Giada De Laurentiis' Most Popular Chicken Dish Is Also The Easiest

Looking for a supremely scrumptious oh-so-easy chicken recipe that will not only please your palate but make you look like a culinary god or goddess? Italian-American chef, cookbook author, and Emmy-winning Food Network personality, Giada De Laurentiis, has you covered with her super fast chicken piccata. In a recent Instagram post, De Laurentiis explained that it's not only her most requested chicken dish but most likely her easiest to make as well.

A popular Italian-American dish, chicken piccata is a fantastic addition to any home cook's regular repertoire. The reason is threefold: It's quick (with a cooking time of 15 minutes or less, making it suitable for weeknight dinners), it's a one-pan job (little cleanup afterward), and most importantly, it's a crowd-pleaser (who doesn't love a little lemon butter sauce?).

This simple dish consists of well-seasoned and lightly coated, chicken cutlets pan-seared golden in a combination of butter and oil and then finished in a delectable lemon-caper sauce. Skinless chicken breasts are what De Laurentiis uses in her video, though she states that skin-on works just as well. Though she leaves her chicken breasts thick and whole, the dish is traditionally made using thinly sliced chicken breast cutlets, using the classic Italian scallopini method, which can further reduce your cooking time.

Giada De Laurentiis begins her chicken piccata by generously salting and peppering the chicken breasts on both sides. Once seasoned, the celebrated chef then dredges the chicken lightly in flour, which she says results in a "velvety sauce," before placing the breasts in a heated frying pan with olive oil and butter. She explains that the oil not only lends additional flavor but also prevents the butter from burning. She then fries the chicken until the outer layer develops a "golden crust." After she removes it from the pan onto a plate, she proceeds to make the sauce in the same pan the chicken was cooked in, deglazing it with chicken broth before adding chicken broth, lemon juice, and capers, which she playfully calls "salt nuggets."

As the sauce is reducing, De Laurentiis adds the chicken back to the pan to finish cooking through, while it simultaneously absorbs the bright flavor of tart lemons and salty capers. She then finishes the dish by slipping a couple extra pats of butter into the pan, adding a silken feel to the sauce before plating the chicken and pouring the resulting sauce over the top.

As De Laurentiis notes, chicken piccata can be served over rice, potatoes, and pasta — or the chef's personal favorite, crusty bread. She sums up her love of the dish stating, "I love it because it's so lemony and because the chicken stays so moist with all the sauce — chicken heaven."