This savory lemon butter chicken is super easy to make and over the top in taste! Full of flavor, every bite is unforgettable. The lemon butter sauce is hands down the best homemade sauce you'll ever make at home and pairs perfectly with the tender and juicy chicken!
Best. Chicken. Recipe. EVER! This lemon butter chicken is just out-of-this world delicious! And that's a big statement because I have a lot of really good chicken recipes, like this easy sesame chicken, this skillet chicken with garlic butter, and this baked chicken dijon.
We all need an easy and delicious chicken recipe for weeknights meals. And this lemon butter chicken is rich in flavor and has the most delicious lemon butter sauce. It's about to become a favorite recipe that you will make over and over again!
This lemon butter chicken is a one pan recipe that is simple to prep, easy to cook, and makes clean up incredibly easy. It starts on the stove top and finishes cooking in the oven. We're talking the most delicious sauce that is incredibly easy to make and it's made without flour.
Similar to the white sauce in this lemon garlic chicken recipe, this lemon butter sauce is so good you'll want to eat it by the spoonful! Made in under an hour, this lemon chicken will quickly become a dinner that is requested often! While it's excellent on its own, it's amazing served over buttery penne pasta, fluffy white rice, or creamy mashed potatoes!
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Quick Recipe Overview
What Makes This Lemon Butter Chicken Better Than The Rest: Rich and flavorful, this creamy lemon butter sauce is restaurant quality you can make in your own kitchen! The sauce cooks with the tender and juicy chicken breasts, making it a one pan recipe that is perfect for any weeknight dinner!
How Long It Takes: 40 minutes
Equipment You'll Need: skillet, oven safe dish
Why This Recipe Works
1. Covered in the most delicious lemon sauce for chicken, it's made with simple ingredients you can find at any local grocery store.
2. The chicken is seared to a golden brown which helps lock in the juices, making this the most flavorful lemon butter chicken recipe!
3. It tastes amazing the next day!
🛒 Ingredients You'll Need
The ingredients needed to make this lemon butter chicken recipe are not only budget-friendly, but you probably already have these in your kitchen. And fresh ingredients taste best in this dish.
- Garlic - use fresh garlic instead of the jar version. Fresh chopped garlic tastes way better!
- Lemon juice - the same rule applies when it comes to lemon juice...freshly squeezed juice from the lemon adds a hint of zesty freshness.
- Spinach - while frozen spinach can work in a pinch, fresh spinach holds up better in this dish.
- Paprika - use a smoked paprika. It adds a hint of smokiness to the dish adding a lot of depth to the flavor.
- White wine - while optional, adding a splash of white wine, like Chardonnay or Sauvignon Blanc, really finishes off this dish and adds a rich flavor.
See the recipe card below for a full list of ingredients and measurements.
📋 Variations
- Chicken breasts work best, but this recipe also works well using chicken thighs.
- Regular paprika works fine in this recipe, but I highly recommend using smoked paprika. Regular paprika is just crushed dried chilies. Smoked paprika uses chilies that are smoke-dried and then crushed. There truly is a huge flavor difference.
- To kick this up a level, try adding fresh mushrooms and capers. Add them in when you add in the spinach and parsley.
- The addition of Sun dried tomatoes also tastes great in this dish.
- If you're not a fan of spinach, try adding in fresh kale.
🔪 How To Make Lemon Butter Chicken Step-By-Step
Step 1: Start by seasoning the breasts with salt, pepper, and smoked paprika.
Step 2: Next, add the unsalted butter and sauté for about 2-3 minutes, on each side.
Step 3: When it's finished sautéing, set the breasts aside on a plate so you can sauté the garlic and butter.
👩🍳 Important Note: The chicken is NOT done at this point!
Step 4: When the garlic is sautéd, you're ready to start making the sauce. Combine the sautéd garlic, broth, heavy cream, Parmesan cheese, lemon juice, and thyme. Oh - and if you're adding a splash of wine, add it now!
Step 5: From there, bring the sauce to a slow rolling boil.
Step 6: Add a large handful of fresh spinach to the sauce and stir once to coat.
Step 7: The spinach will start to wilt as the sauce gets hot and starts to slowly thicken.
👩🍳 Expert Tip! The sauce will be a little thin. To thicken the sauce, add a cornstarch slurry. To do this, add one tablespoon of cornstarch to one tablespoon of water into a small bowl. Whisk the ingredients together until it forms a slurry. While the skillet is still on medium heat, slowly whisk the cornstarch slurry into the sauce and continue to whisk until the sauce has slightly thickened.
Step 8: When the sauce slightly thickens, add the sautéd chicken into the dish with the sauce so it can bake together with the other ingredients. The sautéd garlic mixed with the juices and other ingredients makes you want to eat it at this stage...but since the chicken is not fully cooked, you'll have to wait a bit longer!
Step 9: After it bakes in the oven, this lemon garlic butter chicken is ready to eat! Super fast and easy to make, the lemon butter sauce is delicious to soak up with these ciabatta rolls! We're talking flavor that is so good, this is about to become your favorite chicken dinner!
💭 Expert Tips
- If using thick chicken breasts, use a meat tenderizer to pound the meat. This helps break down the fibers making the meat extra tender.
- Don't use flour to thicken the sauce. It adds a pasty flour flavor and texture and will ruin the sauce. The cornstarch slurry I mentioned above works best.
- Depending on the size of the breasts will determine how long it takes to fully cook. Use a digital thermometer to check for doneness. When the breasts reach 165°F, it's done.
- Store any leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 3-4 days. Do not freeze.
- Use a stove top and oven safe dish when making this recipe. A shallow dutch oven works well.
🙋 Recipe FAQs
In this recipe, it's made with freshly grated Parmesan cheese, heavy cream, chicken broth, butter, garlic, lemon juice, thyme, and a splash of white wine. It's so good you'll want to eat it by the spoonful!
Yes! Boneless and skinless work best.
This recipe should not be made ahead of time. It's best fresh out of the oven.
🥘 More Chicken Recipes
If you tried this Lemon Butter Chicken recipe or any other recipes on my website, please let me know how it turned out in the comments below. I love hearing from you! And, please leave a 🌟 rating while you're there!
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How To Make Lemon Butter Chicken
Ingredients
- 4 chicken breasts, boneless, skinless
- ½ tablespoon smoked paprika
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ⅛ teaspoon fresh cracked pepper
- 4 cloves fresh garlic, chopped
- 1 cup chicken broth
- ½ cup heavy cream
- splash of dry white wine, optional
- ⅓ cup Parmesan cheese, freshly grated
- juice of 1 lemon
- ¼ teaspoon dried thyme
- 2 cups fresh spinach
- 2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°F.
- Season the chicken with ¼ teaspoon salt, ¼ teaspoon pepper, and ½ teaspoon paprika. Set aside.
- Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a large ovenproof dish (dutch oven or deep cast iron works best) over medium high heat.
- Add the chicken and sear both sides until golden brown, about 2-3 minutes per side. Remove and set chicken aside on separate plate.
- While the chicken is resting, return the chicken back to the same skillet and melt the remaining 1 tablespoon of butter in the skillet. Add 4 cloves of chopped garlic and saute for 2 more minutes.
- Stir in 1 cup of chicken broth, ½ cup heavy cream, ⅓ cup Parmesan cheese, lemon juice, ¼ teaspoon thyme, and a splash of wine.
- Bring sauce to a boil and reduce heat.
- Add in the 2 cups of spinach and 2 Tablespoons of fresh parsley and simmer until the spinach and parsley has wilted and the sauce has slightly thickened.
- Continue to cook the sauce about 5-7 minutes so the sauce becomes thicker.
- Once the sauce has reached the desired thickness, return the chicken to the ovenproof dish.
- Place in the oven and cook for 30 minutes.
- Remove the dish and let sit for about 5 minutes before serving. Top with fresh chopped parsley. Serve immediately.
Video
Notes
- The sauce will be a little thin. To thicken the sauce, add a cornstarch slurry in step 10 above. To do this, add one tablespoon of cornstarch to one tablespoon of water into a small bowl. Whisk the ingredients together until it forms a slurry. While the skillet is still on medium heat, slowly whisk the cornstarch slurry into sauce and continue to whisk until it has slightly thickened.
- If using thick breasts, use a meat tenderizer to pound the meat. This helps break down the fibers making the meat extra tender.
- Don't use flour to thicken the sauce. It adds a pasty flour flavor and will ruin the sauce. The cornstarch slurry I mentioned above works best.
- Depending on the size of the breasts will determine how long it takes to fully cook. Use a digital thermometer to check for doneness. When the breasts reach 165°F, it's done.
- Store any leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 3-4 days. Do not freeze.
- Use a stove top and oven safe dish when making this recipe. A shallow dutch oven works well.
Nutrition
Recipe inspired by: Damn Delicious. This recipe was originally written for Eazy Peazy Mealz.
Kim
My family loves this meal. I’ve made it multiple times and figured it was time to rate this family favorite. Thanks!
Amanda Mason
Oh I am so glad to hear this! Thank you for letting me know it is your family's favorite dinner!
Amy Liu Dong
Wow! This recipe looks yummy and perfect for me! The chicken breast cook in the best possible way and the sauce makes it so enticing and tempting! I'll definitely make this at home! Thanks!
Amanda Mason
Glad you liked it so much!!
Ann
This chicken dish was delicious, and very simple to make. It worked great to make on a busy weekday night. Thanks for the share!
Amanda Mason
Perfect! Glad it was a good easy weeknight dinner for you!!
Luke
Great lemon butter chicken recipe I've made, I've tried loads of recipes, and this is by far the best recipe I've made 🙂
I've passed this on to my family to try 😉
Amanda Mason
Great! So glad you enjoyed it!! It's a fan favorite, for sure!!!
SNK Social Fame
Damn! It's looks so delicious and yummy recipe. i will definitely try this home.
Amanda Mason
Thanks! Enjoy!
Samantha Kinlen
Flavor is good. The Parmesan did not properly melt which was a huge disappointment as I thought this would be an easy meal to make.
Amanda Mason
I'm glad you liked the flavor! Did you use freshly grated Parmesan cheese or a bag of pre-shredded? The bag of pre-shredded tends to clump and not melt very well.
Nancy
Good. I added diced potatoes instead of the spinach.
Amanda Mason
I'm glad you enjoyed it, Nancy!! Potatoes are a great add!!!
Malwina
Can I simmer this dish instead of cook in the oven?
Amanda Mason
You can try that method, yes. Bring it to a boil for a bit longer before simmering. The sauce will probably be more liquidity so you may beed to add in a cornstarch slurry.
Malwina
Thanks. That's what I'm going to do 🙂
Jackee
My daughter (who hates spinach) found this recipe and said it looked good I have made it for us three times already - it has so much flavor!! I love that she found a healthy recipe with ingredients she was willing to try!
Amanda Mason
I am SO glad to hear this!! SO glad she loves it!
Sharon
This recipe is DELICIOUS!! From start to finish, the recipe guides even the most least experienced chef/“chef” through so the dish will come out as pure perfection!! I’m pretty experienced with cooking and I love home cooked meals and making them. My family members can be picky but they all love this dish!! The chicken comes out tender and juicy. The sauce is absolute Heaven from the oven!! We love it on linguine or fettuccine,noodles, or even on brown rice! The leftovers heat up well and taste just as delish!! I’ve been making this for the last 4 years❤️
Amanda Mason
Hi Sharon! I'm so glad you all love the recipe so much!! It's one of our favorites as well!! I'd love to hear what other recipes of mine you try!!