosen any browned bits. Cook until lemon slices are nicely browned. Add broth, capers and butter, stirring just until butter melts. Pour lemon mixture over chicken and serve. Garnish with freshly chopped parsley, if desired.

Notes

Though piccata and capers go hand in hand, feel free to go light on the capers if your eaters (or you!) don’t like them. You can even omit them and still have a delicious dish. 

This dish is fantastic served with this 15 Min Spaghetti Aglio e Olio or Garlic Rosemary Bread

If you enjoyed this recipe, please come back and give it a rating 🙂 

Nutrition

  • Serving Size: 1
  • Calories: 239
  • Sugar: 2.6 g
  • Sodium: 181.8 mg
  • Fat: 14.6 g
  • Carbohydrates: 20.2 g
  • Protein: 9.1 g
  • Cholesterol: 28.9 mg
  • Category: Dinner, Main, Chicken
  • Method: Stovetop
  • Cuisine: Italian

Keywords: chicken piccata recipe

Did you make this?

Leave a comment below and tag @chewoutloud on Instagram

Kitchen Stuff We Love:

Extraordinary Chicken Dinners With Ordinary Ingredients:

  1. 30-Minute One-Pan Salsa Verde Chicken

2. Lemon Basil Orzo with Chicken

3. Sheet Pan Roast Chicken with Potatoes

4. Chicken Shawarma (Whole 30 and Paleo compliant):

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Add a comment

Recipe rating ★☆ ★☆ ★☆ ★☆ ★☆

54 comments

    • Eric

    • ★★★★★

    This is unbelievably easy and super tasty. My whole family loves it!

    • Sarah White

    • ★★★★★

    What a great dinner! The dish is quick, tasty, and a keeper. We loved it.

      • chewoutloud

      SO happy you guys loved it, Sarah!

    • Holly

    • ★★★★★

    Love, love, love this recipe

      • chewoutloud

      Yay, Holly!

    • Debbie

    • ★★★★★

    We adored this chicken piccata ! This is a new family favorite for sure , it was so flavorful. I loved the brine from the capers , it went so well with the garlic and freshness of the lemon. You are so right , this dish is going into our meal rotation,

      • chewoutloud

      Yay, Debbie! SO happy you guys loved it 🙂

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