Chicken in Lemon Butter Caper Sauce – restaurant-quality dinner in 30 minutes! You’ll be blown away after one bite! Lightly breaded chicken pan sautéed and served over pasta with a quick homemade lemon butter caper sauce made from butter, onion, garlic, lemon, white wine, and capers. You won’t believe how easy this is to make! It is a family favorite!
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Pin This RecipeEasy Chicken Picatta Recipe
Stop what you are doing right now and put this on your menu tonight. This was THE BEST thing I’ve eaten in recent memory – at home or in a restaurant. I’ve had this on my list of things to make since we went down to Destin at Thanksgiving. We had dinner at Ocean Club, one of my favorite places, and I had chicken in lemon butter caper sauce. It was so delicious. I seriously considered licking my plate. It is the best thing I have eaten in a restaurant in years. I found the recipe for Carrabba’s Lemon Butter Sauce and decided to add capers and recreate my favorite meal!
How to Make Chicken in Lemon Butter Caper Sauce
This dish is surprisingly simple to make with only a few simple ingredients. To make the chicken, cut chicken breast in half to make cutlets. Dredge the cutlets in flour and parmesan cheese. Quickly pan sear the chicken in a skillet and set aside. Cover the chicken with aluminum foil to keep the chicken warm while making the sauce.
To make the sauce, melt unsalted butter in a saucepan. Add onion and cook until the onion has softened. Add garlic, white wine, fresh lemon juice, salt, pepper, and capers. Slow stir in more butter until it forms a creamy butter sauce. Place the cooked chicken on a serving platter or in a bowl and spoon the sauce over it.
- Sometimes I add garlic powder and onion powder to the flour mixture when breading the chicken cutlets.
- You can serve the chicken over polenta, cooked pasta, rice, or mashed potatoes. For the pasta, linguine or angel hair pasta are both great
- I prefer to use fresh lemons, but bottled will work just fine.
- You can substitute chicken broth for the white wine if you prefer.
- The sauce can be stored at room temperature for up to 2 hours. Be sure to heat the sauce over very low heat when reheating, or it will separate.
- What are capers? Capers are immature flower buds from the caper bush, which grow all over the Mediterranean. Caper buds are picked before they can bloom into flowers. Then they’re pickled in vinegar or preserved in salt. You can substitute green olives if you don’t like capers.
- You can make the sauce first and then pan sear the chicken afterward if you prefer.
- Is lemon caper sauce gluten-free? Yes! all of the ingredients in the sauce are gluten-free.
- Garnish the finished dish with some fresh lemon slices and fresh herbs.
What to Serve with Lemon Butter Chicken
This recipe is just as good as the chicken at Ocean Club. It is very similar to chicken piccata, but creamier. This has quickly become one of our favorite pasta dishes. I couldn’t believe that I made this at home for pennies on the dollar. Now, this is not a low-cal dish. You should save this dish for a special occasion. That being said, when you make this dish, that’s the special occasion. This is also great for a dinner party. Now go make it!
We serve this chicken pasta with a salad and some bread. Here are a few of our favorite side dishes from the blog that go great with this yummy dish:
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Chicken in Lemon Butter Caper Sauce
Ingredients:
Chicken
- 4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves (or use cutlets)
- 2 Tbsp grated Parmesan cheese
- ⅓ cup all-purpose flour
- salt and pepper
- olive oil
- 8 -oz angel hair pasta, cooked and drained
Sauce
- 12 Tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into 1⁄2-inch pieces, divided
- 2 Tbsp finely chopped yellow onion
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- ⅓ cup Pinot Grigio wine I used Cavit
- 3 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
- kosher salt
- pepper
- 1/4 cup capers, rinsed
Instructions:
Chicken
- Cut the chicken breast halves horizontally, butterflying them open. Pound chicken pieces with a meat hammer to 1/4-inch thickness. Mix together the flour, salt, pepper, and grated Parmesan. Dredge chicken cutlets in the flour mixture, until well coated.
- Heat olive oil in a large skillet on medium high heat. Add chicken and brown well on each side, about 3 minutes per side. Remove the chicken from the pan and reserve to a plate. Cover with aluminum foil and keep warm in the oven while you prepare the sauce.
Sauce
- Melt 1 tablespoon of the butter in a medium pan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring often, until the onion is translucent but not browned, about 3 minutes. Add garlic. Cook for about 30 seconds. Add the wine and lemon juice and bring to a boil over high heat. Cook until the liquid is reduced to about 2 tablespoons, about 5 minutes.
- Reduce the heat to its very lowest setting. Slowly whisk in butter, one piece at a time, letting the first addition melt before adding more butter. Season with salt and pepper. Stir in capers.
To Serve
- Place cooked pasta on plate or pasta bowl. Top with chicken and spoon sauce over chicken and pasta.
Notes:
Steph
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This was divine! I doubled the recipe, and used a tub (24 tbsp) of Miyoko’s Oat Milk Butter (lactose intolerant). My 12 year old daughter loved it, said it tasted like a “garlic Parmesan chicken wing” from Wingstop ha; she requested this be part of our dinner rotation. The flavors were on point. Thank you! Can’t wait to try other recipes from you.
Any other options to dredge the chicken in to keep this gluten free?
Excellent meal; doubled the sauce and served over orzo. Can anyone provide the nutritional information?
Here are two websites that you can look at to estimate that information:
https://www.verywellfit.com/recipe-nutrition-analyzer-4157076
https://whisk.com/recipe-nutrition-calculator
Sound so good, but I don’t eat butter. Could I substitute olive oil for the butter?
I have never tried olive oil in this recipe, so I can not say.
Can we use chicken thighs rather than breasts
yes
I actually used fish instead of chicken and it worked out really well. The taste was spot on and will be making it again.
This is one of my favorite recipes! It’s delicious!
Easy peasy! One question. You’re in Destin Florida and you order CHICKEN?🤷♂️
I don’t eat seafood, so yeah.
This dish is super delicious. Thank you so much for sharing. My husband said don’t get rid of this recipe.
SO glad it was a hit, Sue!
I made this for my family last night and it was a hit! It’s not too heavy – I made a side of steamed broccoli and Caesar salad to go with it. Thanks so much!
Would you marinate the chicken prior to cooking this dish? If so, what would you recommend?
I do not marinate the chicken.
I NEVER comment on recipes, even when they are good. So the fact that I’m doing this goes to show how delicious this recipe is. It is definitely a special occasion or “cheat” night meal. I used smart balance butter to reduce some of the fat content and it turned out SO good. My husband loves butter noodles and he said this was the elevated version. xD will definitely be making this again.
What makes this different than a chicken piccata?
Yummy! Pretty much chicken piccata, which is one of my all-time favorites! This is simple and quick. The one recommendation I would make it to use thin-sliced chicken breasts. SO much easier to get them to right thickness with less effort! This was tasty! I will definitely make it again!
Can you make the sauce ahead in the morning and set aside until you make the chicken? Thinking this would be so good for inner parties. Being able to make the sauce earlier would cut out one step at game time.
I’m sure that would be fine