Allergy-Friendly Chicken Piccata

In our house, chicken is the meat of choice. The kiddo occasionally digs into some steak or sausage, but for the most part, it's chicken. He prefers dark-meat chicken, and I'm still experimenting with thighs and drumsticks. Meanwhile, the hubby tends to prefer chicken breast, but my toddler is lukewarm — at best — about the light meat. This dinner seemed to be a good compromise because the meat stayed pretty moist. Plus, it's free of dairy, eggs, soy, nuts and gluten too. I served it with plain rice and some sauteed mushrooms.

Involving Kiddos: Hand 'em the tenderizer! It's great (supervised) fun! And older kids will probably enjoy being involved in breading the chicken too. And juicing the lemon — they'll dig that too.

Ingredients

  • chicken breasts

  • olive oil

  • panko crumbs

  • chicken stock (homemade if you can; it's just better)

  • lemon (to juice) or lemon juice

  • capers

What to do

  1. Put chicken breasts in between two pieces of plastic wrap or in a large Ziploc bag. I like the Ziploc bag because it makes it harder for kiddos to get their hands on the raw pieces of meat.

  2. Let kiddos pound the meat with a meat tenderizer. (You can also just buy thinner cuts of meat.) Meanwhile, heat up some olive oil in a skillet on the stove.

  3. Coat the chicken with olive oil, then dip in panko crumbs.

  4. Drop chicken in the pan — about 3 minutes, then flip.

  5. After a few minutes on the second side (basically once the meat it browning), add chicken stock (I used a half a pint for one pound of chicken, but more would've been OK too).

  6. Add the juice from one lemon.

  7. Add capers. I used probably a tablespoon or so.

  8. Let chicken simmer until meat is cooked through and sauce thickens (8-10 minutes-ish).