Slow Cooker Chicken Piccata combines lemon flavors with chicken broth, capers, and dijon mustard for a chicken dish you and your whole family will love. With a few quick-prep steps and a few hours of cooking time, this chicken piccata will be ready for your dinner table the same day.
What is chicken piccata?
Originating from Italy, piccata describes a type of meat that has been sliced, dipped in flour, and seared (or browned). Then, it’s usually accompanied by a lemon juice-based sauce with butter and capers. The go-to choice of meats for piccata is usually veal or chicken.
Chicken piccata just so happens to be one of the most popular piccata recipes. Although the cooking style is in a saucepan, cooking it in the slow cooker keeps you from standing over the hot stovetop. Instead, you’re only there to sear the chicken to add to the crockpot; then you’re just about done!
Recipe Ingredients
- Chicken Breasts: Boneless skinless chicken breasts are dredged in seasoned flour before browned to perfection.
- Flour, Salt, and Pepper: Seasonings are used to give the flour flavor and to sear the chicken.
- Butter: You’ll use this for browning the chicken on both sides.
- Water and Cornstarch: Combined to help create the finishing touch to the creamy piccata sauce.
- Fresh Lemon Juice, Chicken Broth, and Dijon Mustard: Creates the lemony-flavored sauce and marinade for the chicken piccata recipe. (You can also use a low sodium chicken broth.)
- Garlic Cloves and Capers: Adds the Italian-style flavors.
Step-by-Step Directions
Step One – On a large plate, combine the flour, salt, and pepper.
Step Two – Coat both sides of each chicken piece (dredge) with the flour mixture.
Step Three – In a medium saucepan, brown one side of the chicken.
Step Four – Flip the chicken and brown the other side. (You don’t have to cook chicken thoroughly.)
Step Five – Add the juicy, lightly breaded chicken into the slow cooker that’s filled with butter, lemon juice, chicken stock, dijon mustard, minced garlic, and savory capers. Cover and cook on HIGH for 3 hours. Then, remove the chicken.
Step Six – In a small bowl, combine corn starch and water.
Step Seven – Pour corn starch mixture into the lemon-based sauce. Stir well.
Step Eight – Return the chicken to the piccata sauce. Cover and cook for another hour for the sauce to thicken. Garnish with lemon slices and fresh herbs (fresh thyme pairs well) for serving.
How to Serve
- Noodles – Crockpot chicken piccata pairs well with spaghetti or linguini noodles, though the most popular choice is angel hair pasta. Add a nice helping of noodles to a plate and place a chicken breast or two on top and drizzle over the lemon sauce. Add extra piccata sauce and a few lemon slices.
- Rice – This chicken piccata recipe can also be served with rice, either on top or next to.
- Mashed potatoes – Helps turn this crock pot chicken piccata into a wholesome full meal. In fact, you can also cook small red potatoes with the chicken.
Recipe FAQs
Not particularly; however, to keep it close to the Italian tradition, browning the chicken is an important step for texture purposes. If you prefer to skip this step then add raw chicken into the crockpot and cook for an hour so longer.
Add any leftovers into an airtight container and place them into the refrigerator. They will keep for up to 3 days.
While thinly sliced chicken breasts are the most ideal for a recipe like this, you can also use boneless skinless chicken thighs.
For a gluten free version, replace the flour with cornstarch and dredge the chicken in that.
You can add a small amount of vegetables without making the dish watery. You can add artichoke hearts or sliced mushrooms.
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Slow Cooker Chicken Piccata
Equipment Needed:
- 6 quart or larger
Ingredients:
- 4 chicken cutlets about 1 ½ pounds chicken which is thinly sliced.
- 1/2 cup all purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1/2 tsp. black pepper
- 1/2 cup butter plus 2 Tbsp. of butter separate
- 1/2 cup lemon juice
- 1/2 cup chicken stock
- 1 Tbsp. dijon mustard
- 2 garlic cloves minced
- 3 Tbsp. capers drained
- 2 Tbsp. cornstarch
- 2 Tbsp. water
Instructions:
- In a small bowl, combine the salt, pepper, and flour. Dredge the chicken cutlets in the flour mixture. In a nonstick skillet, melt the 2 tablespoons of butter over and pan fry the chicken cutlets over medium high heat until browned on each side, about 2 minutes per side. The chicken doesn't have to be cooked all the way, just browned.
- To the slow cooker, add the browned chicken, ½ cup butter, lemon juice, chicken stock, dijon mustard, minced garlic, and capers. Cover and cook on high for 3 hours.
- Remove the chicken from the slow cooker, mix together the cornstarch and water and stir it into the cooking liquid. Replace the chicken, cover and cook for another hour or until the sauce has thickened slightly.
- Serve with pasta, rice, or even mashed potatoes, garnish with lemon slices and parsley.
Recipe Notes:
- For a gluten free version, replace the flour with cornstarch and dredge the chicken in that.
- Add any leftovers into an airtight container and place them into the refrigerator. They will keep for up to 3 days.
- Browning the chicken is an important step for texture purposes. If you prefer to skip this step then add raw chicken into the crockpot and cook for an hour so longer.
- While thinly sliced chicken breasts are the most ideal for a recipe like this, you can also use boneless skinless chicken thighs.
- You can add a small amount of vegetables without making the dish watery. You can add artichoke hearts or sliced mushrooms.
Nutrition Information:
Nutrition info is auto-generated. This information is an estimate; if you are on a special diet, please use your own calculations.
This was an excellent way to make this dish! Since hubby and I prefer dark meat, we used chicken legs. Our guests loved it also.
The sauce was so terrific, we added more broth and lemon juice and sure glad we did.
Made with whole chicken breasts and turned out fantastic
Did not turn out. The chicken was slimey from browning it before hand with the flour. While the chicken had great flavor the sauce was too much lemon and therefore just tossed it out. Shredded up the chicken and just going to mix it in with some pasta and Parmesan. Was really wanting to like this but just didn’t turn out well sadly. There were also just chunks of flour or something in the liquid as well before shredding so it just didn’t turn out appetizing at all sadly.
This was delicious. My entire family loved it and I’m making it again tomorrow.
Thank you for the recipe. I didn’t have the time to brown the chicken first (and I’m GF), so i just put the raw whole chicken breasts directly into the crock pot with the rest of the ingredients (minus the flour and 2T extra butter) and cooked on high for 3 hours. I added the cornstarch mixture and shredded the chicken and put on low til I was ready to eat. About 10 min before serving, I added a couple handfuls of spinach. I served it over brown rice, but I think pasta or mashed potato’s would have been better. It was actually more like 4 stars, but I think had I done it exactly as directed it would have been 5. Since time is usually tight for me and I’m GF, I will most likely make it again as shredded.
This was so good! I cooked low for 6 hours and the chicken was perfect. It made great leftovers, too!
Three hours on high??? Yikes! My feeling is chicken can be over cooked very easily (my opinion only). These are thin slices of chicken. That sounds like an excessive amount of time on high. Definitely will try the recipe, though. Sounds delicious!
Chicken only gets more tender the longer it cooks in the slow cooker.