5 Food Network Chefs, 5 Takes on Lemony Chicken Piccata
Matt Armendariz, 2012, Television Food Network, GP. All Rights Reserved.
At its core chicken piccata is a simple, satisfying dinner of tender chicken breasts and a bold, lemony sauce with capers. But when your favorite Food Network chefs are involved, of course, this humble Italian classic is taken to the next level.
From white wine- and cream-spiked sauces to pasta tosses and salads on the side, read on below to find out how five of your all-time favorite stars — Ina Garten, Rachael Ray, Trisha Yearwood, The Pioneer Woman and Giada De Laurentiis — put their signature spins on this tried-and-true meal.
For Giada, classic is key in her simple-to-prepare piccata. Just before serving, add a final pat of butter to the sauce, which Giada says will “thicken the sauce again and give it that rich taste.”
To make sure her chicken boasts over-the-top taste and crispy texture, Ina coats the meat in seasoned breadcrumbs before beginning a two-part cooking process: a few minutes on the stove, then a final bake in the oven. Just a splash of white wine offers bold flavor to her silky sauce.
Instead of opting for full-size chicken breasts in this 30-minute meal, Rachael chops tenders into bite-size pieces before mixing them with penne and a piccata-style lemon sauce for an all-in-one dinner.
“You can never have too much Parmesan cheese,” Trisha says as she adds another scoop of the cheese to the flour for dredging. This adds a nutty, salty bite to her chicken, which she cooks in a buttery garlic sauce laced with fresh lemon juice.
The beauty of Ree Drummond’s chicken piccata is that it turns out all of the elements for a complete meal in just 16 quick minutes. After pan-frying the chicken and making a creamy lemon-white wine sauce, she serves the golden-brown meat with lemon-scented pasta and a salad of crisp arugula on the side.
