Paleo Chicken Piccata (Dairy-Free, Keto, Gluten-Free, Nut-Free, One Pot Meal)

Crispy chicken breast, fried until golden and drizzled with a silky caper sauce, flavored with lemon zest, fried garlic, and cooking wine. Paleo perfection.

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Gluten-free fried chicken is only the start to this nut-free chicken piccata

Elegant. Dreamy. Crispy. Creamy. This gluten-free chicken piccata is all of the above. Chicken breast dredged in seasoned coconut flour and a cooking wine egg wash, then coated in crunchy pork panko and fried until deliciously crispy. You could stop there for the best paleo fried chicken ever, but then you’d miss the real show stopper in this recipe: the paleo piccata sauce.

Unlike traditional chicken piccata that uses a roux for the sauce, I use toasted coconut butter. It doesn’t make the dish taste like coconut at all, instead, the coconut butter gets nice and toasty and develops this beautiful dark golden brown color. Then, you spike it with lemon zest, capers, fried garlic, and a bit more cooking wine … the result is a lusciously silky concoction that tastes like heaven!

This one-pot paleo chicken piccata is nut-free and absolutely innovative! It’s a restaurant-worthy meal that anyone can make and everyone can enjoy.

Coconut butter in paleo chicken piccata?

Using coconut butter for a toasty roux in this paleo chicken piccata is pretty savvy! The reason coconut butter works as a paleo swap for roux is the consistency — it mimics the silkiness of flour and butter but develops a deeper flavor without getting super bitter. Coconut butter (or coconut manna they’re the same thing, really) is actually really versatile and easy to cook with, and this recipe is proof.

More about the ingredients

I like Nutiva or Artisana coconut butter or coconut manna, you can get them online or at Whole Foods. I love toasted coconut butter in recipes, like my Toasted Coconut Butter Fat Bombs and the famous Toasted Coconut Butter Salmon from Made Whole! 

The trick with coconut butter, AKA coconut manna, is to run the jar under warm water so it’s nice and soft. The coconut butter separates when cold and the oil comes to the top, so warming it and mixing it back together is essential. If you only scoop out coconut oil, you will have an oily sauce that won’t thicken. You want to make sure you’re scooping out pureed coconut meat, the thick, opaque white mass. That’s what will make the perfect swap for roux.

My favorite crispy paleo breading

Yes, I’m using Pork Panko again, I love the stuff. Have you even tried my Keto Fried Fish yet? In my new book Made Simple, I show you how to make your own pork panko, but most of the time, I just buy it on Amazon from Bacon’s Heir. Pork panko is the perfect breading: it’s low carb, it’s crispy AF, it’s nut free and gluten free, and most of all it doesn’t have any polyunsaturated fats that will oxidize in the frying.

Substitutes for this paleo chicken piccata

If you don’t eat pork, you can use almond meal instead. If you don’t do coconut, because you don’t like the taste, I highly encourage you to try this recipe anyway. It doesn’t have an overwhelming coconut flavor, and if you didn’t read the ingredient list, you might not even notice.

If you have a coconut allergy, this recipe probably isn’t for you. I mean, you could tweak it, but you’d be missing the main components. You could try cassava flour instead of the coconut flour and use it to make a traditional roux instead of using the coconut manna, but you see, now it’s not even my paleo chicken piccata anymore … it’s any paleo chicken piccata. The genius use of coconut manna is what makes this gluten free chicken piccata mine!