Chicken Francese is an Italian-American dish that consists of thinly pounded chicken cutlets, dredged in flour then egg, then fast sautéed and which will ultimately end up in a delicious lemon, butter and wine sauce.
It sounds like chicken piccata but it’s really not. Picatta has capers, this does not. Picatta is dipped in egg then flour, Francese is dredged in flour first then egg, and it really makes a difference.
You must have thinly sliced chicken breast, so you’ll need to slice a whole breast lengthwise and then pound it down a little, of course unless you can find it already done for you like I did.
Another important thing is you’ll want to heat your pan up really good and hot, add the oil and when the olive oil shimmers you can do your fast cooking on each side, but don’t over crowd the pan!
I love serving this dish with angel hair pasta better known as capellini, the thin strands soak up all the juices, it’s perfect!
For something green I made some rapini on the side which went very well with it all.
My family came over and we made this dish together, a fun night together and we enjoyed every bite!
- 4 whole chicken breast, thinly sliced lengthwise to equal 8 pieces all together pounded down to make them nice and thin
- 1 cup flour
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup of white wine
- 3 cups chicken stock
- ¼ cup lemon juice
- 1 shallot, chopped
- 3 cloves, chopped garlic
- 1 lemon zested and sliced
- butter and olive oil
- fresh chopped parsley
- 1 lb. of angel hair pasta/ capellini
- Set up all your ingredients first, have everything chopped and ready. to go because this goes pretty fast, while you're doing that start heating up your pan, don't use a nonstick pan, stainless is best for this.
- Have your dredging stations set up, in the flour add salt and pepper, in the egg mixture also add salt and pepper.
- Add a good amount of. olive oil to the hot pan and when its starts to ripple you're good to go.
- Dredge your cutlet into the flour first then into the egg, don't over crowd the pan do it in stages if you have to, I did 3 at a time.
- Quick fry on each side about 3 minutes, then set aside.Chicken should be tender and golden crispy.
- No need to clean your pan, now add the lemon slices and lightly brown on each side then remove and place with the chicken.
- Now add a good knob of butter and more olive oil and saute your shallot and garlic together.
- Now deglaze with the white wine and let it reduce to half.
- Add another knob of butter and stir in around 3 tablespoons of flour to make a roux.
- Now add the stock, lemon, juice and zest, then keep stirring till it thickens up a bit.
- Now it's time to put the chicken and sliced lemons into the lemony sauce, I actually got a bigger pan and just poured all of the sauce on top.
- Let it all simmer together for a little bit making sure chicken is cooked through.
- Have your pasta cooked, make sure to scoop some of that sauce into the cooked pasta, it's time to eat!
- Garnish with chopped parsley, a little drizzle of olive oil
- This dish is best eaten right away, I wouldn’t make it ahead.
- Enjoy
I’m Marie, a wife, mother, mother-in-law, and gramma of two beautiful girls. My passion is food, clear and simple but especially Italian food, hence the name of my blog, Proud Italian Cook. I want you to feel right at home here so grab a cup of coffee, I’ll get the pastries, take a look around and enjoy your visit! {
Wow! What a fabulous, delicious recipe. Easy to follow instructions. Fancy enough for company & quick enough for a weeknight meal. This was my first recipe I tried from your website & I’m looking forward to trying more. Thanks for a great recipe!
Oh Leanne, I’m thrilled you liked it, thank you for your nice comment!
How many people does this recipe serve?
It really depends how many pieces of chicken you make and then go from there.
I recently went to a new Italian restaurant and ordered Chicken Frances. It was so good that when I got home I looked for a recipe to try it at home. Your recipe for this was absolutely the most delicious Francese!! Your instructions were perfect! I followed it to the word! My husband said this was FAR better than the restaurant! Wow! Thank you very much! Jan
That makes me so happy, so glad you liked it!
Delicious! I halved it, there was plenty of tasty sauce for the pasta. Tender chicken, quick cooking.
This was delicious!
This pasta with mushroom bolognese is so delicious, thank you for your recipes that taught me how to make it.
Has anything changed on this site, internal workings. I suddenly do not receive new post emails and am unable to search and just receive syntax error messages when I try.
Try to clear your cache, I’ve tried on multiple devices to search by month or topic and it was ok but I’ll continue to figure it out, thanks
This looks so wonderful. I plan on making it soon. Thank you. Question please….not sure how to print as I keep seeing those print signs that are questionable. Please help me with my confusion.
Lin, at the end of the recipe you’ll see a “printer friendly” button, click on that. You can even print without the photos.
Mmmm thank you! I will make this! I trust all is well with you!
Patty