Lemon Chicken Scaloppine

A family favorite for several generations. Versatile and quick for a weeknight meal.

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Lemon Chicken Scaloppine, shown with carrot chervil salad and root vegetable puree.

Lemon Chicken Scaloppine, served with braised fennel and yellow eye beans

This week in the garden signs of spring are everywhere. The chervil is having its moment in the herb garden. If you aren’t familiar with chervil, it is a soft, lacy spring herb. It is extremely tender and ephemeral, as if tarragon was newborn baby kitten. Chervil is one of my favorite signs of springtime, and I use it as much as I can while it lasts. Soon it will bolt and go to seed, but right now I can pick it by the handful without making a dent.

Chervil needs a very gentle hand and as little heat as possible. Its flavor is easily overwhelmed, so I wanted to find a way to showcase it. Lemon plays very well with chervil, and the bright tangy flavor is a spring craving for me. As you can see from the plates, we made lemon chicken twice this week, that’s how good and easy it is.

The word scaloppine refers to thinly sliced meat that has been pounded flat. In the world of chicken, it is the basis for many familiar dishes such as chicken marsala, chicken piccata, and even chicken parmesan is a variation of this technique. The differences are mostly in the sauce that you make at the end. In this recipe we’re going to finish the sauce with white wine, fresh lemon juice, and chicken stock, butter, and lots of chervil.

Ingredients

This image does include fennel bulb, but that is completely optional. I will mention it as a variation at the right moment. Measurements are approximate, and flour, eggs, salt and pepper for dredging are not shown here.

- boneless, skinless chicken breasts, 1/2-1 per person

- 1-2 lemons

- chicken stock

- white wine- I actually used Alessio vermouth blanco because that’s what I had in the cabinet, but that’s silly. Use some of what you are drinking, or keep a bottle of dry vermouth on hand for cooking.

- shallots or a bit of onion

- chervil or flat-leaf italian parsley

- unsalted butter

- Olive Oil. Use your cooking olive oil here.

- flour for dredging

- 1 egg per each 2 chicken breasts

- Freshly ground black pepper

- salt

Tools

- sharp knife and cutting board

- meat tenderizer mallet

- saute pan

- oven-safe dish or sheet tray

- lemon squeezer

- heat-safe container to pour off excess oil

Directions

Timing is crucial for this recipe, so read through and make sure that you are setting up your mise en place before you start cooking.

The quick overview is: Turn on the oven to 225F, and place the oven safe dish in to warm up. Get everything ready and staged by the stove, because you will be cooking your chicken quickly and then holding it in the oven while you make a fast pan sauce.

Gather your mise:

1. Mince the shallot or onion, you only need about a tablespoon.

1. Chop up your chervil or parsley. If you are using parsley you probably don’t need this much.

1. Stage all of your ingredients in arm’s reach around the stove.

1. Optional fennel variation: cut the fennel bulb in half and then into thumb-sized wedges. I also included some more shallots, cut in half. They are french shallots, about the size of garlic cloves. If you have onion, cut some to a similar size as your fennel.

Prep your Chicken:

1. Carefully cut the chicken breasts in half through the entire thickness, as shown above.

1. Center picture- these are two chicken breasts cut into four pieces.

1. Cover the chicken with plastic wrap or parchment before pounding, so you don’t splatter chicken juice all over your kitchen.

1. Using the flat side of the mallet with an even pressure, pound the chicken breasts to an even 1/4 inch thickness. Focus on the thicker areas.

Set up your Chicken Dredging Station:

1. Crack an egg or two into a dish and scramble it up. Do not put any salt in the egg.

1. Put some flour on a plate and mix with salt and pepper.

1. The chicken gets dipped first in the egg and second into the flour before going in the pan.

Cook the Chicken:

I’m going to break this down into small details, but this goes very quickly. There are a few things I want to show you that will help you be successful.

In these pictures above, notice how the butter bubbles up at first and then the bubbles subside. This is the water cooking out of the butter. Water boils at 212F, and generally speaking the water has to cook out of the butter before the oil can get hot enough for caramelization to occur.

1. Heat your pan over medium-high heat, add a tablespoon or two of olive oil and then a chunk of butter.

1. When the oil is hot, lay your first pieces of chicken into the pan. Do not try to crowd all the chicken in at once, you need some space.

1. The chicken cooks quickly. When it is brown on the first side, flip it over. When it is brown on both sides, pull it out and put it on the dish in the oven.

1. Repeat with the rest of the chicken pieces, working in pairs, and adding fresh butter and oil as needed.

Notice how we lay the chicken in the pan away from ourselves. If the oil splashes, it won’t burn us. In the second picture, notice how the flour in the pan is turning brown. It cooks at the same rate as the flour on the bottom side of the chicken so you can watch that to help you know when to flip.

Let’s Talk Butter and Flour

If your pan is too hot, you run the risk of scorching the flour and butter, especially between batches of chicken if you are cooking several scaloppine. It is absolutely 100% allowed to stop, pour your fat out, and wash your pan. You really don’t want your final sauce to taste burnt.

If that does happen, turn your heat down for the next batch. Ideally you will have nice toasty flour bits in your pan when it’s time to make sauce.

Optional Fennel Variation:

1. Once the chicken is out of the pan, pour off the excess used oil without scraping anything out of the pan.

1. Notice in the pictures how much fennel is in this pan. You don’t want much more than this at a time, so work in batches. You can add a small amount of butter and/or oil in between batches if necessary. If you crowd your pan, the water released by the fennel won’t be able to evaporate quickly. Instead, it pool up in the pan, and the fennel will sweat and steam at a lower temperature.

1. Lay the fennel in the pan without stirring it around too much. When it has some color, flip it over, and then squeeze some lemon over it and shake it around. When the moisture has cooked off in a few seconds, remove it to a dish in the oven.

Make the Pan Sauce:

1. Pour off your excess used oil, leaving the bits in the pan.

1. Add a chunk of fresh butter and your tablespoon of minced shallot.

1. When the butter is melted, pour in some wine.

1. When the wine has reduced, add the juice of 1 to 1.5 lemons and the chicken stock.

To be perfectly honest, my sauce is a bit thin here. I should have reduced it a bit more, but once the chervil and lemons were added, it was too late.

When the sauce has reduced and thickened, taste and season with salt and pepper. Slip the chicken back into the pan and turn to coat evenly. Just before plating add the chervil. Save a little to garnish on top. Thin sliced lemons are also nice.

Plate and Serve

This dish does not hold very well so eat it right away. It is delicious with mashed root vegetables, potatoes, pasta, or simple white beans, and a spring carrot salad.

Did you try it?

Let us know what you think! We’d love to see pictures and hear about your results.

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