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)
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
Dena says
Just made this! Added mushrooms and used super light cream. Had option of buttered rice and mini pennes pasta with a side of spinach. Yum yum. Definitely making these again. Oh and you can never have too many garlic!
DC says
This was so tasty-thank you!!
Susan Tadko says
Made this for dinner tonight. Really loved it. Added a can of mushrooms and used light cream. Cooked noodles and added those right into the skillet to coat them with all this delicious sauce. Definitely a keeper. Thank you!
Leah says
Karina you are AMAZING!!! My husband and I love this. It’s perfect for the two of us, we get a nice dinner and awesome left overs. I honestly feel like the world’s best wifey when I make this. Thank you thank you thank you for a wonderful recipe, you are doing the Lord’s work.
This recipe does not need any changes or substitutions to turn out the way it looks in the post.
Suzzette says
This was delicious. Not a speedy dinner, but well worth all the steps to get to the delightful ending. Next time I will add mushrooms.
Gertrude says
Loved this. Can’t wait to have the leftovers. Pretty much made as written except for a small addition of white wine to thin the sauce
Sarah says
This is delicious! I’ve made it several times with mashed potatoes and sauteed green beans. My kids favorite new meal:)
Cassie says
This has to be the BEST chicken recipe I’ve ever made! We added mushrooms and it was incredible! Hubby LOVED it!
Suzzette says
I was going to add mushrooms too, but wanted the first time to try exact. It was amazing. I am definitely adding mushrooms next time.
R L says
Excellent, cooked in two pans so that I could have mushrooms in one for those of us who like it. Almost like chicken Marsala, but parmesan instead of Marsala and onions instead of shallots..
Jessica Wilcox says
Any way to ditch the flour and make it gluten free? If I just left it out would it change it drastically?
Victoria says
I made it without any flour and it was still amazing!
Wes says
We love garlic! Just finished eating this dish along with mashed potatoes and have to say it was pretty awesome. Made a couple of changes though. We used a whole head of garlic so I omitted the garlic powder. A little tip about having to remove the garlic paper for that much garlic…put it in the microwave for about 10 or 12 seconds and the paper comes right off! We live in Mexico and can’t buy heavy cream so I used a cup of half and half along with a few tablespoons of Mexican crema to tighten it up. A nice simple green salad ended the meal. There was some sauce left so that’s going on some pasta for lunch tomorrow.
Ana González says
I made this recipe of chicken last night, and I really liked it! so easy to follow up the procedure and very fast to cook.
The taste, the creamy sause is so delicious! My husband, was impressed with this recipe, because he’s does not like chicken breast, but last night he enjoy his dinner.
Thank you so much for sharing with us the recipe.
Marlo says
This was an easy recipe and a great choice for something different to do with chicken. Such good, rich flavor. Even with all the garlic it calls for it is NOT overpowering. A must try!!
Andie says
I made this early this morning to bring to my home that is being renovated. I also made a mistake and added too much olive oil! I tossed in a little bit of flour to correct that. I must say that this is one of the best chicken dishes I have tasted in a long time. It was super juicy and flavorful even after being reheated later in the day. This recipe is a BIG keeper. I can’t wait to try the next one! Thank you so much!
Jackie says
This recipe is one of the best i have ever made! Delish!!!
Brenda says
made sit tonight, it went over well! I will make it again!
Elizabeth P says
I had a different plan for dinner tonight but found this and decided to try it since I had all the ingredients. It was AMAZING! My picky daughter and loving husband devoured every bite. Thank you so much!! This is definitely going into my list of family favorites.
Katherine says
Wow! This is a easy and amazing recipe! I made absolutely NO tweaks to the recipe and it came out fantastic!
Karina says
I’m so happy you loved it Katherine!
Jessica Gahm says
I never leave comments but this was the best chicken I’ve ever had!! I’m eating Keto so I just subbed the flour for almond flour. My entire family ate it up and my youngest said it was the best meat I’ve ever cooked. I will forward this on to everyone I know!
Natalia says
What can I substitute the flour for? almond flour works?
Karina says
Absolutely!
Emma says
Found your site and this recipe purely by chance. I’ve sliced the filets up because of a 4 year old and added a small amount of spinach as it was in the fridge
Shani says
This was exactly what I had been craving for a couple of weeks – or maybe my entire life. I added parmesan, garlic, and oregano to the flour, and didn’t use black pepper (my mother can’t have it and I got used to cooking with white pepper if any), but otherwise followed the recipe. I served it over pasta and fell in love. It was a hit with everyone at the table.
The leftovers were amazing too. For reheating, I put all the leftovers (which wasn’t much) in a small sauce pot and added a little bit of water over the time of reheating as the sauce got really thick, this coated the pasts well in the sauce.
Shelia says
Looks wonderful! For those of us that are lactose intolerant could almond milk be substituted for the heavy cream? Thanks!
Karina says
Hi Sheila,
Yes, you can use almond milk. However, you need to cook it on low heat.
Jennifer Frazier says
Could the sauce be doubled to use with pasta?
Karina says
Absolutely!
Cathy Howard says
This looks beautiful. can’t wait to try it… Spent a lot of time cooking and oh lots of baking for family and friends for Christmas .. actually tried your best fudgy chocolate cake for Christmas. we had soo much food.. Happy and Healthy 2019!!!!
Paula Granica says
I spent Christmas with my both daughters and new son in law and his family. They got married Dec. 8 th. Had a wonderful time.
S.Barrault says
We spent our Christmas with our grown children and grand puppy’s. We had our traditional turkey dinner with all the fixings! I added the brown sugar ham recipe from here and it was delicious! Our evening was filled with laughter and chatter while we played games and reminisced about all our Christmas’s before when our kids were young…this is my favourite part of our Christmas together 😊💜
Steve Wood says
I love this recipe. it’s a favorite in my home.
Sherri Apicella says
We spent Christmas together as a family. My daughters were able to come home from college for Christmas and my mom flew in for Christmas. We went to candlelight Christmas Eve service then went over to the in laws for Christmas. Then Christmas days we had hot cinnamon rolls for breakfast opened up presents and later had a nice Christmas dinner together then watched Christmas movies together.
Dutchess says
I made this last night with mashed potatoes. It was AMAZING!!!!! The second I served the plates I didn’t hear a PIN drop….everyone was too busy eating…everyone wanted seconds…will DEFINITELY make this again ❤️
Karina says
I am so glad to hear that this is a family favourite! it sure is in my household! Merry Christmas to you all, enjoy the rest of your holidays!
Laurie says
Your recipes are phenomenal! Simple but yet absolutely perfect! Your combination of flavours are truly a work of art!
Julie Martin says
I didn’t know what to make for dinner tonight when I got up. I always have frozen chicken breasts on hand and made this for dinner. It was wonderful! I shouldn’t have used cast iron because you need to turn the pan down twice and the cast iron just holds heat too long. Other than that this is wonderful; the chicken is juicy and all of the Parmesan gives a deep flavor.
Michael C says
Going to cook this as celebration dinner in honor of my father who we just loss to a heart ailment. Nothing like excellent recepies to celebrate the memory of a fellow foodie and lover of good food.
MoVo says
I am so sorry for your loss. God bless. ❤️
Mary Lou Ramirez says
I enjoy new recipes, especially on different ways to cook vegetables. I eat or rather like very limited vegetables. I know thhis will expand my taste buds for healthy eating. Thank you for sharing!!