Chicken Francese
Chicken breast, being a lean, neutral flavoured protein, is a terrific blank canvas to get creative with. Stuff it, sear it, crumb it, bake it, fry it, marinate it, poach it – see the many, many ways I cook it in my chicken breast recipe collection! Today, we are battering and saucing. The battering is a little unique. Chicken Francese is dredged in egg then pan fried which gives the chicken a lovely golden crust with excellent sauce clinging capabilities. Speaking of the sauce! It’s an elegant white wine sauce that’s savoury with a subtle brightness from lemon. It doesn’t taste winey because it’s reduced to cook out the alcohol. And it’s not meant to be really lemony, it just has a subtle flavour from the juices of lemon slices put into the sauce. I personally think most recipes use way too much lemon which makes it lip-puckeringly sour. Also, not all recipes thicken the sauce, it’s thinner. I am firmly in the thickened sauce camp. Like so:
So, if all that sounds good to you, read on!
Ingredients in Chicken Francese
Here’s what you need to make Chicken Francese:
Chicken breast is the cut commonly used for Chicken Francese. We only need 2 because we cut them in half horizontally to form 4 thin steaks in total. Get big ones, so one piece makes a sufficient serving for a meal. You could also get chicken breast that’s already cut / pounded thin, usually sold labelled as “chicken schnitzel” here in Australia (it comes un-crumbed).Boneless thighs will also work. Pound to even thickness to get a nice flat surface on both sides so the egg batter cooks evenly. Eggs and milk whisked together make up the batter than the chicken is dipped in before frying. Flour is used to thicken then sauce and for coating the chicken before dipping in the egg. It makes the egg cling better to the chicken and also makes the crust a little bit crispy. Wine – Chardonnay is the best all-rounder cooking wine, in my opinion, for flavour. It is the only white wine I stock for cooking these days. No need to use an expensive one! Pretty well documented by cooking authorities that there’s no need to use expensive wine for cooking. Buy discounted bottles – I use ~$15 bottles discounted to ~$5. Substitute with non-alcoholic white wine. Else, leave out the wine and add 2 – 3 tablespoons lemon juice to make a lovely lemon sauce instead. Chicken stock/broth is the other liquid that makes up the sauce. Butter for the sauce and olive oil for cooking the chicken. We discard the surplus olive oil (which gets black bits in it) before adding the butter. Lemon – Cut into slices then pan fried before adding back into the sauce. A very specific Chicken Francese step! More on this in the How To Make section below. Parsley for optional garnish.
How to make Chicken Francese
A nice, leisurely 15 minute cook. We first pan-fry the battered chicken cutlets then make the sauce in the same pan. The chicken is returned into the sauce at the end so the crust gets soaked in the sauce, as well as re-warming the chicken. Boneless thighs will also work. Pound to even thickness to get a nice flat surface on both sides so the egg batter cooks evenly. Substitute with non-alcoholic white wine. Else, leave out the wine and add 2 – 3 tablespoons lemon juice to make a lovely lemon sauce instead.
This is a step that is unique to Chicken Francese! Great technique. 🙂 Lump free! The technique of stirring while you slowly pour in some stock should prevent lumps forming in your sauce. But if you end up with pesky lumps, swish a whisk across the surface of the liquid to remove them, taking care not to scratch the non-stick surface of the pan. Worst case – strain it. 🙂 Then spoon sauce all over the chicken, then it’s dinnertime!
How to serve Chicken Francese
This recipe makes a generous amount of sauce because it’s hard to make less in large pans. You’ll end up with over a cup in the pan in addition to the sauce clinging to the chicken. That’s a good amount to serve this over mashed potato (or faux mash), rice, or other similar starchy vehicles (risoni/orzo, couscous). On the other hand, if you choose bread for mopping (as pictured), then you might not use all the sauce. But, having too much sauce is a much more desirable position to be in than not enough sauce (her heart thuds in fear at the thought) and this precious liquid gold is going to make your morning scrambled eggs or a plain omelette SO MUCH MORE EXCITING. Who wouldn’t want white wine lemon sauce on their breakfast eggs???! – Nagi x
Watch how to make it
UPDATE in response to reader questions – YES I use the leftover egg to make an omelette! There is less than the equivalent of 1 egg left so it makes a thin omelette crepe. As long as you cook the omelette through thoroughly, and because it’s so thin, you can, it is fine to eat even after dipping raw chicken into it!
Life of Dozer
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