Chicken Piccata

Ainekset

2 large lemons

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 1½ pounds), tenderloins removed and breasts trimmed

Table salt and ground black pepper

½ cup unbleached all-purpose flour

4 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 small shallot, minced (about 2 tablespoons), or 1 small garlic clove, minced (about 1 teaspoon)

1 cup chicken broth

2 tablespoons small capers, drained

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley leaves

Ohjeet

1. Adjust oven rack to the lower-middle position, set large ovensafe plate on rack, and heat oven to 200 degrees.

2. Halve 1 lemon pole to pole. Trim ends from one half and cut it crosswise into slices ⅛ to ¼ inch thick; set aside. Juice remaining half and whole lemon to obtain ¼ cup juice; reserve.

3. Halve chicken horizontally, then cover chicken halves with plastic wrap and pound cutlets to even ¼-inch thickness. Sprinkle both sides of cutlets generously with salt and pepper. Place flour in shallow baking dish or pie plate. Working with 1 cutlet at a time, coat with flour and shake to remove excess.

4. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a heavy-bottomed 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering. Lay half of chicken cutlets in skillet. Cook cutlets until lightly browned on first side, 2 to 3 minutes. Flip cutlets and cook until second side is lightly browned, 2 to 3 minutes longer. Remove pan from heat and transfer cutlets to plate in warm oven. Add remaining 2 tablespoons oil to now-empty skillet and heat until shimmering. Add remaining chicken cutlets and repeat.

5. Add shallot or garlic to now-empty skillet and return skillet to medium heat. Sauté until fragrant, about 30 seconds for shallot or 10 seconds for garlic. Add broth and lemon slices, increase heat to high, and scrape pan bottom with wooden spoon or spatula to loosen browned bits. Simmer until liquid reduces to about ⅓ cup, about 4 minutes. Add lemon juice and capers and simmer until sauce reduces again to ⅓ cup, about 1 minute. Remove pan from heat and swirl in butter until it melts and thickens sauce. Stir in parsley and season with salt and pepper to taste. Spoon sauce over chicken and serve immediately.

Muistiinpanot

To make slicing the chicken easier, freeze it for 15 minutes. If you like, use thinly sliced cutlets available at many supermarkets. These cutlets don’t have any tenderloins and can be used as they are.

WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS: Many recipes for chicken piccata are either bland or overcomplicated, with extra ingredients that ruin the dish’s simplicity. Many recipes contain just a tablespoon of lemon juice and a teaspoon of capers, neither of which provides much flavor. But chicken piccata is one of those appealing Italian recipes that taste complex but are actually easy to prepare. Our goal was properly cooked chicken with a streamlined sauce that really tasted of lemons and capers.

Many recipes suggest breading cutlets for chicken piccata, but we found that flour alone was sufficient; there was no point building a crisp crust that would end up drenched in sauce. After browning the chicken and sautéing aromatics, we deglazed the pan with chicken broth alone; although wine is sometimes suggested, we found it to be too acidic for this dish. We simmered slices from half a lemon in the broth for a few minutes; this was easier than grating the zest. For maximum lemon flavor in the sauce, we used a full quarter-cup of lemon juice, added when the sauce was nearly done so as not to blunt its impact. Butter gave the sauce body and was preferable to flour, which made it overly thick. Plenty of capers and a bit of parsley finished our ultralemony piccata.