Servings: 4 Prep: 15 min Cook: 15 mins Total: 30 min
This recipe is kind of fun. It’s something my Mom makes for my Dad all the time, but she wanted help to lower the carbs. The dish actually originated in Italy, with veal. In the US, it’s usually chicken. In all cases … it’s an AWESOME dish. I love the acidity and butteriness of it all. The flavors are strong, but wise!
Here’s the original email from my Mom: “Here is the recipe for Chicken Piccata, although, note that it is from Giada de Laurentiis, so, you may have to change it a bit in order to make it ‘your’ recipe. You can do that by figuring out how to either eliminate the flour, or change the flour to something else. Anyway, here it is and it’s awesome!
Oh! I also forgot to mention that with the chicken piccata recipe, I ‘upped’ the amount of capers – by probably double. I did that because your dad loves capers, but also I think it adds more flavor and interest to the recipe. And, I cooked them a bit more in the saucepan (at the end) with the chicken breasts, the oil and the butter to make the capers just a tiny bit on the crunchy side. (Not ‘real’ crunchy; just slightly crunchy). Makes them yummy good! Cheers! – Mom”
I took my Mom’s recommendation, low-carbed it and then added my zestful glee!
My Mom's Chicken Piccata Recipe
Print RateIngredients
- 4 each whole boneless/skinless chicken breasts
- 1/4 cup parsley chopped and divided
- 1 cup almond flour
- 2 each lemons
- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1/2 cup fresh whole butter cubed
- 1/3 cup capers rinsed and dried on towel
- 1/2 cup chicken stock or broth
- salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste
Instructions
- Butterfly the chicken breasts (or buy them that way). Lay a chicken breast on a flat cutting board. Place a knife parallel to the cutting board, about 1/2 inch above the surface. Slice into the breast, maintaining a slice that is parallel to the cutting board and essentially cuts the breast in half. Both top and bottom halves should be equal in thickness.
- Once you've got thin sheets of chicken breast, place each piece between two sheets of plastic wrap and pound even thinner. You can use a mallet, rolling pin, or even the bottom of a sauce pan. Just be careful to hit it flatly and evenly, or else you will make deep divots in the chicken. Ideally, the chicken will be a thin and even sheet of chicken breast when you are done.
- Remove each slice from the plastic and VERY lightly season the chicken with salt and pepper. Set aside.
- Mix together the almond flour and half of the chopped parsley.
- Dredge the sheets of chicken within the almond flour mixture. Coat them well and then just leave the chicken within the almond flour. As it stays in there, the moisture will continue to release from the chicken, which will travel out into the almond flour, making a slightly thicker crust and better adhesion.
- While the chicken hangs out in the almond flour, put a small pot of water on the stove to boil.
- Use a vegetable peeler to peel the very thin outside layer of one lemon. You want strips of only the yellow part (the zest, not the pith).
- Stack the little strips of yellow zest on top of one another, and then slice them into very thin little strands or strips. Drop these into the boiling water for 30 seconds (this removes the acrid bitterness). Remove the blanched strands of lemon zest from the water and set aside.
- Juice the two lemons and set the juice aside.
- Place a large sauté pan on the stove to begin heating up.
- In a large sauté pan, over medium-high heat, add your olive oil. When it begins to lightly ripple, add some chicken slices. Fit as many slices into the pan as is possible, without the slices resting on any other part of the other pieces. There should be one clear layer of chicken. Add 1/6th of the butter and let it melt in the pan. Swirl the pan around.
- When the chicken is golden around the edges, carefully flip the chicken to brown the other side.
- Once the chicken is brown, remove it and set it aside somewhere warm. Repeat this process, adding a little bit of butter and oil, until all the chicken is cooked.
- After all the chicken has been cooked, add a small amount of oil and the capers. Fry them up!
- Before anything gets burned, add the chicken stock and lemon juice.
- Reduce the sauce by about half, or until it begins to very slightly, but ... noticeably ... thicken.
- Make sure you have about 3 tablespoons of fresh butter left, at this point. It should be cubed into about 12 little cubes.
- Turn the heat off the pan and add a small piece of cold fresh butter to the pan and swirl it around. When one piece of butter is about halfway melted, add a second piece of cold fresh butter. When that second piece is halfway melted, add a third piece. Keep swirling in the cold fresh pieces of butter, until it has created a lovely and luxurious chicken/lemon jus. (this is done in this manner, so that the butter is incorporated into the jus, without simply melting and forming an oil slick on the top of the stock. This slow cold swirling method emulsifies it into the stock in a method known as "Monté" (pronounced "Mont-tay")).
- At the last minute, add the lemon zest and fresh chopped parsley to the sauce.
- Divide the chicken between 4 plates and pour the sauce over each.
- Serve!
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* Learn More: More about this recipe and nutrition …
DJ, try to guess what we’re having for dinner tonight? Yep, and I’ll let you know just how much we enjoy it, okay?
Hi Viki! Hmmm …. pizza? *wink* Yes, please let me know what you think!
I do this recipe at home and the family loves it. However, I do add garlic just after the capers and just before the chicken broth.
Any suggestions on how to sub butter to make this recipe paleo friendly? Thanks for your thoughts!
Hi Lauren, you could just completely skip the butter. It’s there to add some fat and thicken the sauce and add a bit of sheen, but … without the butter, it’s still going to be quite tasty! Another option would be to use a different source of chilled solid fat. My mind, obviously, turns to adding small amounts of chilled bacon fat and swirling that into the sauce. This should perform the same tasks as the butter and be Paleo. I hope this helps! 🙂
I made this but added pancetta and artichoke hearts…it was amazing
Sounds like a perfect addition, Unknown! Thanks for the note! 🙂
I made this for dinner tonight. Hm-m-m-m good!!!!
Yep, unknown … this is a tasty one! 🙂
Hi!
I was curious if it were possible to use thin pork loin slices for this instead of chicken?
Thanks so much! I love all your recipes
I think the nutrition info is wrong, it states 4 chicken breasts have 1169 calories and 61 g fat? I doubt that – in fact it’s not possible. What kind of chicken breast are you buying?? LOL
Carol, I honestly don’t remember which ingredient I used for this one. "Chicken" in the USDA database has many options. I agree with you, though … I’m not finding anything that perfectly matches. It could be a typo. What is the issue in your mind? Breasts too big? Too fatty? In my estimation … both of those are true. I’ll look deeper, but … what do you feel it should read?
Made this tonight… DELICIOUS…. going to try it with veal next time
I’m confused by the ingredient list. It says “lemons 2 each”. To me that means per person, but it seems like you only meant 2, right? Also, is it possible to double the sauce without wrecking it?
—Reply posted by DJ on 1/7/2015
Hi Meagan, yep, 2 “total” lemons. It’s a long story, but I needed something in that spot to keep the page from blowing up. Like … 1 “tsp” of something or 1 “cup” of something. I can’t just have 1 something. My system requires a unit of measurement for the database. I opted to put the word “each” in there … and have somewhat regretted it, ever since. It’s just 2 lemons. Yes, you can double the sauce, but you’ll still need to reduce it and add the butter. I DO tend to find this winds up thinner, somehow. It shouldn’t, but … it somehow always does. Still tasty, though! I hope this helps!
I am new to all these flour types. I have a ton of coconut flour. Can I use that instead of Almond flour? I love this dish.
—Reply posted by DJ on 3/6/2015
Hi Chris. I really wouldn’t. I think it could work as a breading, but the coconut flour is a very distinct flavor and I think it might be at odds with some of these other flavors. It’s wonderful in a lot of sweet things, or somewhat tropical savory things, but … in something like this, I feel like it’d stand out like a sore coconut. Try any number of the other nut flours, though. Hazelnut flour would be nice. Or, just try pulverizing some pecans, for example. I think these might be a bit better suited for the flavor. I hope this helps!
I made this recipe tonight, it was delicious!!
—Reply posted by DJ on 6/1/2015
Wonderful! Thank you for your comment! 🙂
I made and served this for dinner tonight, and it was a big hit for the full family, husband, son, and daughters alike. This was a great surprise as some of them resist new foods (capers were new to the kids and I was afraid the obvious lemon zest would turn them off) and two of my kids claim to hate nuts, almonds in particular. Whatever their claims, they LOVED it and all ate seconds, told me to keep the recipe and please make it more often.
Thank you for your quality recipes. I’ve been saving them over the last few weeks and have been gradually trying out new ones here and there. So far, they’ve all gone over well!
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