Whole30 Creamy Lemon Chicken

This recipe for creamy lemon chicken was inspired by the New York Times Chicken Francese recipe. I won’t call it chicken francese, because I’ve probably made too many changes for it to really be chicken francese, but it’s still really, really good.

Since I’m still on Whole30 (Yay January!), this recipe is compliant. Meaning, there’s no grains, no dairy, no sugar, no alcohol. But, remarkably, it’s still delicious, creamy, feel-good comfort food.

This post is going to be a bit more of a cooking lesson than some of my posts. We’re covering a lot of different things. Substituting ingredients in a recipe, which is a big part of meal planning and making things work in your kitchen. Then we’ll be breading chicken and making a sauce, two things that can seem kind of scary if you haven’t done them before. But, don’t be nervous – we’ll do it together! Once you get some practice with these techniques, you’ll be able to breeze through it.

Customizing Ingredients for Whole30 Lemon Chicken

The original recipe uses eggs, whole milk and flour to bread the chicken. That’s pretty classic. But, not Whole30 compliant – or keto, paleo or even consistent carb friendly. So, being a little desperate for a creamy, warm, saucy dish, I subbed coconut cream for the milk and almond flour for the all-purpose flour. We’ll also use the coconut cream in place of the butter in the sauce.

Technique

You’ll slice the chicken breasts horizontally into thin cutlets. Then, if you feel up to it, beat them with a meat tenderizer. This will make the chicken thinner and more tender, and it’s a great way to get out some of your frustrations from the day. If you don’t have a meat tenderizer, just skip this step. Then it’s time to “bread” the chicken. One thing to note, the order is a bit different in this recipe than your typical breading mixture. You cover the chicken with the almond flour, then dip it in the egg mixture, then straight into the pan. Classic breading technique has you dredge the chicken in flour, then egg, then bread crumbs. In this case the almond flour acts as both the dredging flour and the bread crumbs.

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Cook the chicken in a combination of olive oil and canola oil. Use enough to get a good crisp on the breading, but not so much that it’s being deep fried. Cook for five minutes per side, then remove from the pan to a plate, cover with foil to keep warm. Pour off most of the oil but leave the yummy bits in the pan to incorporate into the sauce.

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The sauce is made from the remaining pan drippings, lemon juice, chicken stock and coconut cream. I include lemon zest, which will make it even more tangy, but you can leave it out if you don’t feel like grating the lemon peel. The recipe will still taste great.

Tips & Tricks for Whole30 Creamy Lemon Chicken

• Don’t have almond flour? Throw some almonds into the coffee grinder and voila! Almond flour. This would work with any other nuts too – macadamia and cashew are two mild-tasting nuts that would work well.
• Not worried about grains? You can use all-purpose flour instead of almond flour.
• We use coconut cream in this recipe. It’s thick and almost solid, like a dense whipped cream. You could use coconut milk instead, but you’ll have to cook the sauce down a few minutes longer.
• Lemon zest is the thin yellow part of the lemon peel. You can slice it off or grate it off. Make sure you don’t use the white part of the peel as it’s bitter.