Creamy Garlic Chicken Breasts
Chicken Breasts in an irresistible garlic sauce filled with caramelized onions and garlic is a winner of a chicken dinner!
Easy and delicious comfort food at its finest. Lightly floured boneless chicken breasts are pan fried in butter and oil until golden and crispy before being added to a mouth-watering garlic cream sauce. Filled with caramelised flavour, you will LOVE how easy this is!
CHICKEN BREAST
Crispy, golden chicken on the outside → tender and succulent on the inside → lightly simmered in a creamy sauce with so much flavour. The combination of your dreams! Chicken breasts tend to have a bad reputation for being too dry, chalky or hard to swallow. However, this recipe yields perfectly juicy breasts lightly floured and pan fried.
With all of the creamy sauce recipes I have on this site (Creamy Garlic Tuscan Shrimp, Creamy Dijon Chicken, Creamy Salmon Piccata, or Creamy Parmesan Shrimp), this one stands out from the crowd!
Ready in less than 30 minutes and perfect for any night of the week…even special occasions!
HOW TO COOK CHICKEN BREAST
- You’re going to start with thin chicken breasts. For a faster prep-time, cut your chicken breasts in half horizontally to make four fillets (like you did for our Chicken Marsala). Quicker and easier than pounding them thin with a meat mallet and yields the same results. Thinner chicken pieces cook faster and evenly.
- We use a combination of oil and butter to fry the chicken for the best golden browned results and delicious flavour.
- Cook the sauce in the same pan as the chicken. Don’t get rid of any chicken bits from the pan as they add tons of flavour into the sauce!
COOKING WITH GARLIC
If you’ve gone ahead and read the recipe already, you may be thinking one of two things:
A whole head of garlic?
A. This woman is crazy. TOO MUCH GARLIC. YUCK!
B. Oh my god, finally, the perfect amount of garlic.
The beauty of this chicken breast recipe is that the garlic is NOT overpowering AT ALL! The secret to having SO much garlic without being overly pungent is caramelising the cloves (some smashed and some whole) in chicken stock (or broth) for 5-6 minutes over medium heat. This allows the garlic to soften beautifully with a hint of sweetness.
GARLIC FLAVOUR
YOU can make this as garlicky as you want! How? For a stronger garlic flavour, smash all of your cloves with a heavy knife. Place the blade flat on the clove (sharp side facing away from you) and press the blade down on the clove with the heel of your hand. Explained in detail here.
The garlic cloves are lightly browned in a little oil along with softened onion in buttery pan juices before being gently simmered in chicken stock. There is so much caramelization happening in this pan, its CRAZY GOOD!
For a much milder sauce, add the garlic cloves whole.
If you’ve never cooked with whole garlic cloves before, you may be breaking into a cold sweat right about now. I promise you there’s no need for a freak out. Cooking them the way you will here relaxes their usual intense flavour, instead giving them a subtle sweetness. They become so soft, like butter!
Of course, if you LOVE garlic with chicken breasts, then feel free to mince or finely chop all of the cloves and add them in.
TIPS
- You can use heavy cream, whipping cream or thickened cream in the sauce.
- For a lightened up sauce, use evaporated milk or half and half. If using half and half, be careful not to bring your sauce to a rapid boil or it may curdle.
- The sauce will not thicken immediately after adding in your cream. Once you add your chicken breasts back into the pan, the flour from the chicken will thicken your sauce. No cornstarch needed. HOORAY!
SIDES THAT GO WITH CREAMY GARLIC CHICKEN BREASTS
We love this chicken breast recipe with steamed rice or mashed potatoes! You can also serve it over pasta, cauliflower mash or zucchini noodles.
LOOKING FOR MORE CHICKEN BREAST RECIPES? TRY THESE!
Creamy Parmesan Carbonara Chicken (No Egg)
Balsamic Baked Chicken Breast With Mozzarella Cheese
Crispy Chicken Parmesan (Parmigiana)
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Creamy Garlic Chicken Breast Recipe
Ingredients
For The Chicken:
- 2-3 large boneless and skinless chicken breasts halved horizontally to make 4
- 4 tablespoons flour (all purpose or plain)
- 4 tablespoons finely grated fresh Parmesan cheese
- 2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon Black cracked pepper
For The Sauce:
- 5 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 small onion finely chopped
- 1 whole head of garlic peeled and divided into 10-12 cloves
- 1 1/4 cup chicken broth (stock)
- 1 1/4 cup half and half or heavy cream (or evaporated milk)
- 1/2 cup finely grated fresh Parmesan cheese
- 2 tablespoons fresh parsley, to serve
Instructions
- Season the chicken with salt, garlic powder and pepper.
- In a shallow bowl, combine the flour, parmesan cheese. Dredge chicken in the flour mixture; shake off excess.
- Heat 2 tablespoons of oil and 1 tablespoon butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat until pan is nearly smoking. Swirl pan to coat evenly.
- Fry 2-3 chicken breasts until golden on each side, cooked through and no longer pink (about 4-5 minutes each side, depending on the thickness of your chicken). Transfer to a warm plate. Set aside.
- Wipe pan over with a sheet of paper towel. Repeat with remaining oil, butter and chicken breasts. When cooked, transfer the chicken onto the same plate.
- Reduce heat to medium. Sauté the onion in the remaining oil/juices in the pan until softened.
- Smash 6 whole cloves of garlic with the blunt edge of the back of a knife
- Add the remaining oil to the pan and heat through, mixing it through the onions. Sauté smashed garlic cloves and whole garlic cloves until fragrant, about 2-3 minutes. Add the broth to deglaze the pan. Scrape up any browned bits and let simmer and reduce to half, about 5 minutes.
- Reduce heat to medium-low. Pour in the cream. Bring the sauce to a gentle simmer for about 2-3 minutes, combining all of the flavours together.
- Mix in the parmesan cheese. Continue cooking gently for about 2-3 minutes until cheese melts, while stirring occasionally. Season with salt and pepper to your taste.
- Add the chicken back into the pan and let simmer for a further 2-3 minutes to thicken the sauce to your liking. The chicken breast will soak up all of the delicious flavours.
- Garnish with parsley and a little black cracked pepper. Serve over pasta, cauliflower mash, zucchini noodles, rice or mashed potatoes.
Nutrition
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