This quick chicken piccata is my version of a recipe from Gwyneth Paltrow’s ‘It’s all easy’, I book I wrote about here before. It’s such a lovely dish of thin chicken cutlets, served with a bright lemon sauce and salty capers. Perfect for a quick weekday dinner, but also something that would be very suitable for a dinner party.
I like to serve these with some roasted potatoes (cook unpeeled baby potatoes, smash them a little and roast in the oven until they’re all crispy) or some fried gnocchi (my favorite! Instead of boiling, you fry the gnocchi in some olive oil until they’re all crunchy and golden brown).
You can ask your butcher to pound out the chicken for you, but when you cover the cutlets with some wax paper or a plastic bag and smash them with a skillet or cutting board, you’re already there. Also a good method to get rid of some hidden frustrations, by the way!
INGREDIENTS
serves 4
1 ½ pound (750 g) chicken cutlets, pounded to ¼ inch (5mm) thickness
¼ cup (30 g) flour
4 tbsp olive oil
1 organic lemon, cut into thin slices
3 tbsp capers*
4 tbsp butter
juice of 1 lemon
* I like to use capers in sea salt, which I rinse first.
DIRECTIONS
Use a paper towel to dry the cutlets and place the flour on a large plate.
Heat the oil in a large sauté pan, season the cutlets generously with salt and pepper and then dredge both sides of each cutlet in the flour. Place them in the hot pan and cook until nicely browned on both sides (about 3 minutes per side). You will probably have to do this in batches.
When the chicken is browned and cooked through, transfer it to a place and cover to keep warm. Add the lemon slices to the pan and cook for 1-2 minutes, or until browned and slightly softened. Add the capers, butter and lemon juice and cook for 1 minute until you’ve got an amazing lemon sauce. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Pour the lemon sauce over the chicken and serve straight away.
