Yep. You are right. This is my go-to dish, and it is phenomenally tasty and easy. Master this, and you will impress. You can also modify this by adding artichoke hearts and spinach -- or serving it over sauteed spinach. It makes for an award-winning, different version of scallopini.

Chicken Piccata/Marsala/Francaise.

The 'Holy Trinity' of quick Italian chicken dishes, and everyone should know them. A simple swap out of some on-hand ingredients yields something new and delicious each time.

I'm of the school that says you should purchase regular (thicker) chicken breasts, and then pound them thin, if even just for a few whacks. The process always seems to tenderize the meat more. That, and stores generally charge an extra $1-$2/pound just to slice them thin. Compare pricing next time. If that's not enough reason to do this simple step on your own, I don't know what is.

Bonus! If you've had a particularly bad day at work, visualize your boss/co-worker on the chicken. Makes the beating a little more satisfying.

This looks fantastic! And I always fillet chicken breasts for any dish I'm using them in. They cook faster so they don't dry out. Makes a huge difference.

I'm always amazed, too, that a few simple ingredients can be morphed into a fabulous meal.

Definietly a favorite: love this treatment for salmon and veal as well. Try some rubbed sage in the flour mix. Artichoke and mushroom sautee is a great side with some orzo or cous cous.

Weird how a recipe like this drops from your repertoire for years and yet how many times since then have I wracked my brain for something different for supper? I didn't use capers back in the day either. This will be a nice surprise for my family tonight.

I love chicken piccata! So easy and so tasty. I have never used the flour coating, though I should because it looks tasty. I use lemon basil instead of parsley because it adds extra lemony flavor.

My variation is to pound the chicken, rather than filet. And add thinly sliced lemon wheels to the pan while cooking because they actually turn "sort of sweet" as you cook them, and depending on your palate, you can eat them.

I like the idea of adding the cream as one reader mentioned, that sounds like a nice touch.

Great recipe. I make it for our family on a regular basis, but use turkey cutlets. You can save time by not having to butterfly the chicken breasts.

Try adding a little fresh dill instead of parsley. It adds a little more "zip" and goes well with both capers and artichoke hearts.

This is one of the classic recipes that probably
used veal scallopini, but the recipe works with
thin pork cutlets as well as chicken. Goes well with
spaghetti. In Europe they serve thin French fries
with the meat. It's delicious any way you have it.

My mom just served this last night when I went to my parent's house because it's one of my favorite dishes. She always serves it over egg noodles with some butter and some of the sauce from the chicken. It's delicious!

This came out really well tonight! I saw it this morning, after wondering what to do with the two chicken breasts we had defrosted in the fridge overnight. The only thing I didn't already have were the capers.

My choices were capers in vinegar, or capers in balsamic vinegar. Hmm. What would Elise do?

Thinking the extra flavor might be all right, we made the sauce with the balsamic ones. It came out pretty strongly flavored and dark, but quite tasty with the chicken. Until I use up the jar, I'd cut back on the capers by about half. I loved it, but my husband's initial reaction to a taste from a spoon was pretty comic. The chicken was delicious and very rich -- I might experiment with cutting back on some of the butter, but it did make the sauce taste pretty luxurious.

RE: William Pitcher: PORK! Thanks! I'd forgotten about the superb lemony pork cutlets from a nearby restaurant!... a little dill or perhaps sage, and ... oh, my I've got to get to the market!
Elise, how gracious of you to share your knowledge and allow us all to add ours! Thanks for the gathering place!

You can also swap out the chicken for boneless pork chops, and instead of butterflying them, simple pound them out to about 1/4 inch thickness.

I love Chicken Piccata as well. I usually make extra sauce and serve the chicken over angel hair pasta. Then, all you need is a side vegetable!

Ok, half the recipe is what Elise posts, the other half is always in the comments (e.g., the various variations to the recipe and sides).

I'd offer you leftovers of tonight's dinner, but there aren't any. Yum! I was going to make it with egg noodles and steamed broccoli but I changed my mind as I saw some AP potatoes in the pantry that needed to be used up so I made it with baked potatoes and peas. Peas with the capers was a bit "round" but the green was pleasing and I was in the mood for peas.

And this recipe is just so easy I can't believe I haven't made this before!

My family loves this dish. I add thinly sliced lemons and minced parsley. Serve with fetuccine alfredo. Hmmmm

I made this for dinner last night and my family loved it! I forget how simple this really is and how much we really love it. I will be making this again soon.
One of our favorite "must haves" is Sloppy Joes. I brown up some hamburger, drain it, then put it back in the pan and add 1 can of tomato soup and 1 small jar of salsa, mix well till heated through. Serve over toasted hamburger buns open faced with shredded cheddar cheese on top. My kids love to have tater tots with this as well. Thanks for all the great recipes!

I love this dish with zucchini, carrots, onions shredded on a cheese grater (or a food processor to similar size, the larger side of the grater) and sauteed very briefly in Pam with garlic. It sops up the sauce perfectly. Mmmm, probably gonna cook this this weekend.

A great trick I learned a while back (that's both tasty and looks great too!):

Take one of your lemons, cut off a little of the ends then slice the lemon from pole to pole. Next, take one half and slice it into thin slices. toss these in when you add the chicken stock and let them simmer in the sauce while it reduces. Once it reduces by half, then add the reserved lemon juice. The final product will have a little more complexity, and the slices of lemon cook to a delicious softness - they look very nice topping the chicken and you can eat them peel and all!

This dish was fantastic! I could eat capers simmered in butter and white wine as a snack and this whole dish satisfied my caper craving. I had to alter the flour part because our family eats gluten-free, due to celiac disease. I used garfava flour and it tasted delicious. I was shocked how easy it actually was to make. Thank you for sharing an easy but wonderfully scrumptious meal.

I made this for the first time ever and it was wonderful. I could not believe how quickly those breasts cooked. I made the whole dinner in a snap.

This recipe is SOOOO good! and so easy! I made this with these mashed potatoes I make where I take frozen spinach and cook with a little water, pepper flakes, garlic, and onion until all of the liquid is gone, then add it to mashed potatoes with sour cream, butter, shredded cheddar and salt. It complimented the chicken piccata perfectly- and tasted great with the sauce!
The spinach mashed potatoes make awesome tater cakes the following day too! The Piccata sauce makes a great gravy for the tater cakes if you add a touch of dill.
This Chicken Piccata recipe was so good that my husband begged me to make it again the following night....truly a keeper!

My sauce seems very thin, is there a way to make it thicker?

Chicken piccata sauce is essentially a butter sauce which is thin; it has nothing in it to make it thick. If you want to thicken this type of sauce you can either add a little cream, a little corn starch, or a little flour, and then just cook until the sauce thickens up a bit. ~Elise

This recipe is flawless! I've always been wary of trying chicken piccata, but after seeing the picture above, I was convinced to try it. Thanks so much, I love the site!

This Chicken Piccata was delicious! I just made it tonight & was floored (& impressed with myself!) I'm reading others comments and am going to try serving over spinach next time and adding in artichoke hearts.

(also I used Sherry Cooking Wine)

When I prepare this dish, I like to add a few tablespoons of local honey to the sauce. It doesn't over power the tartness of the lemon, however it does add a new depth to the overall flavor.

I was searching for lemon recipes because I have so many growing in my backyard in Hawaii. This was so good. Any other suggestions for good use of lemon?

Look at some of our lemon recipes and lemon chicken recipes to start. ~Elise

I have made this recipe twice now and I must agree that it is a deliciously easy dish. Thank you for posting.

I just made it and it's delicious! I didn't use the parm cheese though. I like it better without. I used a fresh lemon from a neighbor's garden and added some brocoli as a side dish. Absolutely delicious & very easy!

i was just wondering, when you say "keep warm in oven"
how high and and how long should we use the oven to warm the chicken?

You just don't want the chicken to get cold while you are preparing the sauce, so keep it on the lowest warming temp your oven has. ~Elise

I made this the other night and my Husband and I loved it! Such a simple, delicious and economical dish. Like some of the other comments, I too was stumped on what to serve as a side so I chose pasta with white wine, garlic, parsley and lots of parmesan cheese. It was delicious.

Thank you so much for yet another delish recipe! Have been using your site for the past few years (thanks to Heidi Harring!). You have become my favorite "go-to" source - this after subscribing to Bon Apetit for 15+ years, shelves of cookbooks and cooking show addictions. Keep those wonderful recipes coming! Lorraine

I would like to make Chicken Piccata a week ahead of time. Can it be prepared and frozen to be reheated without getting dried out? Appreciate your help.

Great question. I do not know. But if you try it, please let us know how it turns out. ~Elise

I just made this recipe using mahi-mahi steaks (frozen packaged from Target) instead of chicken breasts. I did everything the same -- except I did not pound the fish! It was unbelievably delicious. My husband, who eats fish once a week ONLY because the MD said to, really liked it!!

I love chicken piccata but had never made it myself. So I searched for a recipe online and found this one. I love easy, and this is super easy and came out so delicious! It rivals the restaurant versions! My family loved it! I didn't have any lemon juice, so I sliced up a good sized lemon I had in the fridge and it was just fine. Next time I'll make a lot more of the sauce because I served it over penne pasta and there wasn't enough sauce. I'll probably triple the recipe for the sauce next time - and there WILL be a next time, sooner rather than later!

Made this last night for my boyfriend and it was a winner! I am not a master of the kitchen but I found this easy and fulfilling!

I love this recipe and make it at least once a week, my other half loves it too. I also make it with Tilapia instead of chicken and it's delicious too. My other half is not a big fish fan but he will eat it in Piccata sauce.

Thank you, this was delicious, even without the capers!

I had mine with some baby potatoes and savoy cabbage :)

I tried this recipe last night, but with turkey steaks. It was really, really delicious. So much better than heavy, cream-based sauces people usually pour over meat. And all that despite me forgetting to add lemon juice...