Pollo al Limone is a classic Italian recipe featuring tender pan-fried chicken breast cutlets simmered in fresh lemon juice and white wine.
Italian Lemon Chicken is popular across southern Italy, especially in Campania and Sicily, regions famous for their fragrant football-sized lemons.
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How To Make Italian Pollo al Limone
Pollo al Limone is a Southern Italian dish that often uses Amalfi or Sorrento lemons, prized for their large size, sweet aroma, and thick peel. These lemons are also used to make limoncello.
True to Italian cooking philosophy, the dish uses very few ingredients: chicken, lemon, wine, olive oil, onion, and herbs, but delivers bold flavour thanks to fresh citrus. Chicken breasts are lightly floured, pan-fried, then finished with lemon juice and white wine.
The fresh lemon not only flavours the chicken but also helps tenderize it with natural acidity, an old Mediterranean trick for cooking juicy meat.
The cutlet version is closely related to scaloppine al limone, made with veal instead of chicken, showing how Italians adapt recipes to different proteins.
In many Italian households, roasted lemon chicken is a Sunday lunch staple, served with roasted potatoes or salad. We recommend serving lemon chicken with a crisp southern Italian whites like Falanghina, Vermentino, or Pinot Grigio to match the citrusy brightness.
Italian Chicken “Pollo al Limone”
Equipment
- French knife
- measuring cups
- measuring spoons
- Skillet
Ingredients
- 2 lb Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts
- Kosher Salt and Black Pepper
- 4 tbsp Flour
- 2 tbsp Olive Oil
- 2 tbsp Butter
- 1 Lemon juiced and zested
- 1 Small Onion chopped
- 1 cup Dry White Wine
- 1 tbsp Parsley finely chopped
Instructions
- Pound chicken breasts until they’re approximately ¼ inch thick. Season with salt and pepper on both sides and dredge in flour.
- Heat the oil and butter in a large nonstick pan over medium heat. Add the chicken pieces to the pan and brown well on all sides. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the chicken to a plate and season with salt and pepper.
- Reduce heat to medium-low and add the lemon zest, onion and parsley. Fry until the onion is golden and tender, about 10 minutes.
- Return the chicken to the pan, along with the juices that have accumulated on the plate. Pour the wine and lemon juice over the chicken, partially cover the pan and simmer gently for 20 minutes, or until the chicken is very tender and most of the wine has evaporated. The chicken should be lightly browned and glazed with the pan juices.
- Serve the chicken hot drizzled with remaining pan juices.
Nutrition
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