Chicken Francese

Frank24 October 2020Italian-American, secondi piatti56 Comments

October is Italian-American Heritage month, and long time readers will know that each year, around this time, we feature an Italian-American dish. This year, we’re serving up Chicken Francese, a perennial favorite you’ll find on the menu of just about every Italian-American restaurant in the country.

Despite its fame, the origins of Chicken Francese are rather obscure (see Notes below) but what is clear is its appeal. Despite being a “restaurant” dish, it’s not at all hard to make at home. It’s basically a chicken breast piccata but one where you first dip the chicken breasts in a light egg batter and pan-fry them to a golden brown before simmering them in a sauce of wine, chicken broth and lemon. The savory egg batter and lemony sauce really do wonders for the rather bland flavor of the chicken breasts.

Ingredients

Serves 4-6

4 skinless chicken breasts
Flour
2 eggs
Salt and pepper
Olive oil

For the sauce:

1/2 lemon, sliced into thin rounds
A splash of dry white wine
500ml (2 cups) chicken broth, preferably homemade
Juice of 1/2 lemon, or to taste
1 Tb butter
1 Tb flour
Salt and pepper

To finish the dish:

Finely minced parsley

Directions

With a sharp kitchen knife, cut each chicken breast lengthwise in two thin cutlets. Take each scallop and pound it gently to thin it out a bit further. Trim off any gristle or rough edges.

Dredge each chicken cutlet in flour, seasoned generously with salt and pepper, and then dip it in the egg to coat lightly.

In a large skillet, over moderate heat, brown the chicken cutlets on both sides in olive oil and set aside.

Add a splash of white wine to the skillet and let it evaporate almost entirely, then add the chicken broth.

Let everything simmer for a few minutes so the flavors meld. Add the flour, kneaded together with the butter into a small ball and whisk it into the liquid, which should thicken into a sauce like consistency.

Add the chicken cutlets back into the skillet, along with the lemon slices, and let everything simmer in the sauce for a minute or two to warm up. If need be, add more broth or water so you have ample sauce for napping the cutlets, but they shouldn’t ‘swim’ in it.

At the last moment, taste and adjust the sauce for seasonings, then drizzle in the lemon juice.

Serve the chicken cutlets hot, napped with the sauce and garnished with the lemon slices and minced parsley.

Notes on Chicken Francese

I’ve given this classic recipe a few personal touches. First, by cutting the chicken breasts into cutlets rather than leaving them whole. I think this produces a more pleasing balance of meat and sauce. I’ve also tweaked the way the sauce is made. Many recipes will have you add the wine, broth and lemon juice all at once. In this recipe you add them seriatum: a splash of wine for deglazing the pan, followed by the broth, then holding back on the lemon juice until just before serving, to give the sauce bright finish. Finally, while the classic recipe has you sauté the lemon slices in the pan right after the cutlets, I hold them back to simmer in the sauce. I think these little tweaks produce a more balanced tasting sauce and—dare I say it?—more refined dish.

The origins of Chicken Francese are apparently unclear, although there’s some indication that it got its start among the Italian-American community in Upstate New York, around Rochester. It clearly resembles a piccata, and I have to imagine it’s an adaption of that dish, or rather a kind of fusion of the piccata with the cotoletta, or cutlet, which it also resembles. In some tellings, in fact, Chicken Francese was invented as a way to liven up the boredom of regular chicken cutlets.

Francese, as you may have guessed even if you don’t speak Italian, means “French”. And odd as the thought of an Italian-America dish that calls itself French might seem, it makes sense, since the sauce, with its ample broth thickened with a beurre manié, is definitely inspired by French technique, and a clear departure from Italian culinary traditions.

As many will know, the same basic recipe works for fish fillets and veal cutlets, which in fact may have been the original version. But the story that you might have read that Chicken Francese is an adaption of an Italian dish called vitello alla francese brought to America by immigrants seems wrong. I’m not aware of any such Italian dish.

Making Chicken Francese Ahead

Chicken Francese is best served right away, but it can be successfully made ahead and reheated. Complete the recipe up until the last two steps. When you want to serve your dish, add a bit of water or broth to the skillet, then gently bring the sauce back to the simmer and proceed from there.

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