If you’ve never had chicken francese, meet your new weeknight favorite. Crispy, airy crust, tender chicken, and a lemony butter sauce? YUM! It’s a really incredible, easy 20 minute dinner that relies on nothing but the basics: Chicken breast, a little flour, and eggs. Chicken francese ("French-style" chicken) is a little bit like chicken piccata with a more robust crispy crust! Both are made with thin chicken cutlets topped with a lemony wine sauce. Francese doesn’t have capers (though you can add them if you want to) and it's a bit like if milanese or panko chicken and lemon butter chicken were smashed together into one dish.
Ingredients & Substitutions
- Chicken: Use cutlets for ease (it saves you a step), or boneless, skinless, chicken breast butterflied and halved to create thinner pieces. You can also use pork if you’d like. Just be sure to pound it thin.
- Eggs: You’ll beat them with water to get a really nice consistency that easily coats the chicken breasts.
- Stock: Homemade stock is great, store bought is fine.
- Wine: As always, use a wine you’d like to drink! Any crisp white wine will work well. I usually use a dry Pinot Grigio.
- Lemon: Bottled lemon juice doesn't compare. Use fresh!
- Flour: Gluten free flour works fine (use a 1:1 GF flour mix). If you use GF flour, the sauce needs to be whisked a little more when you add it to the butter.
- Oil & butter
- Seasonings: Garlic powder, salt, pepper
- Extras: To jazz up the lemony sauce, add capers, herbs like fresh thyme, tarragon, or basil, or even a few tablespoons of cream right at the end to make it creamy.
Tips For Success
- Work in batches and don’t overcrowd the pan or the crust won’t be crispy.
- Let the chicken sit still (resist the urge to poke it around) for at least three minutes to develop a really nice golden crust.
- Between batches, wipe out any little crispy burned bits from the pan. They’ll make the next batch bitter.
- Be sure the heat is set to LOW when you add that last little bit of butter.
- When you pound the chicken, don't smash too hard. Instead, work carefully and steadily to pound the chicken evenly thin so they cook quickly and come out nice and tender.
- The egg coating will fall off your chicken if your pan isn’t hot enough, or if you didn’t let it sit for that crucial first few minutes.
- This tastes best fresh, so you may want to halve the recipe if you are serving fewer people.
Serving Suggestions
There are so many ways to serve chicken francese! I often serve it over pasta (homemade pasta, if I’m feeling indulgent!). It’s also really nice over rice or polenta or with risotto on the side. You could also keep the meal lighter and carb-less by serving this with a big Italian salad. And always a little glass of crispy white wine on the side!
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