Name: Robert Irvine's Chicken Francese
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 20 min
Ingredients: 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (pounded thin); 2 ounces cooking oil; 4 eggs (beaten); 1/4 cup all-purpose flour; kosher salt and pepper (to taste); 1 cup chicken stock; 1 stick butter; 2 lemons (juiced); 1 tsp parsley (minced)

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Learn how to make this simple, yet delicious chicken dish from ingredients you probably already have. Follow along with this recipe from Robert Irvine, that appeared on his Food Network Show, Restaurant Impossible.

Robert Irvine's Chicken Francese on a plate

Last Thursday, I was planning on what to make for dinner, when it dawned on me I had on hand the ingredients I needed to make a recipe a Restaurant Impossible episode that just aired the previous night.

So I thought that would be something great to review for the site.

In this episode Robert Irvine was helping out a restaurant called Anna Marie’s. They made a chicken francese, but Robert felt the chef needed some help with his technique.

Cooking floured chicken breast in a pan — You start by placing the chicken into some egg, then drenching in seasoned flour, and into the pan with some oil.

🙋 What is Chicken Francese?

This chicken dish is basically a chicken breast coated in flour, then pan fried, with a sauce on top. The sauce is made of chicken stock, butter, and some lemon juice. The dish originated as a veal dish, but also works really well with chicken.

👨‍🍳 How to Make

Here are my notes from making this recipe

Browning fried chicken breast in a pan — When the outside is brown like this it’s time to flip.

1. The key thing to do for this recipe is to get a nice, crispy breading on the outside. So you need to make sure your pan is plenty hot before adding the chicken. This is what the chef of Anna Marie’s was failing to do, so he was ending up with a soggy coating. No one liked soggy coatings!

2. I had pretty thick chicken breasts. I used a meat pounder to flatten them out some. It still took me longer to cook mine than the 3-4 minutes per side, Robert said. More like 4-5 minutes per side.

Finished floured chicken breast in a pan — All those brown bites on the bottom of the pan was what you are going to use to flavor the sauce.

3. Making the sauce is pretty easy. It gets a lot of great flavor from deglazing the bottom of the pan. Deglazing is a key to make an outstanding sauce. The bits that stick to the bottom of the pan are full of flavor, and you can use a liquid (chicken stock) to free those bites. So make sure you get every little bit you can off the bottom of the pan.

Using a spatula to scrap the bottom of the pan — Use a firm spatula to get all the brown bites off the bottom of the pan. That is where the flavor lies.

4. Speaking of the pan, choosing the correct pan is very important. If you use non-stick those bites will never form on the bottom of the pan. So you need a a good stainless saute pan.

5. I also wanted to point out that Robert likes uses grape seed oil. I didn’t have any, so I just went with canola oil. The point is to choose a neutral tasting oil that won’t burn easily.

6. Robert recommend topping the chicken with parsley – a great choice. But you can use whatever herb you like. Thyme is a really good choice, which is what I used in the photos. Rosemary or basil would be tasty too. Go with fresh herbs over dried.

This chicken was delicious. It was moist, and juicy and the sauce brought it to a whole another level.

👩🏽‍🍳 Make it Gluten Free

If you wanted to do this recipe gluten free simply replace the all-purpose flour with a gluten free version. Need a recommendation? Try Jessica’s, it’s my favorite. I have not tried it myself but you could test it out with corn starch as well.

🍗 More Chicken Recipes to Try

Clementine Chicken

Sous Vide Chicken with Creamy Pepper Flake Sauce

Chicken with Snow Peas

Roasted Chicken Drumsticks with Kale, Dill, and Potatoes