Chicken Piccata

Sharing classic Chicken Piccata made with boneless skinless chicken thighs. A delightful chicken dinner with caper, garlic and a 10 minute pan sauce. All you need is a crusty bread or pasta to mop the delicious Piccata Sauce and dinner is served. Can also make low-carb with zoodles. 

Honestly, Piccata is all about flavorful piccata sauce. This recipe is my food-proof (and favorite) way to make piccata sauce. In just a few minutes sauce comes together and is loaded with refreshing flavor of lemon, capers and is buttery smooth sauce without creams.. Just like Chicken Piccata served in restaurants.

For a lite version, I also recommend to checkout my Shrimp Piccata recipe.

Chicken Piccata

Piccata is an Italian main dish made with skillet-cooked dredged crispy chicken coated in a lemony capers and butter pan sauce. Where most Piccata recipes feature chicken piccata cooked with chicken breast.. I love to make Chicken Piccata with succulent Chicken Thighs (skinless boneless). Chicken thighs are well worked meat which cooks moist and juicy. Thighs don't dry out when cooked quickly in pan like for Chicken Piccata.

Don't worry if you wish to use Chicken Breast for this recipe. The method of cooking Chicken Piccata stays the same. I only recommend to watch while cooking the chicken breast. Make sure that chicken is cooked through yet not dried or overcooked.

Honestly, only 25-30 minutes start to finish, Chicken Piccata is perfect to impress your guests to a delightful restaurant quality dinner. 

Let's not wait and learn to make Chicken Piccata!

What Do You Need to Make Chicken Piccata?

There are just a few ingredients that make perfect Piccata. In this recipe, the star ingredients to make Chicken Piccata is Chicken Thighs, Capers, Chicken Stock and Garlic.

Here is a complete list of ingredients to make Chicken Piccata:

1. Chicken
2. Capers
3. Chicken Stock Or chicken bouillon mixed with water. 
4. Garlic
5. Oregano or Thyme
6. Olive Oil
7. Butter
8. Lemon Juice
9. All Purpose Flour
10. Salt and pepper

Good quality Chicken Bouillon is great substitute for chicken stock. It is my favorite short cut when I don't have chicken stock in-hand. It gives delicious depth of flavor to the sauce. I only recommend to adjust salt to taste. Just as you would for regular chicken stock.

These few ingredients make magic in the skillet and make a restaurant style Chicken Piccata. I bet you will love the flavors.

Cooking Chicken for Chicken Piccata

I use boneless skinless chicken thighs (each chicken thigh halved into two) for Piccata.

A lite dredge of flour, salt and pepper makes perfect coating over chicken. It turns to lite crust when chicken cooks in the skillet. Crust also helps soak up the flavor of lemony caper and garlic piccata sauce which makes it even more delicious.

Note: Pat chicken dry to develop crisp crust faster. This will make a lot of difference in texture of crust as dredge will adhere better on the chicken.

Don't forget to shake off excess flour before adding chicken to the oil for cooking.

Making Chicken Piccata Sauce

When dredged chicken for Chicken Piccata cooks in the skillet, it gets crispy and lots of tasty brown bits stick to the bottom of the skillet. This is the secret to make a tasty Piccata Sauce. After cooking chicken, I fry capers and garlic and then deglaze pan with chicken stock and wine. The brown bits from cooking chicken in pan are lifted with deglaze. Also sauce thickens and takes lite color from the caramelized flavor bits.

In just 15 minutes of cooking, start to finish, Piccata Sauce gets amazing depth of flavor. The notes of citrus, garlic, wine and caramelized bits of cooked chicken crust make a delicious piccata pan sauce. Always perfect when finished with tablespoon of the butter after cooking! 

I must mention that smashed garlic in the sauce tastes very good. Please don't skip it! Thank you for listening. :) 

What to Serve with Chicken Piccata?

Chicken Piccata is delicious on its own. The sauce is perfect to mop with a crusty bread or pasta.

Here are my 3 top favorite ways to serve Piccata:

1. Serve Piccata with pasta.
2. For low carb, serve Chicken Piccata with zucchini noodles. Sauté noodles in same skillet in which cooked Chicken Piccata. After Step-4, i.e., removing sauce from the skillet, add 2 tsp of oil and zoodles. Sauté on high heat until noodles are slightly caramelized. Serve immediately. 
3. Serve steamed broccoli, or asparagus on the side.

Make Ahead

Chicken Piccata stays good in refrigerator for up-to 4 days.

To reheat, microwave or heat Chicken Piccata on low until sauce and chicken are heated through. If sauce thickens up a lot then take chicken pieces out. Refresh the sauce with some chicken stock and finish with little butter and black pepper as shown in Step 4 of the Recipe Card. Add chicken back in and heat gently until heated through. Serve and enjoy!