Chicken piccata

• 1 1/2 lbboneless skinless chicken breast · 2 large breasts, halved horizontally into 4 cutlets
• 1/3 cupall-purpose flour · or a fine gluten-free blend, both dredge identically
• 1 1/4 tspkosher salt · seasoned onto the chicken itself, not stirred into the flour
• 1/2 tspblack pepper · freshly ground
• 3 tbspextra-virgin olive oil
• 4 tbspcold unsalted butter · cubed, straight from the fridge when the sauce is off the heat
• 1 largeshallot · finely diced
• 2 clovesgarlic · thinly sliced rather than minced, so it does not burn
• 1/2 cupdry white wine · or an extra half cup of stock plus 2 tsp white wine vinegar
• 3/4 cuplow-sodium chicken stock · low-sodium matters here, the capers do the salting
• 3 tbspcapers · rinsed and drained, brine reserved
• 1 wholelemon · juiced, about 3 tbsp, plus a few thin slices for the pan
• 1/4 cupflat-leaf parsley · chopped, stirred in off the heat

Method

1. 1

   Cutlets, not breasts, and half an inch is the number

   Lay a breast flat, put your palm on top and run a knife horizontally through it to make two thin pieces. Then put each between two sheets of parchment and hit it with the flat of a pan or a rolling pin until it is an even half inch, working from the middle outward. Even thickness is the whole point: a tapered cutlet has a thin end that is leather by the time the thick end is done. Four cutlets, four minutes of work.

2. 2

   Salt the chicken, then flour the chicken, in that order

   Season the cutlets on both sides with kosher salt and pepper and let them sit for ten minutes while you prep everything else. Salt in the flour mostly ends up in the pan and then in the sauce, where you cannot control it. Salt on the meat draws moisture to the surface, dissolves, and is drawn back in, which seasons the chicken itself. Ten minutes is enough at this thickness and it makes a difference you can taste.

3. 3

   Dredge thin and shake hard

   Drag each cutlet through the flour and then shake it firmly, so what is left is a barely visible film rather than a coating. The flour is there for two reasons: it dries the surface so it browns, and it carries just enough starch into the pan to help the sauce thicken later. Too much and you get a gluey, pasty sauce and a crust that goes soggy. Flour at the last moment, not in advance, or it turns to paste on the meat.

4. 4

   Three minutes a side in a hot pan, two cutlets at a time

   Heat the olive oil in a wide skillet until it shimmers, then add two cutlets with space between them. Three minutes without touching them, turn once, two to three minutes more. Four in the pan at once drops the temperature and they steam. Pull them at 160F in the thickest part and rest them on a plate: carryover takes them to the 165F the USDA sets for poultry while you build the sauce, and pulling later is how piccata gets dry.

5. 5

   Build the sauce in the fond, and do not wipe the pan

   Those brown flecks stuck to the base are most of the flavour. Turn the heat down, add the shallot to the same pan and cook for two minutes, then the sliced garlic for thirty seconds. Pour in the wine and scrape the base clean with a wooden spoon while it bubbles. Let the wine reduce until the pan is almost dry before the stock goes in, otherwise the sauce tastes raw and sharp rather than rounded.

6. 6

   Reduce first, then mount the butter off the heat

   Add the stock and the lemon slices and let it reduce by about half, until it just coats a spoon, roughly four minutes. Now take the pan off the burner completely and wait fifteen seconds. Beat in the cold butter a cube at a time, swirling the pan, and watch it turn from thin and separated to glossy and slightly thick. Butter melted into a boiling sauce splits into oil and water, and that greasy slick is the single most common failure in this dish.

7. 7

   Capers, lemon juice and a splash of the brine at the very end

   Stir in the rinsed capers, the lemon juice and the parsley with the pan off the heat. Taste, and if it needs sharpening rather than salting, add a teaspoon of the caper brine, which brings acidity and salt together. Fresh lemon juice cooked for more than a few seconds turns dull and slightly bitter, which is why so many restaurant piccatas taste flat. Return the chicken and any juices on the plate to the pan, turn once to coat, and serve.

8. 8

   The gluten-free version, and what actually changes

   A fine gluten-free flour blend dredges and browns almost identically, so the swap is nearly invisible. Two small differences: rice-based blends brown slightly faster, so watch the first cutlet, and they thicken the sauce a touch less, so reduce the stock for an extra minute before the butter goes in. Check the stock label too, since many concentrates contain wheat. Everything else in the recipe is naturally gluten-free as written.