Easy Healthy Comfort Food: Chicken Picatta

Easy Healthy Comfort Food:  Chicken Picatta, an easy weeknight dinner recipe that you can make in less than 30 minutes!  Perfect for weeknight entertaining too!

Life can get crazy but you still want to eat good food.  Today’s recipe for Easy Healthy Comfort Food: Chicken Picatta is favorite at our house.  The recipe can be made in about 30 minutes and it fits the description of New Comfort food!  Being made in less than 30 minutes with just a few ingredients.  It’s easy and it’s healthier than most options.  The recipe is a lighter take on a classic recipe so you can indulge without guilt!  New Comfort Food fits within today’s lifestyle with balance in your life.

We love chicken in our family!  We like it anyway: fried, baked, grilled or sautéed just to name a few. But we’re watching our calorie intake so Im trying to avoid making a lot of fried foods. This recipe for Easy Healthy Comfort Food: Chicken Picatta not only isn’t deep fried, but you use a boneless, skinless chicken breast so its a little bit healthier too.

This Easy, Healthy, Comfort Food: Chicken Picatta is comfort food at its best without all the time it usually takes to make our family’s favorite recipes.  This recipe is made from start to finish in less than 30 minutes!  I love that because no matter how stressful and busy my day has been I can still make a great tasting meal at home instead of going out!

History of Chicken Picatta

When I was researching what piccata origins are I thought it was interesting that it isn’t really in many Italian cookbooks.  This article from Seattle PI talks about how they found that most people think piccata was invented by Italian Americans in the 1930’s.  What everyone does agree on whether it be made with Veal or Chicken is that it is very thin pieces of meat, lightly breaded and sauteed in butter with a lemon added to the sauce.  All I can tell you for sure is that it is delicious!

This recipe is an updated version of one I found in one of my Mom’s old cookbooks.  The original recipe called for 1/3 cup of butter.  I lightened this recipe up by using olive oil, and a LOT less than 1/3 cup.  When I made this recipe I had purchased the full-size chicken breasts so I cut them in half (to make them thinner) to shorten the cooking time.

This recipe for Easy, Healthy, Comfort Food: Chicken Picatta uses a very small amount of flour, but it is enough to give you a thickened sauce to spoon over your meal.  I mean look at it, it’s velvety smooth, but is light enough you won’t feel guilty eating this new comfort food!

Points of Interest on Easy, Healthy Comfort Food:  Chicken Picatta:

Easy/Hard:  Easy, the hardest part of this recipe is cutting the chicken breasts to make them thinner.  

Make Ahead:  No.  This recipe takes about 30 minutes, so you can make it and serve it immediately.

Suggestions:  This recipe for Easy Healthy Comfort Food: Chicken Picatta is great to make if you are having some company on a weeknight.  Because you have most things in your pantry to make it, and it takes less than 30 minutes its easy to make after a long day of work. The meal looks impressive, and the velvety sauce is loved by all who have it.  Serve it alone with a veggie, or atop pasta.

Cocktail Suggestion:  Use the rest of the bottle of wine you used to make it.  I use a Prosecco or a light white wine.

Looking for other comfort food recipes to serve your family?

• beef and sweet potato noodles
• pull-apart tender Beef Roast
•  bouillabaisse recipe
•  Shrimp Alfredo recipe
• Tarragon Shallot Sauce on Stove top Chicken breasts

We have so many popular Chicken Recipes — Check them out here!

Yield: 4 6 oz servings

Easy Healthy Comfort Food: Chicken Picatta

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Easy Healthy Comfort Food: Chicken Picatta, an easy weeknight dinner recipe that you can make in less than 30 minutes! Perfect for weeknight entertaining too!

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes

Total Time 35 minutes

Ingredients

• 24 ounces boneless, skinless chicken breasts, thin cut, or cut breast in half and pound to very thin
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1/4 cup Flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 shallot, peeled and minced
• 1/2 cup White Wine
• 1 cup Chicken Broth

****OPTIONAL GARNISHES*****

• Slices Lemon
• Freshly chopped Parsley
• tablespoon Capers, 1

Instructions

1. Mix Flour, salt and pepper in a bowl
2. Heat a large skillet to high, then add 2 tablespoons olive oil and swirl to coat entire skillet.
3. Dredge chicken breast to coat both sides evenly in flour.
4. Leaving plenty of room between the breasts, place floured chicken in skillet cooking in batches until golden brown on each side, about 5 minutes.
5. Remove chicken to plate and finish all chicken.
6. Reduce heat to medium and add last tablespoon of olive oil to pan then add shallots and cook for 5 minutes, add flour and cook one minute more.
7. Add wine, wait 30 seconds then add lemon juice and chicken broth stirring constantly.
8. Place Chicken breasts back to the pan into the sauce.
9. Continue cooking until chicken has cooked through completely, about 10-15 minutes.
10. Serve Chicken on a plate, spoon sauce over the top.
11. If you are using capers as your garnish, add the capers at the same time you add the lemon juice.
12. Garnish with parsley and lemon slices.

Notes

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The nutritional information for this recipe was calculated using My Fitness Pal using the specific brands/ingredients that I used to make this recipe.  The information could vary depending on what brands/ingredients you use in making the recipe.  Please take this into consideration if you are following strict dietary guidelines

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

4

Serving Size:

4 6 oz servings
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 318Saturated Fat: 1gCholesterol: 108mgSodium: 705mgCarbohydrates: 8gProtein: 37g

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