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 sautéed chicken, 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 and with these grilled green beans.
Jump to:
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!
WANT TO SAVE THIS RECIPE?
Enter your email to receive this recipe, along with weekly food inspiration!
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!
📧 Don't forget to subscribe to my newsletter, so that you don’t miss out on any of my delicious recipes!
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.
WANT TO SAVE THIS RECIPE?
Enter your email to receive this recipe, along with weekly food inspiration!
Nutrition
Recipe inspired by: Damn Delicious. This recipe was originally written for Eazy Peazy Mealz.
Rachel
Made this tonight and we all loved it! Did roasted fingerling potatoes, cherry tomatoes and carrots, and steamed green beans. This was a last-minute switch of meal so I didn't have the heavy cream (or even any half and half,) so I used a little cream cheese, a little sour cream, an extra 2 TBS of butter, and a little extra chicken stock, and it was great. Also used Tuscan kale instead of spinach and added it sooner to cook longer. Will def make again!
Amanda Mason
Yeah! I'm SO glad you loved it! This is a good recipe to substitute with. It's extremely versatile!! Please let me know what other recipes of mine you try and like! Thanks for leaving me a comment!!!
Kathy Hughes
This dish is ABSOLUTE PERFECTION! I couldn't get enough of it. I think it will become a once-a-week meal for the family. Thank you for sharing this ingenious dish!
Amanda Mason
Hi Kathy!
I'm SO glad you loved it!! It's one of our favorites, too!! Thank you for your note and let me know what other recipes you make of mine and fall in love with!!!
Kayla Hussey
I served this over brown rice cooked in chicken broth with roasted parmesan asparagus and the taste was amazing! The one problem I had was that the sauce did not thicken even though I cooked it for twice as long as the recipe suggested to no avail. Any tips for thickening next time? We will definitely be trying again!
Amanda Mason
So glad you loved this!! To thicken it up, add some arrowroot powder or cornstarch. You can add it directly to the sauce and bring it to a boil and it should thicken.
Lori
Hey! This looks beyond amazing!!! Any ideas how to make this into a crockpot meal? Two babies under two, sometimes a 30 minute meal doesn’t even happen! Haha!
Mary
Made this last night with pasta... OMG!!!!! So easy to make and so delicious!
Amanda Mason
YEAH! I love hearing this! Thanks for letting me know you love it! It is super delish with pasta, rice and mashed potatoes!!
Amy - The Speedy Spatula
What a beautiful and delicious looking meal!
Of Goats and Greens
This looks very good! I love lemon and poultry together. I shall try it with chicken thighs!
Mary Skelly
Delicious! I made this as a "I NEED DINNER QUICK" and the family loved it. I'm hosting a dinner party this weekend and this dish is on the menu!
Amanda Mason
Mary - thank you SO MUCH for taking the time to let me know that you loved the recipe!! I'm so glad your family liked it! I hope your dinner party goes GREAT!
Audrey Leiva
This recipe is AMAZING!!!! I made it for the first time last night and it was such a hit with the family. They even thought it tasted like it came fresh out of a restaurant! I did have to add some cornstarch to the sauce to get it to thicken up, but overall! Highly HIGHLY recommend. This recipe is a keeper. I put this over pasta!
Amanda Mason
Thank you!! I'm so glad you liked it!! I love it over, pasta, rice and mashed potatoes!! Thank you for taking the time to let me know how you liked it!!
Village Bakery
This recipe is amazing. I found it on Pinterest and made it last night. My family absolutely loved it. Thank you!
Amanda Mason
Awesome!! Thank you for taking the time to send me a note that you guys loved it!! I hope you try more of my recipes!!!