Chicken Piccata for Lemon Lovers

This one isn't lemon-scented, lemon-flavored. It is lemon-powered! Wow. You don't settle for just fresh-squeezed lemon juice in this one. Or settle for lemon as a garnish. Rather, the lemon gets cooked into the dish---yes, the lemon with pulp but not the peel nor the seeds but yes, everything else. This is our family's favorite recipe of everything we eat. We add boxed roasted garlic cous-cous as a quick side dish. Typically, we vie for any additional sauce in the pan. There have never been any leftovers of chicken or sauce. Darn.

• Ready In: 35 mins
• Serves: 4
• Yields: 4 chicken breasts

Ingredients

•  flour (enough to cover the chicken)
• 1  lb boneless skinless chicken breast, pounded thin
•  salt (to season)
•  pepper (to season)
• 3  tablespoons olive oil
• 1  minced garlic clove (I use jarred)
• 1  cup dry white wine, plus 1 glass for the chef
• 1  cup chicken broth (I use "Better than Bouillon")
• 3  tablespoons capers (or more)
• 2  lemons, peeled seeded, and diced with a good bit of white pithy stuff remaining
• 2  tablespoons butter
• 2  tablespoons  chopped fresh parsley or 2  tablespoons  other herb like basil if you have no fresh parsley. in a pinch we use dried parsley

Directions

1. Rinse chicken, pat dry, pound thinly between sheets of waxed paper.
2. Flour the chicken.
3. Season with salt and pepper.
4. In large skillet, saute chicken in oil until lightly browned on both sides about 2-3 minutes.
5. Remove chicken from pan and keep warm in oven on low.
6. Add garlic and saute quickly.
7. Quickly, add both the wine and broth getting browned bits from bottom of pan to dissolve and bring to a boil. Reduce this to about 1 cup of sauce. While reducing, sample the dry white wine from your own wine glass now and hope you picked a good one.
8. Stir in the capers and chopped lemon letting this return to a boil. The idea here is for the lemon to soften considerably to become an edible part of the dish. Sample to check. About 10 minutes does the trick. You want edible, not firm.
9. Add the butter and parsley and continue to cook until the sauce thickens and gets creamy.
10. Add the chicken back to the pan and let cook for another couple of minutes allowing the chicken to absorb the sauce.
11. Put on plate and serve remaining sauce over the top.