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These Creamy Garlic Chicken Breasts are so juicy, you’d think they came from a fine dining restaurant!
Easy and delicious comfort food at its finest. These 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.
Drowning in a delectable, creamy garlic sauce, you will fall in love with these easy to make Creamy Garlic Chicken Breasts!
WHAT IS THE SECRET TO MOIST CHICKEN BREASTS?
Crispy, golden chicken on the outside, tender and succulent on the inside and lightly simmered in a creamy sauce with an abundance of flavour. This is the ultimate secret to moist chicken breasts!
Chicken breasts tend to have a bad reputation for being too dry, chalky or hard to swallow. However, this recipe yields perfectly juicy breasts every time, lightly floured and pan fried.
With all of the creamy sauce recipes I have on this site including Creamy Garlic Tuscan Shrimp, Creamy Dijon Chicken, Creamy Salmon Piccata, and Creamy Parmesan Shrimp, this one seems to stands out from the crowd! Possibly because the entire dish can be ready to rock in 30 minutes or less.
HOW TO COOK CHICKEN BREASTS
- 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). This method is quicker and easier than pounding them thin with a meat mallet and yields the same results. Thinner chicken pieces cook faster and more evenly.
- We use a combination of oil and butter to fry the chicken for the best golden brown exterior and moist interior.
- 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 to the sauce!
COOKING WITH GARLIC
If you’ve gone ahead and read the recipe already, you may be thinking one of two things:
A. This woman is crazy, that’s too much garlic, or
B. MORE GARLIC
I’m not going to lie, I LOVE garlic and everything it has to offer a bland dish. This chicken breast recipe is far from bland and with the addition of an entire head of garlic, it’s phenomenal.
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 for 5-6 minutes over medium heat. This allows the garlic to soften beautifully, while adding a hint of sweetness.
HOW TO MAKE CREAMY GARLIC SAUCE
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. Watch Martha Stewart demonstrate how to crush garlic here.
The garlic cloves are lightly browned in a little oil along with onion in buttery pan juices before being gently simmered in chicken stock. There is so much caramelisation happening in this pan, your senses will be going crazy.
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 to freak out. Cooking them this way relaxes their usual intense flavour, instead giving them a subtle sweetness. They become so soft, like butter!
Of course, if you love garlic with your chicken breasts, feel free to mince or finely chop all of the cloves and add them in. Just like that, you have mastered creamy garlic chicken breasts! Enjoy!
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!
WHAT TO SERVE WITH CREAMY GARLI 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.
What recipes can I make with chicken breast
Creamy Parmesan Carbonara Chicken (No Egg)
Balsamic Baked Chicken Breast With Mozzarella Cheese
Crispy Chicken Parmesan (Parmigiana)
Juicy Oven Baked Chicken Breast
RECIPE NOW ON VIDEO
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Creamy Garlic Chicken Breast Recipe
Ingredients
For The Chicken:
- 2-3 boneless chicken breasts large, skinless, halved horizontally to make 4
- 4 tablespoons flour (all purpose or plain)
- 4 tablespoons parmesan cheese finely grated, fresh
- 2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper cracked
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 heavy cream half and half (or evaporated milk)
- 1/2 cup parmesan cheese finely grated, fresh
- 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. 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.
Notes
- 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.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I cook a bag of egg noodles while I’m making this recipe. Then I slice up the chicken and put it back in the sauce, remove the chicken from the sauce, and add the egg noodles to the sauce. Serve the noodles on a plate with the chicken on top. It is fantastic!
Delicious! I did fry bacon before sautéing the onions to add bacon bits to the sauce. Family loved it! Thank you!
Delicious! I added bacon to mine!
Excellent recipe. I used fresh herbs, minced garlic and grated onion instead of dried and half cream/half whole milk and it came out perfect. Quick and easy with great flavour.
This was very delicious even though I think I didn’t quite nail the proportions, tiny bit too salty, but all kids liked it which is amazing. However it took hours and hours! Was not at all ‘coming together in 30 minutes!’ I’m sure I’d get better and I did start with 3 chicken breasts. Still though! V late dinner
My family has dubbed this as “Mom’s Yummy Chicken”, and they request it often for family dinners. The video is most -helpful, and I love the elegant vibe of the music. Thank you for sharing, teaching, and creating this wonderful recipe!
I haven’t made this yet, but it looks delicious. Could I use Crème Fraiche instead of cream for the sauce?
I just made this for the first time and I seriously think it’s the best thing I’ve ever made. It’s SO GOOD!!! Yummy and full of flavor. It made five large portions at my house with lots of sauce. I used organic chicken so it’s no crime to love this recipe. I never comment on recipes but just wanted to thank you for this recipe. I will be making it when I want to impress other people : )
Amazing recipe & so quick to rustle up. I used grated padano cheese as I had no parmesan & added a little paprika. It tasted awesome. So many different ways you can use the sauce also. Thank you for sharing
My husband loved this. The only change I made is I used shredded mozzarella vs parm cheese as not a fan of parm. I will also serve this with fettucini noodles as it does make a lot of sauce. I agree with others, never too much garlic. May try evaporated milk next time. Thanks. This is a keeper.