This chicken piccata pasta’s lemony white wine, butter, and caper sauce makes a light and snappy coating for linguine. It’s an easy pasta dinner that won’t weigh you down.
I’m a serious fan of taking bleak weather days and giving them a zesty punch up with easy comfort food dinners that won’t leave you asking for an antacid for dessert.
In This Post
Fast-to-make chicken dinners that straddle the line of wholesome but aren’t stingy with flavor are always a popular fave.
Case in point: My full of lemon sunshine chicken piccata recipe. And what starch is better to serve alongside piccata than pasta noodles? So why not just bring the two together as one?!!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- This chicken piccata pasta is a quick and easy dinner made with familiar, easy to access ingredients.
- Because the ingredients won’t expire too quickly, this is one of those recipes you can shop for at the beginning of the week then make later.
- The sauce for this pasta isn’t cloying or overwhelming. With white wine, chicken broth, and lemon juice, it’s the perfect pucker-upper.
What’s in This Recipe?
The full recipe, with amounts, can be found in the recipe card below.
- Chicken breasts — Not only does browned chicken breast add protein to this dish, it’s time spent sizzling in the skillet adds loads of caramelized bits that create flavor for the sauce too.
- Mushrooms — I use brown mushrooms but white are fine.
- Cherry or grape tomatoes — Keep them whole for ease of prep and extra juiciness.
- Butter — There’s no cream in this recipe. Instead we’re relying on a few pats of butter for richness, flavor, and a glossy sheen.
- White wine — Anything drinkable will do.
- Chicken broth — Adds much more flavor than water.
- Lemons — Thinly slice the lemon and cook directly in the sauce to soften and infuse with sunshine-y flavor.
- Capers — Super briny, salty, and savory. A must for chicken piccata-anything!
- Linguine — Or your favorite pasta.
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper — Always.
How to Make Chicken Piccata Pasta
- Season the chicken. In my original chicken piccata recipe, boneless breasts are seasoned and tossed in flour before it’s cooked. In this dish, I skip the flour and simply season with kosher salt and pepper instead.
- Sauté the chicken. Do so in batches with extra olive oil if needed. Allow the chicken to cook and sizzle without a lot of flipping or stirring. You want those caramel-ey bits and browning. That’s where the flavor hides. So your chicken doesn’t overcook and become dry, transfer to a bowl once it’s browned, before moving to the sautéing of the veg.
Heidi’s Tip: Crowding the pan will cause the chicken to steam, adding moisture to the pan so the chicken doesn’t brown and caramelize.
- Cook the mushrooms and tomatoes. There’s no need to rinse out the skillet, simply brown the sliced brown mushrooms and whole grape or cherry tomatoes in the same pan as the chicken, where they’ll benefit from being touched by chicken bits flavorful greatness. Transfer to the bowl with the chicken.
- Make the sauce. Deglaze the pan with a little chicken broth and white wine. Then, add in some of the butter, plus the lemon juice and capers. Return the chicken and tomatoes to the skillet.
- Whisk in cold butter. But what about the cream? There is none! This sauce thickens as it cooks and reduces, allowing the flavors to come together and concentrate. Whisking in cold butter to the warm sauce adds a creamy richness that won’t monopolize the sauce’s tangy flavors, while keeping it on the light side.
- Finish it with more lemon. I love the tangy bite of cooked sliced lemons so I slice a lemon thin, then nestle them into the sauce. The rind becomes soft and jammy and is just another layer of flavor I can’t get enough of. This step is totally optional if the tart tang ain’t yo’ thang.
- Toss with linguine. Cook the pasta 2 minutes less than the recommended cooking time, drain, and add to the sauce, toss, and continue to cook so the pasta absorbs the sauce as it continues to cook in it. Don’t rinse the pasta before adding to the sauce.
Recipe FAQs
For any pasta dish, always choose a high quality semolina flour pasta such as DeLallo pasta.
Because this pasta has chunks of ingredients that taste best entwined and eaten with each bite of the pasta, I suggest a sturdy pasta like linguine, fettuccine, spaghetti, bucatini, penne, fusili, or cavatappi.
Feel free to replace the wine with an equal amount of chicken broth. You might want to add a little extra lemon juice as well since the wine adds acidity to the sauce in addition to flavor.
Ran out of capers but are dying to try this luscious chicken piccata with linguine pasta? Swap them with chopped green olives.
Storage Tips
Store leftover pasta in an airtight container and refrigerate for up to 3 days, noting that the linguine noodles will soften over time.
What to Serve with This Pasta
- Salad — Arugula Salad With Shaved Parmesan, Burrata and Tomato Salad, Avocado and Tomato Salad, Strawberry Burrata Salad, Italian House Salad
- Veggies — Easy 5-Minute Parmesan Zucchini, Roasted Parmesan Cauliflower, Roasted Asparagus
- Bread — Garlic Bread or Garlic Knots
If you make this recipe, please let me know! Leave a 
rating on this recipe below and leave a comment, take a photo and tag me on Instagram with #foodiecrusheats.
Chicken Piccata Pasta
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1 pound chicken breasts , cubed
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper , divided
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt , divided
- 8 ounces brown mushrooms , sliced
- 1 ½ cups chicken broth
- 1 cup white wine
- 6 tablespoons cold butter
- 3 lemons
- 2 cups grape or cherry tomatoes
- 3.5 ounces capers
- 1 pound linguine , or other long pasta
- Minced parsley, Italian panko bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese for serving
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and cook the pasta 2 minutes less than the time on the package directions.
- While the pasta is cooking, heat a large skillet over medium-high heat and add 1 tablespoon olive oil. Toss the chicken pieces with ½ teaspoon pepper and ½ teaspoon kosher salt. Add the chicken to the skillet and cook for 5-7 minutes, turning once or twice, until lightly browned. Transfer the chicken to a plate. Add the remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil to the skillet. Add the mushrooms and cook for 2 minutes, then add the tomatoes and cook for another 2 minutes, stirring occasionally. Transfer the mushrooms and tomato to the bowl with the browned chicken.
- Add the chicken broth and wine to the skillet, bring to a bubbling simmer, and scrape the browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Whisk in 4 tablespoons of the butter. Juice 2 lemons and add to the sauce. Add the capers. Cook for 5-8 minutes or until the sauce reduces by a third. Add the chicken, mushrooms and tomatoes back to the sauce. Thinly slice the remaining lemon and nestle the lemon slices amongst the chicken and vegetables. Whisk in the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter to emulsify and thicken the sauce.
- Drain the pasta and add it in batches back to the skillet with the sauce, tossing to coat as the pasta continues cooking and absorbs some of the buttery wine sauce. If your skillet isn't large enough, drain the pasta then add it back to the pot it was cooked in, then add the sauce to the pasta. Toss to coat over medium heat for 2-3 minutes.
- To serve, sprinkle with minced parsley, Parmesan cheese, or Italian panko bread crumbs if desired.
Notes
Nutrition
More Pasta Recipes to Try for Dinner
- My Mom’s Homemade Spaghetti And Meat Sauce
- Spaghetti Alla Carbonara
- Linguine Con Vongole (Linguine With Clam Sauce)
- Pasta Pomodoro Sauce
- Shrimp Scampi Pasta
- Crab Spaghetti With Lemon Gremolata
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Big JiLm
Awesome! just love it, my favorite meal as pasta!
Agreed JILm! Glad you enjoy!
Cherie
Do you know if this can be frozen and reheated?
Hayley
Hi Cherie, yes, you can freeze this. It will likely need several hours to thaw in the fridge (we’d just give it a day), and then you can reheat in the microwave. We hope you enjoy!
Jess
Where are the measurements for the ingredients…am I missing something ?
Hayley
Hi Jess, we’re not understanding your question as all of the ingredients and their amounts are listed in the recipe card.
Ingrid
Delicious. And you can adjust ingredients based on what you have. We added artichoke hearts and spinach.
Sounds delicious! Glad you enjoyed!
susan
omg this is the best. my family request this meal every week. i didnt change a thing in the recipe. thank you.
Glad you all enjoyed Susan.
susan celona
omg this is the best. my family request this meal every week. i didnt change a thing in the recipe. thank you.
Nak
Absolutely loved this, added some garlic to the tomatoes and a scotch bonnet pepper because I love heat. The recipe itself is wonderful. Love the butter sauce with the wine. Going to try this with seafood and pasta next time. It’s amazing, thank you.
I’m glad you enjoyed!
susan celona
absolutely Heavenly!!!!! i just added a little garlic salt
susan celona
absolutely Heavenly!!!!!
Hayley
Thanks Susan, we’re so happy you loved it!
Betsy
So simple, but full of flavor! Thank you!!
Tammy
This recipe is delicious. I did not add the lemon slices as it isn’t my thing, but everything else was perfect. I have shared this recipe with friends and family.
Deb
I can’t express how much we loved this. I omitted the sliced lemon and cut the butter to 4 Tbsps, and only used half the capers (put the rest on the side for everyone to add as they saw fit). The combination of lemon and capers is one of my favorites, and this delivered beautifully. Thank you for a great recipe!
Sherry
Great dinner option, light and delicious. I added broccoli to the mushrooms and some garlic. Yummy!
Sounds like the broccoli was a great addition Sherry. Thx for letting us know!
Terrie
do you have to use the wine?? i never drink wine therefore never have any on hand but this recipe looks delicious
Ashley @ Foodie Crush
You’d be ok without the wine!
De Reiger
Great recipe, I can’t wait to do this. Thank you so much for sharing.
Cassie
Wow, what a list! and CONGRATS on one year of blogging. You are amazing! So wish I was going to BlogHer Food and to EVO but can’t make either. Hopefully we will meet up soon! xoxo
Jennifer and Cassie, wish we could meet in person too, but there will be plenty of opportunities coming our way!
Bev, can’t wait to share a glass of wine or two with you next week too!
Jennifer | Mother Thyme
Milestones are so important. Congrats to you on yours and your recent anniversaries! I wish I was going to BlogHer Food next week :( I have not left my kids yet and they are almost 2. Hopefully I can make it next year.
Michelle
CAN’T WAIT FOR THE NEW MAG!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Delishhh
Happy Blog Anniversary!! So i live in Seattle and will be at the Blogher too, hope to see you.
If you need any tips on what to do let me know. I shared this with Two Peas and a Pod:
Seattle to do:
Here are a few of my links of if you only have a weekend in Seattle where to eat:
http://delishhh.com/2010/03/11/if-you-only-had-a-weekend-in-seattle-where-would-you-go-and-eat/
Best Brunch places:
http://delishhh.com/2010/05/06/seattle-top-10-brunch-places/
My Restaurant Reviews in Seattle:
http://delishhh.com/restaurant-reviews/
Then you have to visit:
– Pike Place Market – great for foodies
– Space needle is nice view but the food is not great – http://www.spaceneedle.com/
– If you have a care the Boeing Museum and how they build in airplane is awesome http://www.boeing.com/commercial/tours/index.html
– Kerry Park has the best view of the city – http://www.seattle.gov/parks/park_detail.asp?id=342
– Some people like to do a tour of Theo Chocolates – http://www.theochocolate.com/
– If you are looking for a show Tetro Zinzanni is always fun – http://dreams.zinzanni.org/
But just walking downtown by the water on a gorgeous day is awesome, there are lots of parks and good places to eat.
Let me know how much more time you have and i can send you some more stuff.
Bev @ Bev Cooks
Happy Blogiversary! Can’t WAIT to meet you next week. Finally.
Jennifer
Congratulations on all your anniversaries! And Happy Birthday to your daughter :)