Chicken Piccata is one of those old fashioned homey Italian dishes that is ready for a comeback.  It’s basically a sautéed chicken cutlet with a pan sauce, so you can have dinner on the table from start to finish in 40 minutes.  A Piccata is typically made with chicken or veal cutlets, although you could make a similar sauce for halibut or other firm fleshed white fish.  It is a bright and lively lemon-y sauce that is garnished with capers and shallots.   If you take an extra step and garnish the final dish with some chopped parsley you can present a restaurant style dish in the comfort of your own home. I like serving this dish with pasta—plain fettuccine is nice, but I am partial to cheese tortellini.  For a vegetable, try sautéed swiss chard or spinach with garlic and a little butter.  Pop open a Sauvignon Blanc or Chardonnay, sit back and enjoy!

Chicken Piccata

Adapted from The America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook

½ cup all purpose flour

2# of boneless, skinless chicken breast, sliced crosswise into thin cutlets.

2 Tbsp. Olive Oil

1 shallot, minced

1 garlic clove, minced

1 cup chicken broth

½ large lemon, sliced into ¼ inch thick slices

1 tsp. lemon zest

2 Tbsp. capers, rinsed *This is important to remove extra salt.

3 Tbsp. butter, cut into 3 pieces and chilled

2 Tbsp. minced fresh parsley (optional)

1. Pat the cutlets dry with paper towels, then season with salt and pepper. Dredge through the flour to coat and shake off the excess.
2. Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat until just smoking.  Add ½ of the cutlets—make sure not to crowd the pan—you want a little bit of space in between the chicken cutlets so that they can brown properly.  Cook the chicken cutlets until they are golden brown on both sides.  Transfer to a plate and repeat the sautéing process with the remaining cutlets.
3. Add the shallot and garlic to the oil left in the skillet and cook over medium heat until they are softened, about 2 minutes.  Stir in the broth and lemon slices, scraping up any browned bits and simmer until reduced and slightly syrupy, 8 minutes.
4. Stir in the lemon zest, capers and any accumulated chicken juice.  Remove the lemon slices from the pan sauce. Turn the heat to low and whisk in the butter, one piece at a time.  Off of the heat, stir in the parsley and season to taste with salt and pepper. 
5. Add the chicken back to the pan sauce to reheat.