Creamy Chicken Florentine

Name: Creamy Chicken Florentine
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 25 min
Total time: 30 min
Ingredients: 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (thin-sliced); kosher salt and black pepper; 3/4 teaspoon garlic powder; 1/4 cup flour (for dredging); 2 tablespoons butter (divided); 1 tablespoon olive oil; 3 cloves garlic (minced); 1/2 cup dry white wine; 1/4 cup chicken broth; 1/4 teaspoon Italian seasoning; 3/4 cup heavy cream; 2 cups loosely-packed fresh baby spinach; 1/3 cup freshly-grated Parmesan cheese

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by Monica Lensink on Oct 1, 2020

This Creamy Chicken Florentine recipe delivers restaurant quality at home in less than 30 minutes. No one can resist a bite of this tender chicken nestled in a creamy, garlicky white wine sauce!

Serve with some easy roasted asparagus, green beans, or a simple Italian salad. A bit of crusty bread to mop up the extra sauce is always delicious, too!

Creamy chicken Florentine, in a skillet ready to serve.

This is classic and simple dinner goodness right here, people. I don’t always like to rely on a cream sauce to make my family love a meal, but what can I say? There’s a time and place for everything.

If this is a time for you to serve up a simple chicken dinner that will have everyone licking the plate, well, you’re in the right place. 😉

Why you’ll love it

One skillet. You’ll sauté the chicken, transfer it to a plate, then make a quick sauce in the same skillet. This minimizes clean-up and maximizes flavor, because the sauce gets infused with extra browned bits from the chicken.
Family-friendly. If your kids are skeptical of the wilted spinach, it’s easy enough to leave that off their servings and serve some raw on the side. (If they’ll try that — it works in my house!)
Simple ingredients. Nothing too crazy here — everyday spices, chicken, cream, broth, baby spinach.

Ingredients arranged on a prep tray - chicken, Parmesan, spinach, flour, butter, garlic, cream, broth, seasonings.

What does Florentine style mean?

You may be curious about why this is termed “chicken Florentine.” In simplest terms, a Florentine-style recipe usually features spinach.

Traditionally, food prepared à la Florentine would mimic that prepared in the Italian city of Florence. Florence is the largest city in and capital of Tuscany, and indeed is known for many dishes served on a bed of cooked spinach. You may have heard of eggs Florentine, for example: a variation of eggs Benedict that pairs wilted spinach with a poached egg and grilled English muffin.

Now, a classic dish à la Florentine would probably feature spinach simmered in a very generous amount of butter, so this is obviously a modern and American adaptation of the style. But it certainly gets a delicious dinner on the table!

Close-up of a piece of chicken in cream sauce with spinach.

If you’re interested in more Tuscan-style dinners, creamy Tuscan chicken, Tuscan tortellini, and this Tuscan white bean skillet are all among my most popular recipes!

How to make chicken Florentine – tips and tricks

This is a common and classic dish, so there are quite a few recipes for it floating around. I’ve been making it for years and refined this version, which is simple and doesn’t require any unusual ingredients or artificial thickeners.

My top tips for making it perfect it every time:

Use thin-sliced chicken. Be sure to use thin-sliced breasts, or butterfly them yourself if needed. This allows the chicken to cook evenly and in less time. (You can also pound them to an even thickness, though I find this to be more work.) It also helps to let the chicken rest at room temperature for 15-20 minutes before you start cooking, if you can, but this is not a necessity.
Don’t cook garlic too long. The garlic should really only sizzle for 30-60 seconds. Have your wine and broth measured out and ready to go so that you can add them to the pan as soon as the garlic is fragrant. Burned garlic is nobody’s friend. 🙂
Deglaze the pan. After adding the wine and broth, scrape the pan well to remove any stuck on bits. This simple step, known as deglazing the pan, prevents burning and adds flavor. This sauté tool is the best utensil I’ve ever found for this — super effective and no scratches!
Taste as you go. Depending on the type of broth you use and how heavily you season the chicken, you may end up with a very salty dish if you keep adding without checking the sauce. Taste along the way and you’ll be able to adjust as you like.

Variations and substitutions

Add mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes, or artichokes. Add any of these shortly after adding the broth for extra flavor.
Leave out the wine. Add more chicken broth instead, and consider adding a pinch of vinegar, lemon juice, or even Dijon mustard, as well, to mimic the tang of white wine.
Skip the flour. You can easily omit the flour-dredging step entirely, or use almond flour instead.

What goes with chicken Florentine?

Creamy chicken Florentine goes well with roasted veggies, steamed veggies, or a simple salad. Pasta, mashed potatoes, mashed cauliflower, or rice are also very nice.

In my house a smidge of bread is a must-have — so perfect for mopping up extra sauce from corners of the plate!

Skillet full of creamy chicken Florentine topped with grated Parmesan cheese.

Don’t forget to add a little grated Parmesan on top! Mangia!

If you try this Creamy Chicken Florentine, don’t forget to rate the recipe and leave a comment below. I love hearing how recipes turn out in your kitchen, and it helps other readers, too.

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