Recipe video above. Lightly battered pan-fried chicken breast with an elegant white wine lemon sauce. It's like Chicken Piccata, but a thicker sauce, more of it, no capers, with subtle lemon flavour. It's got a terrific crust that soaks up the sauce! Lovely restaurant dish that's simple to make at home.Doesn't taste winey because the alcohol is cooked out, leaving behind magical flavour only wine can bring to sauces.
Prep Time10 minutesmins
Cook Time15 minutesmins
Total Time25 minutesmins
Course: Mains
Cuisine: Western
Keyword: chicken breast recipe, chicken francese, chicken french, chicken in white wine sauce
Cut each breast in half horizontally to form 4 thin steaks in total.
Whisk eggs and milk in a small bowl. Set aside.
Flour coating - Mix flour, salt and pepper on a plate (I use my fingertips). Coat the chicken in the flour, shaking off excess, then set aside on a plate.
Heat the oil in a large nonstick pan over medium-high heat.
Cook chicken - Dip the chicken in the egg, allow excess to drip off, then put into the pan. Cook for 3 minutes until golden. Flip, lower heat to medium, then cook for 4 minutes until the chicken is golden (internal temp 68°C/155°F). Remove onto a plate.
Lemon - Add the lemon slices to the pan. Cook for a minute or until the lemons go soft / brown, then turn and cook the other side for 30 seconds. Remove onto a plate. (Note 2)
Wipe the pan clean using paper towels.
White wine sauce - Still on medium heat, melt the butter in the pan. Add flour and stir for 1 minute using a wooden spoon. While stirring, slowly pour in half the stock. Once the flour is dissolved into the liquid, stir in remaining stock, then the wine and salt. (See Note 3 for lumps tip)
Thicken sauce - Turn the heat up slightly then simmer for 3 - 4 minutes or until the sauce thickens into a syrupy consistency.
Sauce it! Return the chicken and lemon slices to the pan, then spoon the sauce all over the chicken. Sprinkle with parsley then serve the chicken with the sauce (use it ALL!).
Notes
UPDATE - Yes, I use the leftover egg to make a thin crepe-omelette! Cook it through thoroughly so it's safe to eat even after dipping raw chicken into it. I actually had this in the video but cut it out because I thought the video was too long!! :)1. Wine - Chardonnay is the best cooking wine, in my opinion. Pretty well documented these days that there's no need to use expensive drinking wine, buy discounted bottles for cooking (I use ~$15 bottles discounted to ~$5). Substitute with non-alcoholic white wine. Else, leave out the wine and add 2 - 3 tbsp lemon juice to make a lovely lemon sauce instead.2. Pan frying the lemon slices makes them soak up the tasty flavour left in the pan by the chicken (it's called fond!) which is then released into the sauce at the end when we put the lemon slices in. So don't skip this step!3. Lumps in sauce - The method of stirring while you slowly pour in some stock should avoid lumps. But if you end up with pesky lumps in your sauce, swish a whisk across the surface of the liquid to remove them, taking care not to scratch the non-stick surface of the pan. Worst case - strain it. :)4. Serving - Pictured with pan seared asparagus (drizzle with oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, pan sear in hot pan until lightly charred. Do this while the sauce is simmering). For sauce mopping, I used bread but mash (or faux mash), rice and similar are excellent sauce-soaking options.5. Leftovers will keep for 3 days in the fridge though the crust does loosen.6. Nutrition per serving assuming all the sauce is consumed.