This Garlic Butter Chicken recipe with spinach and bacon is rich, creamy, and hearty – everyone will love it! If you enjoy creamy dishes, you for sure will like this one as well. This dish will definitely deliver the flavor and creamy sauce. It is like heaven on the plate.
If you need a fast and easy 15-minute chicken dinner, this comforting garlic butter chicken recipe will be a new family favorite. It’s made in one skillet, which is great because there’s less cleanup. The chicken is pan-fried on the stovetop and is so tender, juicy, rich, and buttery tasting with plenty of garlic to provide that extra punch of flavor.
Let’s get cooking
Gather all your ingredients. There are not many. You probably have most of them at home anyway. This fast garlic butter chicken dinner is made with common fridge and pantry ingredients.
Cook your meat
I like to use skinless and boneless tights in dishes like this. Chicken tights are the juiciest meat in my opinion. If you do preffer breast, just use breast meat.
In a large skillet, add avocado oil, chicken meat seasoned with salt, pepper, and sear on the first side for about 5 minutes. Flip the chicken over and cook on the second side for about 5 minutes.
When the chicken is done and cooked through, remove it from the pan and allow it to rest on a plate.
Dice onions and add to skillet, where the meat was browned. Saute the onion for a couple of minutes. Add minced garlic and about 1/2 cup of broth. Let it cook for about a minute or two.
- 1 pound of boneless and skinless chicken thighs seasoned to taste
- 2 tsp of avocado oil
- 2 tbsp of butter
- 1 onion diced
- 6-8 cloves of garlic minced
- 1 cup of crispy bacon. I get the bag in Costco already cooked
Lets make the sauce
Add cooked bacon and 1/2 cup of broth. Let simmer for a couple of minutes. Bacon will get a nice aroma. Cut the browned meat into chunks if you chose to brown whole pieces.
Time to add spices, the rest of the broth, and meat back into a skillet. Cook on low heat for about 10 minutes, to make sure the meat is fully cooked.
- 1 1/2 cup of chicken broth divided
- 1/2 tsp of garlic/herb salt or regular salt
- 1/4 tsp white or black pepper
- 1 tsp of Italian seasoning
- 1 tsp of dried basil
Pour your cream or half & half and let it simmer for about 5 minutes on LOW heat. Don’t overcook your cream. Otherwise, your cream will curdle. Not the best look on your dinner plate. It does not change the taste. It is just not best looking.
- 1 cup of heavy cream or half and half
- 3 cups of baby spinach leaves
- 1/2 cup of parmesan cheese
- Crushed chili pepper flakes (optional)
- 1 tsp cornstarch mixed with 1 tbsp of water optional
Check your chicken if it’s cook through, and turn off the stove.
Add spinach and parmesan and keep stirring. The hot sauce will be plenty for spinach to wilt.
If you like the sauce thicker, you can add a teaspoon of corn starch and make it thicker. My sauce usually get thick after adding parmesan.
Do you want more garlic flavor?
YOU can make this as garlicky as you want! How? For a stronger garlic flavor, 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.
The garlic cloves are lightly browned in a little oil and softened onion in buttery pan juices before being gently simmered in chicken stock. There is so much caramelization happening in this pan.
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 meat, then feel free to mince or finely chop all of the cloves and add them in.
Ready to have dinner?
Serve the garlic butter chicken with plain Gluten-Free spaghetti. All you have to do is cook the spaghetti to al dente and scoop the chicken and sauce onto the pasta. Dinner is ready in 20 minutes, and there is only one pot to clean.
I like to garnish with dry sun dried tomatoes. They are visually pretty and the taste is delicious as well.
- Dry sun dried tomatoes to garnish
Cooking tips
- When you’re searing the chicken, just let it be. Don’t touch it, move it, peek on it, just let it sear. After 5 minutes, check on it, and if it needs a little more time, go for it, and then flip it over and allow it to remain undisturbed as well while searing on the second side.
- After searing, your pan (if using stainless steel or cast iron pan) is going to have lots of chicken bits and cooking juices stuck to it. This is where deglazing comes in. Meaning, you add either wine (or chicken broth) to the pan to remove the stuck-on bits of food.
- Adding wine or even chicken broth to a scorching skillet will cause the liquid to bubble up with lots of ensuing steam. Be careful!
Who inspired me?
Suppose you wonder who inspired this delicious recipe. I was looking for something new to cook, as my ideas are getting thin lately. It feels like I do repeat my dishes a lot. I started to look for new and fast recipes. I came across this blog: www.eatwell101.com, with many interesting recipes to try. Today we did Garlic Butter Chicken for the first time, and it was a success.
Other Chicken recipes to try
If you like easy and fast dinner recipes, be sure to try these other recipes.
- Delicious classic Butter Chicken, I was looking for an Indian dish and found this delicious recipe. Very easy to make and fast.!
- Orange chicken, Do you love this Asian take-out? My kids love it. I am personally not a take-out girl, so I found how to make my own. The gluten-Free version is usually not offered around my area, and I do not want to risk regular soy sauce personally!
Until next time…!
DOBROU CHUT!
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Garlic Butter Chicken
Ingredients
- 1 pound of chicken thighs boneless and skin off
- 2 tsp of avocado oil
- 2 tbsp of butter
- 1 onion diced
- 6-8 cloves of garlic minced
- 1 cup of crispy bacon. I get bag in Costco already cooked
- 1 1/2 cup of chicken broth divided
- 1/2 tsp of garlic/herb salt or regular salt
- 1/4 tsp white or black pepper
- 1 tsp of Italian seasoning
- 1 tsp of dried basil
- 1 cup of heavy cream or half and half
- 3 cups of baby spinach leaves
- 1/2 cup of parmesan cheese
- Crushed chili pepper flakes optional
- 1 tsp cornstarch mixed with 1 tbsp of water optional
Instructions
- Start with browning chicken in avocado oil, when browned set the chicken aside.
- Add butter, and onion into the skillet and make the onion translucent.
- Add garlic and 1/2 cup of broth and cook for 1-2 minutes
- Add crispy bacon and 1/2 cup of broth. I get a bag of bacon in Costco and use it in many dishes.
- While bacon is slowly cooking, cut meat into pieces. The meat is probably raw inside, but not to worry, the meat will cook more.
- Add meat, spices, and the rest of the broth and let simmer for 5-10 minutes on low heat. Just to make sure meat is fully cooked and to reduce some of the broth.
- Finally, add heavy cream or half and half with parmesan cheese, simmer for 2 minutes to have flavors combine.
- If you like a thicker sauce, add 1 tsp of cornstarch into 1tbsp of water and add to the sauce. – optional
- When you add spinach, don’t overcook it, let the heat of hot sauce wilt the spinach.
- Serve over gluten-free pasta, regular pasta or rice
- Finish with freshly shaved parmesan cheese and if you wish for a little kick, sprinkle crushed red pepper flakes on top.
