Easy Creamy Chicken Piccata

My brother-in-law made this dish for me when I stayed with them. He's taught me a few other dishes so it's fitting that I call him Chef Alcaraz. So, what makes this dish?  Definitely the crispy crust and the oh my, oh my, the lemon-y butter-y sauce goodness. This is the type of sauce that you want to pour over everything you have on your plate - broccoli, rice, pasta, whatever. Trust me, it will taste better with this sauce.

Chef Alcaraz made it with chicken breast but I used what I had in my freezer - boneless chicken thighs and it was just as good. I changed it up by using panko crumbs to give it a crunchier bite to the dish and of course, I used cream. Like this sauce, cream makes everything better, smoother and silkier. 

A key thing to note for this is that you should cook your meat on medium heat, not high. If you cook on high, your meat will cook on the outside too fast and start burning before the middle is cooked. When you realize how easy this dish is to make, you'll cringe a little that you've ever spent the $10 plus dollars on this same dish in a restaurant. 

Creamy Chicken Piccata

Adapted from this recipe

Serves 4

4 boneless chicken thighs

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup panko crumbs

1/2 cup chicken stock

1/3 cup capers

3 tbsp butter

3 tbsp olive oil

1/3 cup cream

1/3 cup fresh lemon juice

Zest from one lemon

Handful of chopped parsley

1. On a clean plate, put the flour and panko crumbs.  Make sure your chicken thighs are washed and thoroughly dried with paper towels. If you find that your thighs vary signficantly in thickness, flatten them out between two sheets of plastic wrap or wax paper.  This helps ensure your meat cooks evenly.

2. Take the dry chicken and evenly coat each piece. 

3. In a pan on medium, heat up the olive oil and 2 tbsp of butter.

4. Cook one side of the chicken for about 5-6 minutes.  Flip the chicken and cook for another 5-6 minutes until crispy and golden brown.

5. Remove the chicken from the pan. There should be plenty of butter and chicken bits left.  If not, you can add in a few extra tbsp of butter or you can do what I do and add in cream. :) Add in the lemon juice, zest, stock and capers. 

6. Once the liquids blend together and you have scraped up the bits of chicken and incorporated into the sauce, add the chicken back into the pan and add in one final tbsp of butter.

7. Remove to serving platter, making sure to add all the sauce and sprinkle the top with chopped parsley.  This is best served with linguine with simple herbs, S&P and olive oil - and even better when you add some of this sauce!  I had leftover rice and that worked well too.