Creamy Lemon Chicken Piccata - The Recipe Critic (2024)

FAQs

What does Giada chicken piccata serve? ›

Chicken piccata can be served with an array of side dishes. Popular choices include buttery mashed potatoes, angel hair pasta or crisp salad with Italian vinaigrette.

Piccata, though, is an Italian word meaning larded. It seems to be a translation of the French word pique (sharp, as in piquant). When used in a reference to a way of preparing food (particularly meat or fish) it means sliced and sauteed in a sauce containing lemon, butter, and spices.

The difference between the two is for Francese, the chicken breast is first dipped in flour, then into a beaten egg mixture, before being cooked. For piccata, the chicken is first dipped in egg and then in flour. Both are then simmered in a lemony butter sauce, but the piccata sauce includes capers.”

What Is Chicken Piccata? Chicken piccata is nothing more than chicken breast cutlets, dredged in flour, browned, and served with a sauce of butter, lemon juice, capers, and either stock or white wine.

Roasted Broccolini

While you cook up the piccata on the stovetop, let your oven handle roasting the broccolini in just 25 minutes. It comes together with just salt, pepper, olive oil, Parmesan, and a lemon.

For the sauce, use a dry Italian white wine such as Pinot Grigio or Vermentino and have it ready to pour into the pan the minute the garlic turns golden so that nothing burns.

In Italian cuisine piccata is prepared using veal (piccata di vitello al limone, lit. 'veal piccata with lemon'), whereas in Italian-American cuisine, chicken is more commonly used. A similar dish, pesce spada con capperi e limone, is made with swordfish.

Chicken piccata as we know it doesn't actually seem to have origins in Italy. It's likely an Italian-American invention, a derivative of a couple of different classic Italian cooking techniques, like scaloppine which means “thin slices of meat (such as veal) sautéed or coated with flour and fried”.

Chicken piccata can turn out bitter for a couple of reasons. Over-reducing the sauce can concentrate the lemon and caper flavors too much causing bitterness. Also, if capers aren't rinsed properly, they can add a bitter taste.

The best thing to reach for is a dash of quality white wine vinegar mixed with chicken or vegetable stock. The rule of thumb is 1 tablespoon of vinegar per 1 cup of stock. For this chicken piccata, that would be 1/2 cup stock mixed with 1 1/2 teaspoons white wine vinegar.

How to cut chicken for chicken piccata? ›

To Prepare. Cut each chicken breast in half crosswise, then cut thick half in half again horizontally, creating 3 cutlets of similar thickness. Place cutlets between sheets of plastic wrap and gently pound to even ½-inch thickness. Place cutlets in bowl and toss with 2 teaspoons salt and ½ teaspoon pepper.

Piccata refers to a sauce (made with lemon, capers, broth, and butter) that's often partnered with chicken, while scallopini refers to the method for preparing the chicken. Chicken scallopini can be finished with piccata sauce, or another sauce.

Giada De Laurentiis' Lemon Spaghetti is a dish that encapsulates summer freshness. It's light, zesty, and offers a refreshing alternative to heavier pasta dishes. Whether you're a seasoned chef or just getting started in the kitchen, this dish is sure to impress.

To make it a Milanese you need to make a sauce by deg-lazing the pan with white wine and a little lemon juice and then finish it off with a tab of butter. Then to make it a Piccata you add a small jar of capers. Voila dinner 3 ways! Salt and pepper both sides of the cutlets, dredge lightly in flour.

Her pastas, which cost $10.50 per box, have all been made by regional producers in Italy and feature eight shapes, including bucatini, paccheri, manfredi lunghi, and spaghetti chitarra. Pasta is one of my favorite foods and I'm always trying (and ranking) new recipes.