20-Minute Chicken Piccata Recipe

Looking for an easy weeknight dinner that the whole family will enjoy? This 20-minute chicken piccata is incredibly simple to make, so it's the perfect choice for busy weekdays. It's full of warm and comforting flavors, with a sauce that's bright and acidic from the lemon juice, salty from the capers, and with just enough butter to give the dish a rich finish. It's easy to make on a budget since it's made with affordable boneless skinless chicken breasts, but it tastes every bit as good as a restaurant meal.

This recipe takes only 20 minutes — including prep time — so it's almost as easy to make as getting take-out. If the first step of butterflying or pounding the chicken into 1/2-inch-thick pieces seems too overwhelming, pick up a package of chicken tenders instead. The leftovers taste great, too, and the recipe is easy to double (or triple) if you're meal planning for the week.

You may recognize this dish by several different names: chicken scallopini, chicken Milanese, chicken Francese, or chicken marsala. What's the difference between all these dishes? Each has a minor variation that makes it unique.

For starters, all these dishes are a version of chicken scallopini. Scallopini refers to thin slices of meat that are coated in flour and sauteed. Bon Appétit goes on to explain that chicken Milanese has a crunchy exterior thanks to its breadcrumb coating, and it's generally served without a sauce. Chicken piccata is softer because it's breaded in flour and is served with the lemon-caper sauce we make in the recipe below. Chicken Francese is served with a similar sauce, but it's battered with egg to give it a fluffier exterior. Finally, chicken marsala has the same flour breading as scallopini, but the sauce is rich and made with onions and marsala, a fortified wine.

To ensure the chicken cooks to a safe temperature in such a short cooking time, we'll need to make the boneless skinless chicken breasts thinner. The easiest way to accomplish this is to butterfly the chicken breasts — a fancy way of saying to slice them in half horizontally.

Place the chicken breasts on a cutting board and rest your non-cutting hand on top of the meat. Using a sharp knife, carefully slice horizontally through the center of the breast, starting at the thickest part. You can either slice all the way through or open the chicken breast like a book and smooth it out with the palm of your hand. The end result will be a 1/2-inch-thick chicken breast.

There's another option if you don't have a sharp enough knife or are worried about your knife skills. Wrap each chicken breast with plastic wrap and pound it using the smooth side of a meat tenderizer. Generally speaking, it's a good idea to tenderize your chicken before cooking it for many different applications. A sturdy pot with a flat bottom works well for this process, too. When the chicken breasts are 1/2-inch thick, cut each one in half to create four pieces.

Once the chicken is all coated in flour, heat a large skillet with three tablespoons of olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the chicken breast pieces, cooking them in batches if they won't all fit in the pan at once. You'll want to cook them for about three minutes on each side until the chicken becomes golden-brown and lightly crispy. Remove the chicken pieces to the prepared baking sheet and keep them warm in the preheated oven.

Add 1/3 cup of dry white wine or, in a pinch, a substitute for cooking wine, along with two tablespoons of the drained and rinsed capers to the hot pan. The liquid will immediately begin to bubble and steam. Use a sturdy spoon to scrape up any browned bits on the bottom of the pan, incorporating all of the remaining flour into the sauce. When the wine has almost evaporated (about three minutes later), add 1/2 cup of water and three tablespoons of unsalted butter to the pan. Swirl the pan and stir constantly until the butter is melted and emulsified into the water, creating a rich sauce.

From here, the only remaining step is to add the chicken back to the pan along with two tablespoons of lemon juice. Simmer the sauce for about two minutes, until it's nice and thick. Top the chicken with fresh chopped parsley.