Easy Chicken Piccata
Piccata is an Italian way of cooking beef, chicken or fish - it's actually pieces of meat, browned in butter and served with a delicious sour sauce of lemon, butter, capers and white wine. I chose to make the most handy version, with chicken, and I can honestly tell you that I have already cooked about 5-6 batches of Chicken Piccata in the last month. It was a real success, each time it got eaten quickly, with great pleasure.
The only fancy ingredient is the capers, but they can be found in any supermarket and you really shouldn't let this get in your way. They are perfect here and bring an aromatic touch to the sauce. In case of emergency, they can be replaced with chopped pickled cucumbers, but only in great need!
Cut the chicken breasts into thin slices. If it's a smaller breast, cut in 2, lengthwise.
If it's thicker, try slicing into 3 pieces.
If it's beef, you should pound to tenderize.
Season each piece of meat with salt and pepper on both sides.
Proceed like this with all the meat you have, place on a plate, set aside.
In a plate, combine flour with parmesan.
If you don't have parmesan, you can make without. Most of the time I've seen it done that way.
In a somewhat large saucepan, pour the olive oil and 30g of butter, heat well.
Coat each slice of chicken in flour and parmesan.
Fry the breasts over medium heat.
Be sure to brown the breasts and cook completely on both sides - otherwise we can't call it thermal processing.
When they are done, transfer the breasts on a larger plate and cover with foil or a towel to keep warm.
While the meat is cooking, prepare the ingredients for the sauce.
Notice I cut the lemon in half. Thinly slice one half, leave the other one whole - we'll squeeze the juice from it.
In the pan in which you fried the meat, place the chopped garlic and cook for 10 seconds, stirring periodically.
Pour the wine and squeeze the juice from half a lemon.
Simmer for 5-10 minutes until liquid is reduced by about half.
Then add 20g of butter and the lemon slices to the pan. Mix well and notice that the sauce is beginning to bind.
Add the capers and chopped parsley, mix well and turn off the heat.
Notice that I didn't put salt in the sauce. The capers are slightly salty and it's better to taste before.
When I first tasted it, I thought it was quite sour and I said I'd messed up the recipe. After combining the sauce with the meat, it was perfect.
Pour this sauce right away over the meat and serve.
It's so good that it works with any garnish - vegetables, potatoes, rice etc.
Enjoy!
