About 26-28 in from the wall itself-roughly centered over the edge of the counter.

My upper cabinets are 14" deep and the lights are about 1' out from that so that they will shine onto the counters as well as the floor space around.

My uppers are 12" deep and the recessed lights are about 3" from the cabinets so they shine directly over the countertops. The kitchen is not very wide and we have a ceiling fan in the center of it. We didn't want to put the lights too close to the fan because of the possibility of strobing. There is going to be about 6" of crown molding so the cabinet doors will clear the rim of the recessed lights. We also put in undercabinet lights because you can never have enough light in a kitchen!

We were some limitations in where the recessed cans could go because we didn't want to move the air conditioning ducts that are above the kitchen.

I agree with the other posts. I installed pot lights (cans) 12" cabinets & 4" crown molding &4" clearance = 20" from walls. They shine on countertops for prep work, and highlight the wood grain of the cabinetry. I believe under cabinet lighting is a must,for working on counters, and because I live in a northern climate and winter is long and dark. The layers of lighting from the pendants, recessed lights, and ucl, create a stunning space. I have mine on dimmers to change the mood from candle light to let's clean up.

Everything I read while working for months on my lighting plan said exactly what Jakuvall just wrote. Cans should be centered on the front edge of the counter.