Spicy Lemon Butter Chicken

Make this tender and juicy Spicy Lemon Butter Chicken for a quick dinner. It comes together in under 30 minutes using pantry staples.

If you like chicken, here are some more recipes that you will absolutely love – Cilantro Lime Chicken, Jamaican Jerk Chicken, Sheet Pan Spicy Korean Chicken, and Creamy Baked Pesto Chicken Thighs.

Jump to:

• About Spicy Lemon Butter Chicken
• Ingredients
• How To Make Lemon Butter Chicken
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Variations
• Serving Suggestions
• Storage Suggestions
• You Might Also Like
• Recipe Card

About Spicy Lemon Butter Chicken

Crisp, juicy, and tender chicken pieces dunked in the creamiest spicy lemon butter sauce ever – this Spicy Lemon Butter Chicken will surely satisfy your taste buds.

This one-pot chicken dish is super easy to cook and makes for a great lunch or dinner.

I have pan-fried the coated chicken breasts but you can definitely bake them in an oven or air fry them for a healthier take.

This recipe can be easily doubled or tripled as per your requirement. Just make sure to fry the chicken in batches.

Ingredients

Chicken – I used boneless skinless chicken breast to make this recipe but you can use chicken thighs too.

Keep in consideration that the cooking time will be different, as chicken thighs take more time to cook than chicken breasts.

If you like crispy skin on the chicken, then you can leave the skin on too.

To Coat The Chicken

You will need all-purpose flour, grated parmesan cheese, salt, and pepper.

Extra Virgin Olive Oil – Use good quality extra virgin olive oil to pan-fry the chicken. If you do not have olive oil, you can use any vegetable oil.

For The Sauce

The crispy fried chicken is topped with a delectable sauce that is made using lemon juice, lemon zest, garlic, red pepper flakes, Italian seasoning, salt, black pepper powder, cold butter, and fresh parsley.

You can replace lemon juice and lemon zest with orange juice and orange zest for a tase change.

There are a lot of Italian seasonings available in the market, but if you can’t find them you can use a combination of red chili flakes, dried basil, oregano, and black pepper.

You can use garlic powder instead of fresh garlic, but the taste that fresh garlic delivers is hard to match.

How To Make Lemon Butter Chicken

Coat The Chicken

Rinse 4 boneless chicken breasts with water and pat them dry using paper tissues.

Pound them using a meat pounder until they are quite thin.

Mix

• ¼ cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoon grated parmesan cheese
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon black pepper powder

in a large shallow bowl.

Dredge the chicken breast in the flour mixture from both sides.

Pan Fry The Chicken

Heat 2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil in a 9-inch nonstick skillet over medium heat.

Shake the chicken breasts to remove the extra flour coating and line them in the hot skillet in a single layer.

Fry for 4-5 minutes without disturbing and then flip the chicken breast using a pair of tongs.

Fry for another 3-4 minutes until nicely browned from the other side as well.

Remove the fried chicken breasts to a plate and cover the plate with a lid.

Add the remaining oil to the pan and cook the other breasts as well.

Make The Sauce

Add

• ¼ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest
• 2 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon black pepper powder

to the same pan in which we cooked the chicken and stir well to combine.

All the flavors are in the bits of chicken sticking to the pan in which we fried it. We don’t want to lose those flavors.

Cook on medium heat until the sauce is reduced to ⅓rd, 3-4 minutes, stirring frequently.

Add 6 tablespoon cold butter (cut into 1-inch cubes) to the pan and cook until everything comes together, 1-2 minutes, stirring frequently.

Serve The Chicken

Transfer the chicken breast to the serving plates.

Pour the buttery sauce over the chicken. Garnish with chopped fresh parsley and serve hot.

Frequently Asked Questions

Variations

Gluten-Free – If you are looking for a gluten-free alternative, you can use gluten-free flour instead of all-purpose flour.

You can also avoid coating the chicken with all-purpose flour and just grill the chicken and flavor it with salt and pepper.

Dunk this grilled chicken in the lemon butter sauce and your gluten-free chicken is ready to be served.

With Vegetables – Vegetables such as asparagus, broccoli, green beans, and zucchini goes well along with this lemon butter sauce. Cook the veggies in the same pan after cooking the chicken.

Saucy – If you want to make your chicken a little saucy, then you can add some chicken broth to the sauce.

The flavors from the chicken broth complement the lemon sauce really well and make this dish even more delicious. To thicken the sauce, add some cornstarch slurry and cook until the sauce is thick.

Others – Add a splash of wine to the sauce. You can also add some smoked paprika for a smoky flavor to the sauce.

Serving Suggestions

This lemony chicken tastes great on its own, but you can also serve some refreshing salads on the side such as Broccoli Apple Salad, and Greek Salad, or just some grilled vegetables such as asparagus, carrots, beans, etc.

You can also serve some mashed potatoes, melting potatoes, or even a cilantro lime potato salad on the side if serving for your brunch.

Serve it on a bed of plain steamed rice or herbed rice. The buttery sauce tastes really well with the same. It even tastes great with pasta or cauliflower rice.

You can also serve some spaghetti or linguine by the side.

Storage Suggestions

If you have leftovers, you can store them in an airtight container for about a day or 2 in the refrigerator.

You can use the leftover chicken to make a zesty chicken salad the next day.

You can pound and coat the chicken with the flour mixture and refrigerate it until you want to prepare it. Making the sauce is really easy and hardly takes any time. The time your chicken is getting pan-fried, you can get the sauce ready.

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