If you’ve ever had chicken picatta, you know this dish is out of this world delicious and seemingly perfectly balanced. Traditionally, chicken piccata is chicken breast dipped in broken eggs, breaded, and then cooked in a lemon buttery sauce. It’s often served with pasta or on its own. But what do you do if you don’t want a carb heavy meal because maybe its a hot summer night? Chicken piccata is a great option for a lighter meal that is packed with nutrition, high in protein, and mixes in a few fun and unique veggies! 

Can people with celiac disease eat Chicken Piccata?

Absolutely! The above description is all well and good. However, if you’re like me and have celiac disease, a lactose intolerance, and are always out of gluten-free flour when you actually need it, there is an easier and even healthier way to make chicken picatta into a wholesome and nutritious meal. And, its just as delicious and takes minimal time to make!

Why you Shouldn’t butterfly the Chicken

It seems like everyone and their mom has a recipe for chicken piccata. They all involve butterflying the chicken, beating it down to a thin piece of chicken, and then drowning it in eggs and flours. What I love about my recipe is that you don’t have to do any of that. Plus, to be honest, thicker pieces of meat keep more water within the meat during the cooking process. This means that meat will stay juicier and often be more tender than cuts of meat that are cooked thin.

This is because thinly sliced meat, whatever ever it is, cooks too fast and the fibre that makes up the muscle shrink really fast when they are cooked. When fibres shrink, they push the water within the meat out and into the pan. When water is lost during cooking, the food is going to be tough and dry. Thicker cuts of meat, simply because of their size, take longer to cook because it’s a slower process to heat the inside of the meat. Slower cooking means less water pushed out of the meat.

My Chicken Piccata Recipe

The best part of my chicken piccata recipe to me is minimal preparation. It only takes 30 minutes to cook, and always results in a tender, juicy, delicious chicken picatta! Because it is easy to make, with very little effort, chicken piccata has become a staple in my house for the nights when I need an easier meal to cook. We all have those days that seem to take more energy out of us than normal. Having a quick and easy meal to make takes a bit of stress off my shoulders after a long workday. I always serve this dish with potatoes, artichokes, capers, lemon, and roasted vegetables. This means that I know this dish it is a well rounded meal providing all the vitamins and minerals and macronutrients the body needs!

I also change the liquid in this dish from water or white wine to sparkling Rose. The sweetness of the rose and the bubbles elevate the flavour even more than water. If you want a wine pairing guide, download yours today!

Is Chicken Piccata healthy?

The way I make chicken piccata allows the dish to be nutrient dense. The chicken provides an easy, healthy source of protein. The potatoes provides a complex carbohydrate for fuel and energy. Olive oil on the roasted veggies provides a healthy fat and acts as the vehicle your body needs to absorb all those fat-soluble vitamins from the dish. Not to mention, the chicken and roasted veggies are LOADED with important vitamins and minerals!

I will say, in this recipe, I break a rule that I follow: use fresh vegetables. I of course, love fresh vegetables, but there is a particular vegetable that I will opt for canned and already cut. That, my friend, is an artichoke! I love artichokes. However, after a long work day I want to make a quick meal for dinner. The last thing I want to do is prep a fresh artichoke – especially when a lot of supermarkets don’t always stock them. I promise, the canned artichokes are just as delicious and works beautifully in this meal!

When I have a long work day and want a quick, healthy, and easy dinner, choosing chicken piccata is an easy decision for me!

Try it and let me know how you like it! and If you want more, download a free recipe book today!