Creamy Garlic Chicken with Thyme

This creamy garlic chicken with thyme tastes absolutely gourmet yet is ready in 30 minutes with a simple skillet technique. Chicken cutlets are seared to tender perfection, nestled in a mouth-watering garlic cream sauce, and completed with lightly caramelized onions and a hint of lemon for an irresistible yet easy dinner.

Ingredient Notes

• Chicken breasts. You want boneless, skinless, and thinly-sliced, so they will cook through quickly and evenly. Purchase cutlets or slice them yourself.
• Yellow onion. Use about half a medium onion; stash the rest in the fridge, or chop and freeze to use another day.
• Garlic. I’m all about the jarred minced time-saver on many nights, but for this recipe, you’ll need whole cloves—about a dozen of them, so just buy a whole head of garlic. Pre-peeled cloves do work as a partial shortcut.
• Fresh lemon, thyme, and parsley. I’ve cooked a lot of chicken breasts in my day, and truly believe herbs and citrus do the most heavy lifting to transform the humble weeknight workhorse into a dish worth coveting.
• Cream. Heavy or light cream gives you the richest, most stable sauce. Substitute half and half in a pinch, but take greater care not to overcook the sauce, even if it is a little thin, because it will be more prone to separating.
• Staples and seasonings: low-sodium chicken broth, kosher salt, black pepper, garlic powder, butter, and olive oil.

You may be concerned about using so much garlic in a single dish, but trust the process. Cooking whole cloves like this imparts a very different flavor than you’d get from frying this much minced garlic. It will be mellow and rich and delicious.

How To Make Creamy Garlic Chicken

While everyone can love eating this dish, the cook will love that it’s made in one skillet and takes about 30 minutes. That’s start to finish with no complicated prep.

1. Lightly season and sauté the chicken; transfer to a plate.
2. Build the sauce one element at a time, beginning with the onion sizzling in a pat of butter. We want to give the onion as much time to soften and mellow as possible. Add the garlic—some cloves smashed, some whole—after a couple minutes, followed by broth, lemon, and thyme.
3. Stir in cream after the sauce has reduced a bit. Return chicken to the pan and simmer for another 2-3 minutes.
4. Keep over low heat until ready to serve! A few sprigs of thyme, chopped fresh parsley, or lemon wedges make pretty garnishes, if you like.

Preparing the sauce in the same skillet as the chicken is a must. It not only simplifies clean-up, it also ensures the sauce has maximal flavor by incorporating all the delicious browned bits left from cooking the chicken, known as the fond.

Tips and Variations:

Although this skillet has simple steps, over the years I’ve learned the following small details do make a difference to getting the absolute best finished result.

• Room Temp Chicken: Try to let your chicken sit at room temperature for 10-15 minutes before it hits the pan. This helps it cook more evenly.
• Pounded Chicken: If your chicken is uneven after slicing, you can take the extra step of pounding it into thinner cutlets, which also contributes to even cooking and tenderizes each piece a bit more.
• No Guesswork: Use an instant-read thermometer to know exactly when your chicken is cooked through to 165°F. It’s such a tiny investment for a lifetime of perfectly-cooked, tender chicken.
• Adjust Cooking Temp: Pay attention when the directions indicate to reduce the heat from medium-high, to medium, to medium-low. This is important because it ensures the sauce thickens but doesn’t seize up, particularly when incorporating cream at the end. Take extra care to reduce the temperature if cooking in cast iron, which retains heat exceptionally well.
• Add a Splash of White Wine: If you have an open bottle, pour a splash of white wine into the sauce at the same time as the chicken broth, lemon juice, and thyme. It will add even more depth of flavor.

What To Serve with Creamy Garlic Chicken

Freshly-baked bread or breadsticks are always popular to mop up the extra garlicky pan sauce. Readers also love to drizzle the sauce over mashed potatoes, rice, egg noodles, or other pasta.

The best veggie sides are not too heavy but can stand up to the big flavors here. Roasted carrots work well, especially with a little complementary thyme of their own, as do green beans or roasted broccolini.

Any salad can work but I’d prefer to lean into sturdy greens like kale, radicchio, or cabbage, and dress them somewhat lightly.

More Easy Chicken Recipes

• Creamy Tuscan Chicken with Spinach and Sun-Dried Tomatoes
• Easy One-Pan Greek Chicken with Olives
• Balsamic Cranberry Chicken Skillet
• Honey Mustard Chicken Skillet
• Bruschetta Chicken

This recipe was originally published on October 18, 2019. The post has been updated with more straightforward, streamlined information on the key ingredients, steps, and variations, but the recipe itself is unchanged.