Whether you serve it on pasta or rice, these lemon chicken cutlets are fast to make and so flavorful. I prefer to serve them with a quick buttery pan sauce!
Slice chicken breasts into thin cutlets. You don't need to pound them evenly unless you have very uneven slices. Ideally, your cutlets should be around four ounces so you might get 4-6 cutlets depending on the size of your chicken breasts.
To the chicken cutlets, add the zest of one lemon along with salt and pepper. Add an egg white mixed with 1/2 the juice from a lemon and coat the cutlets with the egg white mixture. It should be a very light coating on the cutlets.
Add all-purpose flour and coat well (you add some breadcrumbs to this mixture if you want a little more texture.) Remove the cutlets from a bowl and let rest on a rack for a few minutes.
Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Once the oil is shimmering and hot, add the cutlets in a single layer and fry them for 5-6 minutes per side or until they reach 165˚F in the deepest part of the cutlet. Remove cutlets from the skillet and place them on a plate.
To make pan sauce:
To make pan sauce, drain off any extra oil, leaving maybe a tablespoon of oil along with any bits stuck to the pan.
Add white wine, chicken stock, and the other 1/2 of the lemon juice you should have remaining. Bring to a simmer and turn heat to low. Use the liquid to scrape up any bits stuck to the skillet. Let the pan sauce thicken for just a minute.
Finish the sauce with butter, stirring constantly so it incorporates evenly in the sauce. Remove from heat and season the sauce with fresh parsley, salt, and pepper.Serve the cutlets over pasta or rice with the sauce on top.