Here’s a quick and easy weeknight dinner. I don’t know about you but I loooove lemon pepper, especially with fresh fish. It’s such a great flavor to add to seafood and so simple to take from zero to “Wow, this is a yummy dinner”.
The good news is that it works well with chicken too. So today we have lemon pepper seasoned chicken breasts lightly breaded for some crispiness and pan-fried in melted butter with caramelized lemon slices. Yum!
From start to finish, this takes less than 30 minutes. The hard part for me was pounding the chicken breasts down nicely. I need some practice being new and all to the meat mallet. But we pound it so it all cooks evenly. You know how some chicken breasts tend to mound up in the center? The sides will cook faster than the center so pounding takes care of that.
Then we season the chicken with lemon pepper seasoning. I used 3 teaspoons worth but if you like yours heavily seasoned, go for it. After this we’ll dredge the chicken with some regular flour to give it a crisp outer layer while it’s pan-frying. Easy peasy, nothing to see here.
Melt some butter and add in some olive oil, wait till the pan is hot (the butter will smoke a little) then add in your chicken. I used a 10″ cast iron pan so I did it in batches of two. Each side should take about 3 minutes to brown up nicely.
Once that’s done, you’ll have some browned bits stuck to the pan. Add in some chicken broth now and it’ll sizzle as it deglazes. Use the lemon and move them about in the pan to work off these yummy brown bits. The chicken broth will evaporate quickly and you’ll be left with nicely browned lemon slices.
Add the chicken back to the pan, drizzle with some lemon juice for good measure and serve it while it’s hot!
Happy cooking!
Print
Lemon Butter Chicken Breasts
- Total Time: 25 mins
- Yield: 4 1x
Ingredients
- 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
- 3 teaspoons lemon pepper seasoning
- 1/4 cup flour
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1/2 cup chicken broth
- 1 lemon, sliced
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
Instructions
- Wrap the chicken breasts in plastic wrap and pound into 1/2″ thickness with a meat mallet
- Season chicken with lemon pepper seasoning and dredge the chicken in flour
- Over medium high heat, melt butter with olive oil and pan-fry the chicken in batches until browned, about 3 minutes per side. Remove chicken and set aside
- Add lemon slices to the pan and deglaze the pan with chicken broth. Use the lemon slices to work off the stuck on brown bits
- Brown the lemon slices, about 1 minute per side
- Add chicken breasts back to the pan and drizzle with lemon juice
- Dish and serve hot
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 15 mins
Comments & Reviews
once again this was a huge hit Farah, love your recipes 🙂
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It’s always great hearing from you, Josie! 🙂
Surprisingly tasty for how easy it was! I made this for my girlfriends family and they loved it.
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Hi Matthew! Thanks for sharing the recipe with your (extended) family! I’m super happy it worked out for you guys.
Great recipe!
Thanks, Dewi!
Hi, I stumbled across your page a couple of days ago and have to say I’m loving it! I made this recipe tonight and your mini shepherds pie last night. I had to rejig them a bit (I live in Australia so some things not always available and I had to use what I had in the fridge) but they were both a great success! Congrats on such a great website! I’m sure I will be trying more in the future 🙂
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Oh I love those mini shepherd’s pot pies. They’re such a treat! I’m glad you managed to make do with what you have and it turned out great for you, Amanda! Good luck with the next recipes 🙂
YUM! I love lemon pepper. I have a lemon pepper fish that I make in the summer about 2x a week- I can’t wait to try with chicken! PS- have you ever tried making your own fresh lemon pepper? Lemon zest + pepper + EVOO. It’s life changing 🙂 Pinned!
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I totally went crazy with fresh tilapia and lemon pepper last year. It was just so goood! And thanks for the tip, I need to try it out one day now I have a nice zester 🙂
We made this last night for my niece and we all loved it! We had a whole chicken that my husband cut up and skinned, but due to the bones we did not pound the chicken. By doubling up the rest of the ingredients everything was well seasoned. I knew there would be leftovers so the sauce was served separately and it ended up being used on the roasted potatoes….yummy! This recipe is a keeper!
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Great work on adapting the recipe with what you had. That’s the beauty of cooking. You can make do with what you have in most cases 🙂 This is a great example of how my recipes are just a general guide or road map and you pick how to get there! And a great idea using the leftover sauce on roasted potatoes, Kelly!
I love how quick this is to make.. 30 minutes is usually all the time I commit to making weeknight dinners so I have to try this recipe!
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It’s super easy but yummy, Thalia!
This looks so very good – and easy! Definitely going on my list of Supper Ideas. 🙂
Happy eating, Erica!
I made this tonight and it was absolutely delicious! I will be adding this dish to collection of recipes. This website is awesome, keep the delicious recipes coming!
Thanks for trying it out, Alicia. I love it when someone tries out something I posted on the same day! Even more when they let me know how they like it!!!