This website may contain affiliate links and advertising so that we can provide recipes to you. Read my disclosure policy.
This creamy lemon chicken piccata is a quick and easy one-pot meal that’s on the dinner table in 30 minutes! Tender breaded chicken in a creamy lemon sauce that the entire family will love.
Chicken is a favorite protein around here with its mild flavor. It works for so many different recipes! You will have to try some of my other favorites, Lemon Garlic Chicken, Marry Me Chicken, and Tuscan Garlic Chicken!
Creamy Lemon Chicken Piccata Recipe
One of our favorite meals of the week was this creamy chicken piccata. My favorite part was that it was a one-pot meal and ready to eat in 30 minutes! This also means easy clean-up! It’s just like the classic chicken piccata dish, but with the added lemon tang. It gives it such a fresh and delicious taste to the creamy sauce. The chicken has a delicious breading on the outside and is so perfect served over some pasta. Everyone in my family loved this meal. It had such a delicious flavor and will be one that we make again and again!
This American-Italian favorite is so creamy and delicious. Piccata literally means, pounded flat and cooked in a sauce of lemon, parsley, and butter. Cooked in one pan and in 30 minutes means you can have an incredible meal on the table in no time. Don’t be scared of the capers! They really make the dish amazing. If you have never had them, this is the perfect dish to try them with. If you love seafood, you’ll have to try this salmon piccata as well! It’s so delicious and packed with light, bright flavor!
Ingredients Needed
Super simple ingredients come together to make an irresistible meal. Serve your creamy lemon chicken piccata with a nice green salad, homemade breadsticks or rolls, and you have a winning dinner on your hands!
- Chicken: Boneless skinless chicken breasts, pounded flat if needed. This is so they cook more evenly!
- Salt and Pepper: Season to taste.
- Flour: Creates a nice breading on the chicken.
- Butter: To cook the chicken in. It also adds a deliciously rich flavor!
- Olive Oil: Also used to cook and add flavor.
- Chicken Broth: A savory base for the sauce.
- Lemons: Fresh whole lemons to use for juice and garnish.
- Heavy Cream: You can also substitute half and half, but it won’t be as creamy in texture.
- Capers: Look for these with the pickles and jarred pepperoncini.
- Parsley: (Optional) For garnish and extra flavor.
- Angel Hair Pasta: You can also use spaghetti noodles if you would like.
What are Capers?
If you have never had capers before, this is the perfect introduction. They’re typically served alongside chicken and salmon dishes, adding a ton of flavor. Capers are under ripened flower buds of a plant known as the caper bush. The capers are picked and dried. Then they are pickled to create this tangy, salty, and briny flavor that is out of this world yummy.
These little pea-sized condiments produce big flavor. A little goes a long way. Use them in salads, pasta, and chicken. Because of their lemony flavor, they are also great with fish. You’ll have to try them out in these other recipes: Pan Seared Scallops with Lemon Caper Sauce, Pasta Puttanesca with Chicken, and Lemon Salmon Piccata.
Making the Perfect Lemon Chicken Piccata
If needed, take the time to pound your chicken to get it nice and thin. You won’t regret it. They will cook faster and more evenly!
- Prepare Skillet, Season Chicken: Heat 2 tablespoons butter and 2 tablespoons of oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Then salt and pepper each side of the chicken breasts
- Adjust Thickness: If the chicken breasts are overly thick, pound them to be thinner. Then the cooking time will be shorter.
- Flour: Using a shallow bowl, dredge the chicken in the flour mixture.
- Brown: Then put the chicken breasts in the skillet. Cook for about 3 minutes on each side, or until it is cooked throughout and no longer pink. Then remove from the skillet and set aside on a plate.
- Sauce: Turn the heat to medium-low. Then add juice from lemons, heavy cream, and capers. Bring the sauce to a boil and then return to medium-low heat. Test the sauce and then season with salt and pepper as needed. Allow the sauce to cook and bubble for about 3 minutes.
- Serve: Serve the chicken over cooked pasta and then spoon the piccata sauce over top. Sprinkle with fresh chopped parsley.
A Reader’s Review
Just made this and it is amazing. Tastes just like the one you order at a local restaurant! It was easy to make and has a great presentation. You won’t be disappointed!
Tips and Variations
Here are a few ways to switch up this simple dish! You’re going to love this lemon chicken piccata. And it can easily be tweaked to your personal tastes! It can also be made keto if you’re wanting a more diet-friendly option!
- Noodles: Truly any kind of pasta can be used to serve this scrumptious lemon piccata dish with. (Want to switch things up? Try tagliatelle!) You can also serve it over steamed vegetables, mashed potatoes, or rice.
- Keto/Low-Carb: To make this meal keto-friendly, use almond flour for coating your chicken in instead of all-purpose flour. You’ll also want to swap out the angel hair pasta for zucchini noodles or protein-packed chickpea noodles.
- Chicken: Make sure your chicken is thin! You can pound each chicken cutlet thin or slice it in half, either way, it will create the size you are looking for.
- Fresh Lemons: I wouldn’t recommend using bottled lemon juice here. It will not taste the same. The fresh lemon really brings this piccata together.
- Capers: Some find the capers to be too salty. If you want to avoid that, just rinse the capers before adding.
Storing Leftover Lemon Chicken Piccata
Another reason why this recipe is the best: it makes fantastic leftovers! This chicken piccata can be heated up easily for a bright, flavorful lunch.
- In the Refrigerator: Keep your lemon chicken piccata in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 4 days. Then warm leftovers in the microwave or over the stove.
Note: It’s best to store the chicken and sauce separately from any noodles so they don’t get soggy.
More Chicken Recipes to Try
Chicken is so versatile. It can be used in all sorts of cuisines. American, Italian, Chinese, Mexican and everything in between. Chicken is a relatively cheap protein making it an economical, family friendly dish! You can boil it, fry it, grill it, bake it, you name it! We also can’t forget the Instant Pot and air fryer! These are all incredible ways to prepare chicken, so if you need a new recipe to try, look no further. I’ve got you covered. (Find my full list of chicken recipes here!)
Pin this now to find it later
Pin It
Creamy Lemon Chicken Piccata
Ingredients
- 4 Chicken Breasts Whole Boneless Skinless
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1/4 cup all purpose flour
- 2 Tablespoons Butter
- 2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
- 1 cup chicken broth
- 2 Lemons whole
- 3/4 Cup Heavy Cream
- 1/4 cup capers
- parsley for garnish, chopped
- 1 pound Angel Hair Pasta
Instructions
- Heat 2 tablespoons butter and 2 tablespoons of oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. (If the chicken breasts are overly thick, pound them to be thinner. Cooking time will be shorter.) Salt and pepper each side of the chicken breasts.
- Dredge the chicken in the flour.
- Put the chicken breasts in the skillet. Cook for about 3 minutes on each side, or until it is cooked throughout and no longer pink. Remove from the skillet and set aside on a plate.
- Turn the heat to medium low. Add broth, juice from both lemons, heavy cream, and capers. Bring the sauce to a boil and return to medium low heat. Test the sauce and season with salt and pepper as needed. Allow the sauce to cook and bubble for about 3 minutes.
- Serve the chicken over cooked pasta and spoon the sauce over both. Sprinkle with fresh chopped parsley.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
This dish is amazing!!! The only thing I changed was actually emerging the chicken breasts in the sauce while the noodles were cooking. It made everything super tender and delicious!!!
I am making this but have never been a fan of capers, so for our family’s taste buds, have added garlic and a little creole seasoning to the sauce. It smells divine!!
Update: I also added some flour and water mixed for thickness and a little whole milk to cut the lemon because it packed quite a bite.
This is a great dish! I made it for my family and they devoured it. I served over brown rice instead of pasta. Yummy!!
I loved the dish but my son couldn’t eat it. The lemon was very overpowering. My lemons were very juicy so next time I will add a little juice at a time. This is a great fast meal. I give it 4 stars for now. I’m sure it will be a five next time with a little less lemon 🙂
Is it okay to leave out the capers? Any good substitutes? I can’t wait to try this recipe, it sounds delicious!
Yes you can! I think the dish would still be great without them and no need to substitute anything. 🙂
The picture of the recipe shows sliced lemons in there, however, recipe does not call for slices of lemon. Please advise.
I just used sliced lemons for garnish.
Made this for dinner last night and it was SO GOOD! Thank you for the recipe! I’ll definitely be making this again! I bought 2 lemons but they were both very ripe, so I only used one – perfect! 🙂
Simple, fast and yummy I like it! It was delicious, however, my little heart would’ve been content with the juice of only one lemon. Also, I’d recommend putting the sauce in a ramekin because it is quite calorie-dense with the cream so your less likely to eat a whole lot of it if it’s served separate from the chicken/noodles.
Overall great recipe, thanks for sharing :O)
I love, love, love this dish! It was a big hit and super easy to make.
do you have a cook book i can order? That would be wonderful if you did.
This was actually pretty good, at least as far as the chicken goes. That was amazing! I think next time if I made it I’d probably use slightly less capers, it was way too overpowering for me.
I made this for dinner last night–easy AND absolutely delicious!! Will be making this again soon!
Love lemon and chicken together! Thanks for the recipe!
My family loved this dinner and thanked me tremendously for making it. The best recipe I’ve tried yet!
If you love Lemon and Capers you’ll love this recipe. I’m not a huge fan of capers so I didn’t enjoy it has much as I would have like to. The Lemon gives the dish a nice flavor and the chicken was nice and moist. My son enjoyed it, he ate a second plate. I will say when I made his plate I didn’t add the capers, because the capers are salty I thought he would bite into one and ate the dish. Next time I serve the dish I will serve it with the capers to see what he thinks. Thank you for sharing your recipe 🙂
Rinsing the capers before adding them to the dish will help knock off some of the saltiness. I rinse mine because I like to be able to taste all the different ingredients, not just the salty stuff. Hope that helps!
I made this recipe last night and it was divine!!! My fiancé was pleasantly surprised and wants me to put this on our meal rotation! Thank you for sharing!!
Looks Yummy