This Healthy Lemon Chicken is coated in almond flour, fried until crispy, then drizzled with the best lemon butter sauce. It’s one of the most flavorful 30 minute meals!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Whenever I see crispy coated thin chicken breast cutlets, smothered in sauce and dotted with garlic bits, caper or lemon wedges, I think of a luxurious Italian Restaurant. Are you the same?
Well, friends, you can make this easy healthy lemon chicken at home!
- 30 minutes: Healthy dinner that meets all requirements of a busy home cook.
- Healthy: Healthy lemon chicken breading consists of wholesome almond flour full of healthy fats. Amount of butter is only 3 tablespoons per entire recipe. And then 2 pounds of lean chicken breasts. Saturated fat is only 4 grams per serving.
- Gluten free: If you use almond flour or gluten free flour.
- Flavorful: The star of the dish is obviously fresh lemon butter sauce with garlic morsels.
Ingredients for Healthy Lemon Chicken
- Chicken: We use boneless skinless chicken breasts. Chicken tenders are great too!
- Almond flour: Pan frying chicken in almond flour in oil on the non-stick skillet ensures it doesn’t soak up too much oil. Any flour like all-purpose, gluten-free etc. works though.
- Lemon: My lemon was from Costco, so giant. Always use fresh lemon juice! Amount depends on how tart you like your lemon chicken. Not sure? Start with less.
- Butter and oil: I use olive oil for searing chicken and butter is to “sweeten” the sauce and offset lemon tartness.
- Chicken broth: Low sodium chicken broth or Instant Pot chicken broth creates volume for the healthy sauce. Worst case scenario, you can use water.
- Garlic, salt and pepper: Garlic sauteed in a bit of butter is always a good idea for any sauce.
How to Make Healthy Lemon Chicken
The key is having chicken breasts sliced, dredging station prepped and garlic minced before you begin to fry the chicken cutlets. After that it is literally 15 minutes until buttered lemon chicken dinner is ready!
- Prep and season chicken: Slice chicken breasts into thin cutlets lengthwise. This step eliminates messy pounding, however you can do that as well if you like really thin cutlets. Sprinkle with salt and pepper generously on both sides.
- Pan sear the chicken: Preheat large skillet until hot and oil sizzles. Dredge each cutlet in flour, then pan sear for about 4-5 minutes per side. You can pack them tightly and add a bit more oil as chicken soaks it up. Add a bit of butter and garlic and saute until fragrant.
- Deglaze the skillet: Add stock, lemon juice and zest, and more butter. Let mixture boil for 2 minutes to make luscious lemon butter sauce.
- Pour lemon butter sauce over chicken and that is all to scrumptious best healthy lemon chicken recipe in the world!
Variations
- Use chicken thighs: You will need about 9-10 pieces of boneless skinless chicken thighs. Do not cut them into thin cutlets. I recommend to pound them a little bit with a mallet into uniform size pieces. Also please note that cook time might be a tad bit longer. It depends on the thickness of chicken thighs you purchase at the grocery store. They all differ.
- For lemon garlic chicken: Add more garlic. Especially, if you grate garlic, dish will be more garlicky. If you mince it – more lemony.
- Add white wine: You can replace some of chicken broth with a bit of white wine. I wouldn’t use only wine because dish is already acidic from lemon.
- Make it lighter: For a healthier option, omit the almond flour. Slice the chicken breasts and season with salt and pepper. Pan fry and then continue with the preparation of the lemon butter sauce. You can also omit butter and use extra virgin olive oil instead. However, I believe the dish will be less tasty but still good.
- Make less: Feel free to cut this lemon chicken recipe in half to feed 2-3 people.
Serving Ideas
This lemon chicken breast tastes great with one of these sides: Instant Pot mashed potatoes, crispy Parmesan potatoes, cucumber and tomato salad or garlic green beans.
Also try it cold. As a kid growing up in Ukraine, deli meat was expensive and no microwaves. We often ate leftover ground chicken burgers and cutlets cold on a slice of bread as a sandwich. I still enjoy chicken dishes this way besides freshly cooked, of course.
How to Store and Reheat
Store: Refrigerate leftovers in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
Reheat: It tastes very-very good cold! But if you would like to enjoy it warm, reheat by simmering on the stove with a splash of water or chicken broth while covered.
If you have an air fryer, cook it for 4 minutes at 400 degrees F. It will come out crispy and like fresh!
Freeze: Cook and cool it, then place in an airtight container and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw completely on a counter for a few hours or in the fridge overnight before reheating. Reheat as per instructions above.
More Lemon Chicken Recipes to Try
One Pot Lemon Chicken Orzo
Creamy Lemon Chicken and Asparagus
Lemon Garlic Chicken
Lemon Pepper Chicken Recipe
Healthy Lemon Chicken Recipe
Equipment
Video
Ingredients
- 2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts, (4 large)
- 1 large lemon, zested
- 4 tablespoons lemon juice, from 1 large lemon
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 3/4 cup almond flour, any flour works
- 3 tablespoons olive oil, extra virgin
- 3/4 cup chicken broth, low sodium
- 2 large garlic cloves, minced or grated
- 3 tablespoons butter, unsalted
- Parsley, basil, lemon wedges, for garnish
Instructions
- Slice each chicken breast in half lengthwise. Thicker parts can be sliced one more time. This step eliminates the need to pound the meat. Sprinkle chicken on both sides with salt and pepper and transfer to a plate.
- In a shallow plate add flour. Prep other ingredients. Everything has to be ready before you start cooking. Preheat large ceramic non-stick skillet on medium heat and swirl 2 tsp oil to coat.
- Dredge chicken in flour on both sides and add to the skillet as many as you can fit.
- Cook chicken for 4-5 minutes on each side and transfer onto a plate. Repeat with remaining chicken, adding more oil as necessary and reducing heat as skillet gets hotter.
- Add 1 tbsp butter and garlic, saute for 20 seconds, stirring often. Add chicken broth, lemon zest and juice, 2 more tbsp of butter and bring to a boil while scraping the bottom. Cook for 2 minutes.
- Add chicken back to the skillet and spoon lemon butter sauce over it. Alternatively, if you placed chicken in a serving dish after pan searing, you can pour sauce over it right there.
- Sprinkle with parsley or basil and garnish with lemon slices, if desired. Serve warm.
Notes
- Store: Refrigerate leftovers in an airtight container for up to 5 days. It tastes very-very good cold but you can reheat it by simmering on the stove with a splash of water or chicken broth covered.
- Freeze: In an airtight container for up to 3 months. Thaw completely on a counter for a few hours or in the fridge overnight before reheating.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Havent made this yet but would love too. one problem, I’m allergic to nuts, almonds, etc. what else could you use on the chicken?
Regards
Hi Dave. Any flour works. Also panko breadcrumbs would be great.
Hi- this looks delicious! I’m thinking of making this for Christmas dinner. My question is- I don’t have a ceramic skillet… can I use a cast iron skillet instead?
Yes you can use cast iron skillet just will need to use more oil. Any non-stick skillet will work.
I was looking for a gluten free easy chicken recipe that had ingredients I had on hand. This is a winner and is going into our regular rotation. Have made it three times in past two months for a family of 4 and I never have leftovers (we have two teenage boys). It’s so quick and easy to make. When pressed for time we use that pre-cooked brown rice and quinoa from CostCo as a side.
So glad it has become a family favorite!
This is a fantastic recipe. It is easy and delicious. Made it last night, the whole family enjoyed it. Served it with mashed potatoes, steamed broccoli and salad.
Sounds like it was a great dinner! Glad everyone enjoyed it!
Made this tonight and the whole family raved! Incredibly easy to prep, but such impressive presentation and flavor. My 12 yr old son (who is the toughest critic, lol) loved the almond flour crust and my husband, who honestly, isn’t crazy about lemon food (I am!), commented multiple times how good it was. I topped it with fresh parsley and it looked gorgeous. (I’m a firm believer that fresh herbs take anything to the next level:) Thanks for another make-again winner.
Agreed on the fresh herbs! Glad everyone enjoyed it!
hi! will plan to make tomorrow : ). how come there is no egg wash?
not needed for this recipe!
Oh, so yummy!!! I told my eldest son that I can’t hold a candle to his Dad’s cooking. But we both really enjoyed it. He was so hungry, that he didn’t give me time to put any pretty garnishes on it. He said, Mom, this one’s a “make again!””
Awesome, happy to hear!
This was excellent. The flavors blended so well and nothing was overpowering. The sauce was so good over cauliflower mashed. We will have this again. Thank you for this recipe.
Woohoo, that’s a great sign! That is so amazing to hear! Glad you enjoyed my recipe!
Excellent! On tonight’s dinner menu.
Enjoy!
My family loved it and I did too! It presented well on the plate with cooked green beans and quinoa. It tasted great on the palate too 🙂
Fantastic! Glad everyone enjoyed the recipe!