Lemons, capers, olive oil, and butter. Need I say more?
This recipe for Chicken Paccata works really well with almond flour as the sealing agent for the browning step. It would of course work well with all purpose flour (not gluten-free), a light gluten-free flour mix or rice flour (which are gluten-free). If you do want to give coconut flour a try, I suggest removing all excess flour before browning. I found it had a subtle grainy consistency in some parts which I think were browned coconut fibers that fell off the chicken.
So I thought I would share this dish with you as a meal idea for now or to tuck away (or pin) for later. When I notice a recipe includes capers it gets my immediate attention. I love capers on just about anything savory. Or to make something more savory.
This recipe was inspired by this version from Giada De Laurentiis, and do watch the video to see how simple this dish is to pull together. It goes great with roasted cauliflower rice.
Chicken Piccata
Ingredients
- salt and pepper
- 2 chicken breasts, skinless and boneless, butterflied and cut in half (around 1.5 pounds/680 g) for a total of 4 thin chicken breasts
- 1/4 cup blanched almond flour
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter or ghee
- 4 tablespoons olive oil
- 1/3 cup lemon juice
- 1/2 cup chicken stock
- 1/4 cup brined capers, drained and rinsed
- 1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
Instructions
- Season the chicken pieces with salt and pepper.
- Place the almond flour on a plate. Dredge the chicken in the flour and shake off the excess flour.
- Warm a large skillet over medium high heat and melt 2 tablespoons of butter plus 2 tablespoons of olive oil.
- Once the oil/butter mixture is bubbling place two pieces of chicken in the skillet and brown the chicken pieces for a few minutes on each side.
- Put the browned chicken on a warm plate, add another 2 tablespoons of butter plus 2 tablespoons of olive oil and brown the other 2 chicken pieces. Move them to the plate as well.
- Add the lemon juice, stock and capers to the pan and bring to a boil. Scrape the brown bits from the pan (deglazing).
- Place all the chicken back in the skillet and simmer for 5 to 7 minutes or until the chicken is tender and cooked through.
- Garnish with parsley and serve with roasted cauliflower rice.
I haven’t tried cooking with capers before, so I don’t know how they taste or what they do. Can you tell me? Are they necessary when recipes call for them? And the ones I saw at the store were in brine and vinegar. Are those good ones? Thank you!
Capers basically taste like little pickled berries. Yes, salt and vinegar usually all that’s in there. There shouldn’t be any additives. That said, you could probably make this without the capers, but oh so much better with them.
I can’t use butter for two wks on a yeast free diet. Is there a sub for it or would it be okay to leave it out?
I’ve been thinking about that one ever since someone pointed out that ghee is not dairy-free (trace amounts of milk solids and dairy is dairy after all). I haven’t tried this, but I think you could go with two kinds of oil or just all olive oil. I’m not sure how coconut oil would taste with this, but I think it will change the “buttery” flavor. So I would just double the olive oil, or go with a “butter” that is made up of oils.
I just made this for a birthday dinner, fabulous!
I didn’t have parsley so I used arugula and added a few kalamta olives, it was great.
Thanks for sharing the recipe.
good to hear!