Pan seared boneless-skinless chicken breast with a piquant sauce of bacon, caper, lemon, olives, and butter, presents low carb eating at it’s best.
Although I am a professed steak addict (kidding/ notkidding), chicken is the protein of choice at my house. I have tons of chicken recipes on the blog, some of which include a pretty grilled chicken salad, chicken cacciatore, chicken tarragon, chicken minestrone soup, easy chicken sheet pan dinners and bacon wrapped chicken appetizers. We really get our chicken on in this house! Lol.
One of the things I like about chicken is that it’s easy to cook and it’s neutral flavor goes well with many spices, seasonings, and sauces. It also tastes great served with any vegetable or side dish. Chicken can be grilled, poached, roasted, baked, fried, or sautéed. But for me, searing or sauteing chicken in a pan is one of the easiest and fastest cooking methods – at least that’s my experience.
This chicken dish is full of piquant (pleasantly appetizing) flavor. Did you say the word “piquant” in a Thurston Howell III accent like I did? I just couldn’t help myself. For those of you who were not children of the ’70’s, that was a “Gilligan’s Island” reference! Anyhoo…
Like many of my favorite recipes, this one starts with bacon. Then, the chicken breasts are seared and browned in the pan. Next, a quick-and-dirty pan sauce is made with more of my favorite things like shallots, lemon juice, white wine, capers, and cream. This chunky sauce is poured over the chicken and you’re good to go with restaurant quality flavor.
This pan seared chicken breast recipe is the perfect week night dinner because the prep-work for the dish is completed while the bacon cooks. Then, there’s time to prepare a side while the chicken cooks resulting in a whole meal that’s ready in 20-30 minutes. I don’t know about you, but that sounds pretty great to me.
[Note: I have replaced my non-stick pans with GreenPans. They are non-toxic, need just a little bit of oil, brown meats beautifully, and are very easy to clean once cool – most times I just need a paper towel. GreenPans are my favorite non-stick pans.]
This restaurant quality pan seared chicken breast with sauce recipe is 2 net carbs per serving.
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- 1 1/4 pounds boneless-skinless chicken breasts
- 2 slices bacon, cubed
- 1/4 cup shallot, sliced
- 1/4 cup white wine
- 2 tablespoons heavy cream
- 2 tablespoons water
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon chopped parsley
- 1 tablespoon capers, not rinsed
- 5 small green olives chopped
- salt and pepper to taste
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Preparation: Let the chicken breasts or cutlets come to room temperature for 30 minutes. Pound the cutlets until they are more uniform in thickness for even cooking. Dry the chicken, rub all surfaces with 1 tablespoon of oil, then salt and pepper both sides. Slice the bacon into 1/4-1/2 inch squares.
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Bacon: Place a frying pan (not a cast iron skillet or your sauce will turn gray) over medium heat and add the bacon. Stir after two minutes and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until crisp - about 6 minutes total. Remove the bacon and leave 2 tablespoons of fat in the pan. If your bacon was lean, add olive oil.
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Chicken: Place the chicken in the pan so it isn't touching and cook for 4 minutes or until the chicken turns white 1/2 way up the thickest part. Flip the chicken and cook for 4 minutes more or until the chicken is firm when pressed with your finger, or the internal temperature is 160 degrees. Remove to a plate and cover loosely with a piece of foil.
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Sauce: Add the shallots to the pan. Turn the heat down to medium-low and saute the shallots for 1 1/2 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and add the wine. Turn the heat back to medium and scrape the brown bits from the bottom of the pan. Cook until the about 1 tablespoon of wine is left and then add the cream and water; stir. Add the butter, lemon juice and the accumulated juice from the chicken to the pan and bring to a simmer, reducing slightly until it sauce looks glossy and velvety. Add the capers, bacon, olives and parsley, heating through.
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Serve: Place the chicken on individual serving plates and top with the sauce.
Salt until the flavors in the sauce stand out but aren't salty. Then, add enough pepper to make the sauce taste savory.
Well I have to share a failure. I decided to bake and coat the chicken and it turned out terrible. The chicken itself was great but the armour that I playfully call coating was terrible
Oh, no, Sandra! I’m sorry to hear about your failure. I like using a mixture of Parmesan Cheese and pork rind dust for my coating, but I have mixed almond flour and Parmesan Cheese before, too.
It is so easy to cook the chicken for this recipe in a skillet, and that is how the flavor for the sauce builds. I wish you better luck in your next cooking adventure! Have a nice evening. -Kim
This is really good. But I do suggest rinsing the olives and capers. With salting the chicken, plus the bacon, plus the olives and capers, without rinsing, it’s way too salty. I just made it tonight for the second time, and it was much better.
Thank you Christina, for sharing your thoughts. I’ll make a note in the recipe. Enjoy your day. -Kim
Hi Kim
I am making this dish for the second time. Restaurant quality recipe. Love your site.
I’m so glad you like this recipe, Jean. I love it, too. Thanks for taking the time to let me know and for rating it. Have a wonderful week. -Kim
I tried this recipe and it was delish! I wasn’t sure about adding the bacon back in since the recipe didn’t state this, but I did.
Carol, I’m glad you liked the recipe. Yes, adding the bacon back was the right move. I’ll go fix that right now. Have a great weekend! -Kim
This looks amazing!
Thanks Taryn! -Kim
Kim, this looks OMG incredible. Capers and lemon together with bacon… and white wine?! This combo is divine.
Thank you so much, Katrin! My family just loved it. Thanks for the nice comment. -Kim
Hi Kim, So glad I just found your site from IG. I`ve recently started to follow a low carb regimen & this is definitely going to be an inspiration!to Am LOVING your photos & the recipes are so easy to follow! Subscribing now & please keep the recipes coming. Can`t wait to check out your older posts!!
Tez, it’s an absolute pleasure to hear from you. I do a fair amount of drooling over the photos of your latest culinary creations on your IG! Thank you for your kind words! A word to the wise…. don’t dig too far into the archives! I have some horrible posts that I still need to update and just plain old delete! Lol. Thanks again and have a great week. -Kim
This looks fantastic. Always looking for new chicken recipes ?
Aww, thanks Stacey! -Kim
I haven’t used capers in ages! Thanks for the reminder!