Chicken piccata is a quick and delicious dish with lemon, white wine, and sometimes capers. The chicken is pounded thin, dredged in flour, and sautéed before being added to a sauce. It can be served with polenta, pasta, rice, or couscous. Butchers can also tenderize the chicken for easier preparation.
Chicken piccata is a modern take on the classic Italian veal piccata, particularly popular in the Milan region. Of course, chicken piccata isn’t unique to Italy. You can find excellent versions of chicken or veal piccata in most of the best Italian restaurants around the world. This is a delicious, quick-to-make savory dish with accents of lemon, usually white wine, and the occasional caper.
Piccata is a form of the Italian verb bagnare, which means to beat, flog, or pound. Actually, traditionally, the cooking ease of making chicken piccata is that the chicken (or turkey, or veal) breasts are mashed to extreme leanness before being dredged in flour and quickly sautéed. This significantly minimizes cooking times. When you don’t want to bust out chicken breasts, you can also make chicken piccata with regular-sized breasts. Simply adjust the cooking time to reflect the need to cook a thicker piece of chicken.
Once the chicken is sauteed in olive oil, make a quick sauce that includes lemon juice, some white wine, sometimes shallots, and Italian parsley. Chicken piccata recipes differ in whether or not to add capers. Some people really like these spicy pea-sized bites and some don’t like them. The choice is really up to the cook. Others slice some mushrooms into the sauce or add some olives. Some chefs use some chopped bacon to make the gravy. The sauce is reduced and the chicken is added at the last minute or two back to the sauce to soak up the flavor.
There are several ways to present chicken piccata. Probably the most traditional is to serve piccata with a healthy dollop of polenta sauce. Small types of pasta like ditalini or orzo are excellent choices as a bed for chicken piccata. You can also serve chicken piccata with rice or couscous. A garnish of some chopped parsley is really all that’s needed to make this a spectacular dish, one that can serve any number of people depending on the size of the pan and the number of chicken breasts you use.
If you’re planning on using the pounding method of flattening chicken breasts, you need to be a little cautious about pounding so you don’t spray raw chicken all over your kitchen. It can help to place the chicken in a plastic bag so that any spatter is minimized, and you should aim for a thickness of about a quarter inch (.64 cm) or less. It’s okay for the chicken to be almost transparent or have a tear or two from the pounding process.
Alternatively, to make your job a lot easier, you can often ask local butchers to tenderize your chicken like steak to get the thin strips that will make chicken piccata so delicious. You can also save time by butterflying a half breast and then giving it a good swipe. In any form, this Milanese classic is sure to make a worthy meal.
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