Chicken Francese – Italian-American one pan dish of breaded chicken cutlets simmered in a lemon, white wine and butter sauce.
If you like my Romano Chicken, I’m pretty sure you will like this recipe, too. Chicken Francese is a popular American-Italian way of preparing chicken by breading, frying it then simmering in wine-lemon sauce. The difference between Romano Chicken and Chicken Francese is that in Romano Chicken recipe the chicken is breaded with parmesan/panko breadcrumbs mixture and there is some cream in sauce. That is why Chicken Francese could be called a lighter version of Romano Chicken.
Romano Chicken with Lemon Garlic Pasta
Chicken cutlets are first dipped in flour and egg mixture. If you like extra thick coating, you can repeat dipping in flour and egg one more time (that’s what I did). Then they are fried in olive oil and finally simmered in lemon/white wine butter sauce.
If you don’t like to use wine in your cooking, you can easily replace it with equal amount of chicken stock. Use more lemon to adjust acidity to your taste.
If you haven’t tried to make Chicken Francese at home yet, you’ll be surprised how easy it is to prepare this meal using just one pan. Less dishwashing is always a plus!
- CHICKEN FRANCESE:
- 1/2 lb chicken breasts, cut into cutlets
- salt
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 1/4 tsp garlic powder
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flower
- 1 egg
- 1/8 cup olive oil
- LEMON BUTTER SAUCE:
- 1/2 cup chicken broth
- 1/4 lemon cut into rings
- juice from 1/4 lemon, or to taste
- 1/4 cup white wine*
- 1 Tbsp butter
- 1/2 tsp cornstarch
- 1/2 tsp fresh parsley
- salt
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CHICKEN FRANCESE:
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Place flour in a shallow dish. In another dish, put beaten egg.
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Season chicken cutlets with salt, pepper and garlic powder; dredge with flour, dip into beaten egg. If you like, you can repeat dredging in flour and dipping in egg one more time to achieve thicker coating.
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Heat olive oil in a pan; add chicken cutlets and cook on low heat until golden and cooked through. Take chicken out of the pan.
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LEMON BUTTER SAUCE:
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Add lemon rings to the pan and fry shortly.
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Add lemon juice, a pinch of salt, chicken broth, white wine and cook for a minute or two.
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Add butter coated in cornstarch and slowly melt into your sauce.
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Return chicken to the pan. Cook until heated through.
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Serve Chicken Francese with pasta, rice, potaoes or other vegetables.
*or substitute white wine with 1/4 cup chicken stock
Hi,
I think i’ve misunderstood something. You put chicken through the flour and then through the egg and repeat, and then? Do i’ve to bake it with the egg on the outside? No breadcrumbs or flour anymore? I don’t understand and haven’t heard from ever! Can you explain why to me please? Thanks in advance.
Have a very nice Sunday with your loved ones and enjoy the nice sunny weather outside if you’ve the oppertunity.
And please forgive me my language mistakes.
Best wishes,
Marja
Yes, you’ve understood it correctly. That is a way of frying breaded meat without breadcrumbs. You put chicken through the flour, then through the egg and then to the frying pan. You will get very delicate meat and not so greasy crust as with breadcrumbs. If you want extra thick crust, you put chicken through the flour, then through the egg, then through the flour again, and finally through the egg again and then to the frying pan.
Yummy! I will try it with fish! Amazing idea! Thank you!
I’m confused. The ingredients require chicken broth but that is no where in the actual recipe….hm…
Chicken broth goes to the sauce, together with lemon juice and white wine.
please give me some approx. cooking times for chicken & sauce
The chicken cooking time depends on the thickness of chicken, but I would say approximately 5 minutes on each side.
For the sauce cooking time is about 2 minutes or until it thickens.
I would like to make this for a buffet party that I am hosting. Can I do any of this ahead of time? Could I freeze the chicken after it is cooked, but not in the sauce?
I haven’t tried it, but I suppose you could freeze chicken and sauce separately.