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