Easy Chicken Francese Recipe

Hey, I’m John Cannell, and today we’re making an easy and delicious chicken francese. Let’s get started.

Ingredients & Prep

First off, you’ll want to grab four six-ounce chicken breasts. These guys are way too thick, so we’re gonna pound them out with a mallet. You could also use a rolling pin if you don’t have one. Working one at a time, just place them between two layers of paper, or you could use plastic as well. We’re gonna pound these out; they should be nice and thin, even throughout, about half an inch thick. Don’t go too hard—just slowly whittle them down. If you smash them, they’ll just be smashed. Voilà, we have a thin chicken breast, half an inch thick. Repeat for the other guys.

What this is doing is allowing it to pan-fry so it’ll be perfectly cooked through without being burnt or overcooked. This will also tenderize things, and you’re opening things up so that more sauce can be absorbed by those breasts.

Lemon Prep

Okay, my chicken is all pounded out. There is one more thing to do for prep, and that’s to thinly slice a lemon. Chicken francese—”chicken French style,” which is what it means—is pan-fried chicken breasts with a delicious lemony white-wine butter sauce, so good. Thinly slice one lemon; this is going to be kind of cooked on top towards the end, and you can pick seeds out of them as well. Set aside. We’ll need some lemon juice as well—roll one out and have it at the ready.

Dredging Station

Now we can set up our dredging station. For the dredging, you’ll want one shallow dish with two beaten eggs. Go beat those eggs—nothing crazy, but you just want to break those yolks up. About a quarter of a cup of flour into the other dredging station. You don’t have to be exact with this; no need for the scale. To the flour, I’m adding about a teaspoon of salt and around a quarter teaspoon of ground pepper. Give that a mix, and if you have any other favorite flavors, yes, you could add that to the dredging mixture as well.

Cooking the Chicken

Grab a large pan, place over medium-high heat, and add about a quarter cup of olive oil to warm up. Once it’s hot, we’re ready to go. While your oil is warming up, we’re gonna dredge our chicken—two breasts at a time. First breast into the flour: just get it nice and coated, shake off the excess. Now into the beaten egg—again, nicely coated; allow some of that excess to drip off. Once the oil is dancing in the pan (you’ll see a nice shimmer), we’re going to add our chicken breast right in. That shushing sound is exactly what you want to hear. Repeat for the second breast.

This is such an easy, quick meal. If you have nothing planned, you’re gonna take about eight minutes to defrost the chicken; you’re ready to go. This will be done in half an hour if your chicken’s defrosted already—20 minutes or less. We’re gonna cook our chicken for about four minutes or until it’s nice and golden, then flip it over. The internal temperature should be 165 °F, so you can do a little temp, and if you don’t have that, you can give it a slice and just make sure it’s cooked through. As the first two breasts are cooking, you can start dredging your next one—just have it at the ready.

Our chicken’s ready to turn over—look at that golden color; it’s exactly what you want to see, and it’s just perfectly crisp right now. Once done, remove your chicken breasts to a platter, and it’s time for the next batch.

Lemon Slices & Pan Cleanup

Once your chicken’s out of the pan, it’s time to add those lemon slices in. They’re gonna cook and take on some color and soften up. Pop them right into that hot oil. Don’t worry if there are some bits and bobs hanging out in the pan; it does not have to be perfectly clean. You’re going to cook them for just about a minute until they take on some color and slightly soften. Once those lemon slices are slightly browned, you’re going to remove them onto the plate with the chicken.

Here’s the deal: your pan might look a little crazy at this point—too crazy for our beautiful white-wine sauce. You can wash it, use a new pan, or just give it a nice wipe. I’m gonna try a swipe. I’m not telling you to take all the flavor away, but the flavor was captured by the lemons, and chances are you have some burned bits which are a little bit bitter. I am actually going to carefully wipe with a steel sponge.

Making the Sauce

We need some white wine for the sauce, so I suggest you grab some wine that you’re going to enjoy drinking with your chicken francese. I’m using a nice Chardonnay, but so many dry white wines will work for this. Half a cup of wine at the ready—that’s for the food; the rest is for you and your guests, or just you.

Now place your skillet over medium heat. Three tablespoons of butter there we go, and I have one tablespoon of flour at the ready. You’ll also want a whisk so you can whisk it in and make a nice smooth roux. Add that tablespoon of flour in; we just want to cook it in the butter. It gets rid of that flour taste, and it’s going to do such a nice job thickening the sauce just the right amount. All right, we just need to cook the flour for a minute while whisking.

Now we’re going to add my wine in, and I’m also going to add one cup of chicken broth. A slower pour is better whenever you’re making a sauce; it’ll be silkier. This is pouring crazily, so do as I say, not as I do. Smells so good, though—oh my gosh. That butter and flour were just starting to brown, so you get like a nutty depth of flavor which is really nice. I’m going to stir this over medium heat for about four minutes until it’s just thickened, then we can finish it off and get this all together.

A little bit of whisking later, and my sauce is thickened up, but it’s not a gravy. I want to show you the consistency: you can see on the back of a wooden spoon it’s coating it, but it’s a thin sauce. So if you want it thicker, I would add an extra teaspoon or two of flour with the butter, and you’ll have a thicker, more gravy-like sauce. This, however, looks great to me, so I’m going to add in the remaining quarter teaspoon of salt, a quarter teaspoon of black pepper, and about a tablespoon of lemon juice. This will brighten everything up. Oh my gosh—pow! That is delicious, like it slaps you across the face with flavor.

Finishing & Serving

Now we can return the chicken back into the sauce to warm through, as well as the lemons. Let’s place those chicken breasts right back—this time it doesn’t matter if they’re overlapping. Add those lemon slices back as well; you can nestle them here and there. Just go to the edge, spoon the sauce over the chicken. This goes with basically anything—from veggies to pasta to salad—so plate it up and enjoy.

That sauce is packed with flavor. I love the lemon in it, and the chicken is so tender and just perfectly done. I hope you get a chance to make this recipe.