Chicken Breasts With Lemon Recipe (2024)

This looks really good, but I'm confused about something. After you brown the chicken on both sides, you discard the oil, add the broth, etc., how long do you continue to cook the chicken? It would have to be at least half an hour. I want to cook this. Any advice?

I like to brown the chicken and then remove from the pan. Pour off any excess oil and then cook the shallot and garlic and thyme leaves briefly and then add the liquid (wine, chicken broth) along with the lemon zest and juice. After it simmers for a few minutes to thicken a little add the butter to the sauce and return chicken to pan to finish cooking (five minutes)

Chris - I cooked as indicated, 5 mins one side (Step 2), flipped and cooked another 5 mins (Step 3), cooked another minute with thyme, shallots and garlic (Step 4) and finally an additional 3 mins (Step 5). Came out perfect!

1) Remove the chicken before making the sauce.
2) Do not wipe out the pan. Alex is right, that would also remove the fond. Pour off the excess oil. You need a thin film of the oil left in the pan to sauté the shallot & garlic.
3) The butter is added after reducing the liquid so it will emulsify and thicken the sauce. If you add it before you will get a greasy broken sauce. Add the butter, whisk it in then add the chicken to the sauce and you're finished.

Kevin O’Sullivan, I just read this recipe today and saw your question about lemon zest remained unanswered. Lemon zest is the yellow part of a lemon’s skin. The white part of the skin under the zest is called the pith and has an undesirable chalky taste. To remove zest but not pith from a lemon requires a light hand. Use an extremely sharp and small paring knife with slight pressure to shave off only the yellow. Or a micro-hole grater with light pressure to scrape at the skin. Hope this helps.

Would probably be good to cut the chicken breast longways in half.

Loved the recipe. I used a full cup of chicken broth to make more sauce. I also used dill (b/c that is all that I had) and it tasted great. I added artichoke hearts and capers. Yum!

This looks great. Why would you not remove the chicken to a platter,wipe out the oil and add the butter, stock and aromatics while the chicken keeps warm...wouldn't this insure a nice brown crust and lovely sauce?

I really miss Pierre Franey. What a touch. Recipe was simple, fast and delicious.

brown the chicken remove from the pan. Pour off excess oil cook shallot, garlic, thyme leaves briefly add liquid (wine, chicken broth) lemon zest and juice, simmers to thicken add the butter return chicken to pan to finish cooking (five minutes)
modify to coat chicken with breadcrumbs
made this with fish fillets - it was delicious. cooked the fish (rock cod fillets for 3 minutes per side; skipped the broth; otherwise everything was the same. This recipe lends itself well to milder fish.

Fast & easy to prepare. I used white wine instead of the broth since I had some handy & it worked fine. Nice moist chicken.

This has been consistently delicious--though you can easily make do with less than half a cup of flour, and less butter, as well. The garlic and shallots do tend to burn (in well under a minute) when they're added to a pan that hot (that's been drained of oil).

I used thinly sliced boneless skinless chicken breasts and 5 minutes on each side resulted in perfect chicken. Any longer than the directions and the chicken would be too dry.

It is so nice to see a Pierre Franey recipe - more, please.

I'm thinking the chicken breasts would cook more evenly if they were pounded to even thickness before starting the recipe. Or else use chicken breast cutlets, already thinner, and maybe a bit less time? For the question on lemon zest, a Microplane grater does a great job, or a zester tool, for thicker strips of zest.

This was a big disappointment. Totally bland--you need a lot more seasoning (maybe season the chicken before dredging and after). It was just...flavorless chicken. No real flavor at all and I followed the directions exactly. I should have used some wine with the broth. Not sure why this was so boring.

Was great as written. I enjoyed everything but the cleanup. Lots of splatter.

After you pour out “all the oil,” what medium are you cooking the shallots and garlic in?

Lovely recipe! Oddly, after years using this app, first time I used this recipe, but it won’t be the last!

Added mushrooms and capers, half breast and the other half boneless thighs

Love the taste . I added capers . I think it needed more texture . Served with mash potatoes n broccolini. Simple but sophisticated meal…..

I doubt that anyone will see this because I’m so late to the game, but I made this for the first time tonight and had a slight twist that someone may find useful. I had no lemons, but I substituted some almost over-the-hill tangerines, both for the zest and the juice. I’m happy to say it was delicious. Necessity is the mother of invention!

Very lemony but sauce didn’t thicken as expected and as it look’s in the photo. I served with wild rice and carrots.

I am confused. The recipe calls for chicken stock but never instructs when to use it. Help!

First time making it and while it’s good, adding capers made it great. Needed some extra salt pop.

I sliced the chicken in half for thinner slicesMade it exactly as written and it came out so yummy!

Added herbes de Provence and ate with red lentil pasta and Parmesan cheese

Use a whole shallot

Chicken took longer to cook than recipe said so will try with cutlets next time. Also needed some more salt which I will add during sauté. Put it over pasta and broccoli - so good!!