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A thick and creamy Sun Dried Tomato Parmesan Chicken with Mushrooms. NO heavy cream — or ANY cream — at ALL! Plus dairy free and gluten free options.
Creamy Sun-Dried Tomato Parmesan Chicken with NO CREAM and PACKED with flavor! For another delicious chicken dish, check out our Creamy Chicken With Herbs, which also features tender chicken breasts cooked to perfection.
Creamy Sun Dried Tomato Parmesan Chicken
There’s so much flavour happening in this pan right now, and only a quarter of the fat and calories when compared with typical creamy sauce recipes. Pan fried garlic followed closely by sun dried tomatoes and mushrooms AND melted parmesan cheese through this sauce makes this dinner incredible.
How to make a creamy sauce with no cream
To make the creamy sauce for this recipe, you’re going to use evaporated milk. You can use full fat or reduced fat. You can also use plain milk if you like, but please take care that you don’t boil your sauce rapidly or it will curdle. Keep it to a very low and gentle simmer.
- First, coat your chicken breasts (or thighs), in a mixture of flour and parmesan cheese. You can use all purpose, plain flour or Tapioca Flour to cut back on gluten. Tapioca Flour is made from cassava root and incredible for gluten free cooking and baking.
- Once your chicken is coated in the flour / parmesan mixture, fry them in a skillet (or pan) until golden browned on both sides and cooked through.
- Then add the sun dried tomatoes and mushrooms, sautéing them until the mushrooms are soft and the pan is filled with sun dried tomato flavours.
Creamy Sauce for Chicken
Do you see how creamy this sauce is? And how without cream? Using normal, humble milk. That’s it. That’s the BIG secret that’s really no secret. Milk mixed with cornstarch when it’s simmering = a beautiful, thick and creamy sauce without the fat and calories of thickened or heavy based creams. A beautiful, weeknight OR weekend meal that FEELS like a cheat meal withOUT any cheating.
WATCH HOW WE MAKE Creamy Sun Dried Tomato Parmesan Chicken HERE!
Love Creamy Sun Dried Tomato? Try these recipes!
Creamy Tuscan Shrimp | Chicken with Creamy Sun Dried Tomato Parmesan Sauce (With Cream) | Sun Dried Tomato Cheesy Meatballs (Low Carb)
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Creamy Sun Dried Tomato Parmesan Chicken (No Cream)
Ingredients
For The Chicken:
- 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts halved horizontally to make 4 fillets
- 2 tablespoons Tapioca flour or all purpose or plain flour
- 2 tablespoons parmesan cheese finely grated fresh, do not include for dairy free option
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 pinch cracked pepper
For The Sauce:
- 2 tablespoons sun dried tomato oil or olive oil
- 2 tablespoons garlic minced
- 7 ounces sun dried tomato strips in oil jarred, drained, reserve 2 tablespoons of oil for cooking
- 1 cup mushrooms sliced
- 1 1/2 cups evaporated milk reduced fat or full fat milk
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch cornflour mixed with 2 tablespoons of milk
- ⅓ cup parmesan cheese do not include for dairy free option
- 2 teaspoons Italian herbs optional for added flavour
- 2 tablespoons fresh basil shredded, to serve
Instructions
- In a shallow bowl, combine the flour, parmesan cheese, salt and pepper. Dredge in the flour mixture; shake off excess and set aside.
- Heat 1 tablespoon of the reserved oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until hot. Fry the chicken until golden on each side, cooked through and no longer pink (about 5-6 minutes each side, depending on the thickness of your chicken). Transfer onto a warm plate.
- Add the remaining 1 tablespoon of oil to the skillet; sauté the garlic until fragrant (about 1 minute). Add the sun dried tomatoes and mushrooms; fry until the mushrooms are just soft.
- Reduce heat to low heat, add the milk (or cream if using) and bring to a gentle simmer, stirring occasionally. Season with salt and pepper to your taste and add the milk/cornstarch mixture to the centre of the pan. Continue to simmer while quickly stirring the mixture through until the sauce thickens. (Only use cornstarch if using milk for your sauce.)
- Add in the parmesan cheese; allow sauce to simmer for a further minute until cheese melts through the sauce. Add the chicken back into the pan; sprinkle with the fresh basil and a little extra pepper (optional), and serve over pasta, rice or steamed veg.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
You’ve done it again! I’ve had some of the most delicious meals thanks to the recipes on your site. I did everything exactly as instructed, except I added fresh spinach and didn’t use mushrooms (I had a bad experience with a Shiitake mushroom once, and I haven’t eaten mushrooms since!). It was scrumptious! The sauce was extra good drizzled over the roasted red potatoes I made as a side. Now I just have to start drying my own tomatoes at home since one small jar costs $5.47 at the store!
Where has this recipe been my whole life? This was absolute perfection! I loved it, my husband raved about it, and even my 12 year old was a huge fan. (I made with a side of Banza chickpea angel hair for fewer carbs and added protein versus regular pasta.) This is truly a restaurant quality recipe and will be going on our family favorites list. Thank you so much for sharing!
DBO
I cooked this for dinner tonight and we absolutely loved it.
Just a couple of variations:
I left outy the herbs but added juice & rind of one lemon to the sauce.
I served it on a bed of cous cous made with weak stock (there is enough flavour in the sauce.
I Placed baby spinich leaves around the outside of the seriving bowls then spponed in the cous cous.
Next I placed the chicken pieces on top and spooned the sauce over each bowl.
It was absolutely delicious & very filling.
It was absolutyely
first time feeling compelled to leave a review for the recipe I’ve tried! The flavours are amazing in this and it’s quick and easy enough for a mid-week dinner. Used plain milk with starch and the sauce was great. I let the chicken cook in the sauce for about 15mins as well on very low heat and it was very juicy and tasty. Served on a bed of plain rice – delicious!
Beautifully balanced flavors; My family loved this!
I’d love to try this recipe, but have some black olives lingering here. Do you think I could add some?
Thanks in advance for your help.
Hi Line, absolutely!
If using half and half should I use the corn starch?
I used coconut flour and skipped the parmesan, but I did add a small amount of goat cheese. Next time I might reduce the oil (a lot came out with the sundried tomatoes) and get reduced fat evaporated milk instead of whole (what I grabbed by mistake). Hubby loved it though, delicious!
I made this the other night. It was really good and hubby thought so too! I did not have milk or evaporated milk so I used half and half and I also added a little white wine. It was delish! Thanks for the recipe!
Just made this for a family whose momma had surgery. The sauce came together like a dream! I think I would skip dredging the chicken in flour and cheese next time though, I may have gotten a little too much on them. The coating slid off the chicken into the sauce! I’m sure they’ll still love it, but it got all mushy and now it’s part of the sauce. Looked amazing. I took a nip of the sauce and it was delish!
Hello Jana,
That is so kind of you to help a family who needed a meal. I am glad that it all came together in the end. It is a really delicious recipe! Thanks for the comment and thanks for following along. xo