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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!)
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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.
Made this tonight. We all loved it & will add it to my recipe box. Thank you !
My sauce was really runny. is it supposed to be that way? I’m not sure if I did something wrong or if its supposed to be that way. I saw on other recipes that they reduce the broth and lemon juice before adding the cream.
How do you keep the lemon from curdling the cream?
My husband (the cook in our family) made this tonight and it was SO AMAZING! One of the best meals Ive had in a very long time! He says he will tweak it next time, adjust the chicken stock and heavy cream both to 1/2 cup just to get a thicker, more creamy sauce. However I thought it was ABSOLUTELY PERFECT when he perfectly followed this recipe.
The adjustments I made were: 1 1/2 lemons, replaced capers with 1/4 cup of chopped black olives, 1/2 tsp taragon, 1/2 tsp dill, 1/2 tsp rosemary to sauce. To counter balance the acidity I added 1 tbsp honey and 2 tbsp brown sugar. Sautéed chicken and put in a 9×13 added sauce sautéed an onion and pepper which I added to the sauce and put in a 375 deg oven for 20 min.
Served with rice and stir fried asparagus, mushrooms and bell peppers. Turned out amazing!!
That is not even the same recipe!
No kidding!
Calling this an adjustment had me falling over. You completely rewrote your own recipie. Perhaps you should start your own blog.
I read the recipe three times to make sure I followed it correctly, it didn’t come out as expected without some tweaks. The juice of 2 whole lemons was too much so I needed to double the cream , broth and capers. Also when lemon juice and a milk product are combined the milk looks curdled. I needed to boil sauce for a good 20 min before it started to look creamy. After that it was a good meal
My husband adored this dish. It was super simple to make and I appreciated the creaminess of the dish without feeling too guilty about the 3/4 C. heavy cream. 🙂
Making this tonight…Have you ever used wine instead of chicken broth or both?
I have but it seemed to be to tangy for me. The broth was more subtle. 🙂
Did you use salted or unsalted butter?
I always have salted on hand but either would work.
The chicken was great. I seasoned the chicken and the flour and it came out perfect. I made this and the sauce ended up having a funny taste. I love capers but for some reason instead of releasing the great caper taste, it made the sauce more bitter. The sauce also wasn’t enough for one pound so I would double it.
Maybe if you rinse & thoroughly drain the capers, that should take away the “brine” flavor leaving just the delicious caper flavor without the overpowering brine flavor
I made this tonight using the juice from one lemon and shredded cauliflower instead of pasta. It was fantastic! Thank you for sharing!
His just wanted to know would I be able to use without the flour? I’m afraid that it’ll make the chicken breast soggy…
Made this tonight and it was delicious. I only had drums and thighs, so I used them in place of the breasts, and placed them in the oven to finish cooking till the sauce finished. My two lemons produced about half cup of juice, and the sauce had a very assertive lemon flavor, but it was still so delish. Thank you for sharing a quick and flavorful dish!
Absolutely delicious, so easy and so quick to make! Win- win!
I came across this on pintrest and I made it, was SO DELICIOUS! Thank you!
Is there any way you could lighten this recipe for those of us trying to slim down?
You could always substitute the heavy cream for half and half or even milk. It might just not be as creamy. 🙂
in my humble opinion, this dish does not really need cream or milk…
If you want to skip the heavy cream, you can use very small amounts of flour to thicken the sauce. You’ll need a little more broth. I also used 1/4 cup of carton unsweetened coconut milk. It worked out perfectly.