I’ve been making Chicken Piccata for several years now, but I always struggled to turn it into a meal. I tried doubling the Chicken Piccata sauce recipe and then pouring the extra sauce on top of pasta or rice. No matter how much sauce I made, adding the sauce to the top of the pasta left dry spots. But pasta coated in a lemon butter sauce (Pasta al Limone) finally rounded out the meal. I made the sauce for the chicken, removed it from the skillet, and made more sauce for the pasta. The key was tossing the pasta and the sauce together rather than adding the sauce on top later. You’ll want to serve a simple salad as well, since chicken and pasta alone are pretty beige, and who wants to eat a beige meal?
I often see pictures of the cooked chicken returned to the skillet and sitting in the lemon caper sauce. This may look appetizing, but in my experience it made the chicken soggy. It was also difficult to serve, and the sauce was mostly gone before the last person. You could serve the sauce from a gravy boat and let everyone add their own at the table. I serve the sauce from a glass measuring cup. But that’s mostly because my gravy boat is on a top shelf and I can’t reach it.
The Chicken Piccata is super easy and classic. It’s just chicken coated in seasoned flour, fried in a skillet, and topped with a lemon caper sauce. The pasta is flavored with almost the same sauce, minus the capers and with the addition of a little garlic and parmesan cheese. It’s a super easy meal that looks and tastes fancy. Especially if you get out the gravy boat.
Chicken Piccata and Pasta al Limone
Ingredients
For the chicken:
- 1 ½ lbs. chicken tenderloins
- ½ cup flour
- Salt and pepper
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
For the chicken sauce:
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 3 tablespoons lemon juice or juice of 1 lemon
- ½ cup pasta water
- ¼ cup white wine optional
- ¼ cup capers or more, to taste
- Salt to taste
For the Pasta al Limone:
- 3/4 lb. uncooked pasta of your choice
- Lemon zest from 1 lemon
- Juice of 1 lemon
- ½ cup pasta water or more as needed
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- ¼ cup white wine optional
- 2 teaspoons dried or fresh parsley
- 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese freshly grated if possible
Instructions
- Fill a large stockpot with water, salt it, and bring to a boil.
- Preheat a large skillet with 2 tablespoons of olive oil.
- Flatten the chicken in a large Ziploc bag to about ¼ inch thick.
- Place the flour in a shallow bowl and season with salt and pepper.
- Coat the chicken in the seasoned flour, and add carefully to the skillet. Cook about 3-5 minutes per side until lightly browned. Remove the chicken from the pan.
- When the water boils, add the pasta and cook according to the package directions, about 7-9 minutes. When draining the pasta, be sure to reserve some of the hot pasta water.
- Make the chicken piccata sauce. Add the butter, lemon juice, wine and pasta water back to the skillet. Cook until the mixture comes to a boil, then add the capers. Pour the sauce into a small bowl or glass measuring cup and set aside.
- Make the Pasta al Limone sauce. Add the butter, lemon juice, lemon zest, garlic, wine and pasta water to the skillet. Bring to a boil, then turn off the heat and add the drained pasta. Toss to coat. Add the parsley and parmesan cheese and toss some more. Taste it and add additional salt if needed.
- To serve, top the chicken with the reserved Chicken Piccata sauce.
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