Garlic Butter Chicken

This garlic butter chicken is perfect for a quick and easy midweek dinner. It’s rich, garlicky and only requires 4 ingredients for the sauce!

Better still it only takes 30mins to make. PLUS, I’ve got a sneaky suspicion you might have most of the ingredients on hand already Follow me…

Garlic Butter Chicken Breast

For this recipe you’ll want to use boneless skinless chicken breast. You’ll also want to butterfly the breasts right through to make 4 even sized breasts. This will not only ensure the breasts cook quicker, but also more evenly.

Room Temp

An important tip to ensure the chicken comes out nice and juicy is to make sure you don’t cook it straight from the fridge. This will cause the chicken to seize up and go chewy. Bring the chicken close to room temp before frying.

Dredge through flour

Dredging the chicken through seasoned flour is a nifty trick to ensuring the sauce sticks to the chicken. When you fry chicken that’s been dredged through flour it’ll go nice and crispy. When you pour sauce over the chicken it absorbs into the thin coating of flour on the chicken.

Process shots: mix flour, garlic powder and s&p (photo 1), coat chicken (photo 2), add to oil & butter (photo 3), fry both sides until golden (photo 4).

Pan Fried Garlic Butter Chicken

Pan frying is the best method here because you get to start the sauce with the leftover flavour from frying the chicken. First things first, let’s see what the magic 4 ingredient sauce consists of:

• Butter – You’ll want to use unsalted butter, just so you can control the level of salt in the sauce more efficiently.
• Stock – Chicken stock works best. This not only creates the base of the sauce, but it’s great to scrape off any leftover flavour stuck in the pan from frying the chicken.
• Garlic – 2 cloves is all you’ll need! Make sure they’re finely diced/minced.
• Parsley – Garlic and parsley is a classic combo. It’s also not too overpowering which ensures the garlic shines, as it should.

Can I use other herbs?

Thyme or rosemary work great. They are both more powerful than parsley though so I recommend starting off with a smaller amount and working your way up. In all cases make sure you’re using fresh herbs. Dried herbs won’t have long enough to infuse into the sauce properly.

Process shots: fry garlic (photo 1), pour in stock (photo 2), melt in butter (photo 3), whisk to emulsify butter with stock (photo 4), add parsley (photo 5), add chicken back in (photo 6).

Serving Garlic Butter Chicken

Once you’ve added the chicken back in, give it all a good baste then plate up right away. You don’t want to leave them in the pan too long or they’ll overcook.

From there I always serve up with a wedge of lemon. The sauce is quite rich, so a squeeze of lemon juice at the very end will cut through that richness. Optional, but recommended.

What to serve with Garlic Butter Chicken?

Here I serve with asparagus and Lemon Roasted Potatoes. Other sides that would pair nicely include Roasted Broccolini, Roasted Baby Potatoes or Mustard Mash.

And there we have it! All my top tips for the perfect garlic butter chicken.

For the sister recipes to this check out my Garlic Butter Pork Chops, Garlic Butter Cod and Garlic Butter Salmon!

For more garlicky goodness check out these beauties too:

Delicious Garlic Recipes

• Garlic Butter Potato Skins
• Honey Garlic Chicken
• Garlic Green Beans
• Roasted Garlic Bread
• Creamy Garlic Chicken
• Garlic Parmesan Chicken Skewers

Alrighty, let’s tuck into the full recipe for this butter garlic chicken shall we?!

How to make Garlic Butter Chicken (Full Recipe & Video)

5 from 43 votes

Garlic Butter Chicken

By: Chris Collins

This garlic butter chicken is perfect for a quick and easy midweek dinner. It's rich, garlicky and only requires 4 ingredients for the sauce!

Prep: 10 minutes mins

Cook: 20 minutes mins

Total: 30 minutes mins

Servings: 4

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Equipment

• Large Frying Pan & Wooden Spoon
• Shallow Dish (for dredging)
• Sharp Knife & Chopping Board
• Jug (for stock)
• Tongs

Ingredients 

1x2x3x

• ▢ 2x 9oz/250g Chicken Breasts, brought close to room temp
• ▢ 1/4 cup / 40g Plain / All Purpose Flour
• ▢ 1/2 cup / 120ml Chicken Stock
• ▢ 6 tbsp / 90g / 3.2oz Unsalted Butter, divided into tbsp chunks (see notes)
• ▢ 2 cloves of Garlic, minced/finely diced
• ▢ 1 tbsp finely diced Fresh Parsley
• ▢ 1 tbsp Olive Oil
• ▢ 1 tsp Garlic Powder
• ▢ 1 tsp Salt, plus more to taste
• ▢ 1/2 tsp Black Pepper, plus more to taste
• ▢ 1 Lemon, divided into 4 wedges (to serve)

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Instructions 

• In a shallow dish, combine 1/4 cup flour with 1 tsp garlic powder & salt and 1/2 tsp black pepper.
• Butterfly your chicken breasts right through the centre to make 4 even sized breasts. One by one dredge in the flour (press in the flour to get an even coverage), give them a shake then place to one side.
• Add 1 tbsp butter and 1 tbsp olive oil to a large pan over medium-high heat. When hot, add in the chicken breasts and fry until golden on each side and white/piping hot through the centre. Approx 3-5mins each side depending on thickness. Place to one side.
• Turn heat down to a medium and add garlic. Fry for 1-2mins until it just begins to brown, then pour in stock. Use your wooden spoon to scrape off any flavour stuck to the pan, then add in your remaining 5 tbsp butter. Swiftly whisk as it melts to bind with the stock, it should turn slightly cloudy. Sprinkle in parsley and season to taste with salt & black pepper.
• Allow to simmer for a few mins until it starts to thicken, then turn down the heat to low and add the chicken back in. Spoon over the sauce then serve up with extra sauce drizzled over and a squeeze of lemon juice to taste (optional - see notes).

Video

Notes

a) Butter - I like using unsalted butter because you get so much more control over how salty it ends up. If you've only got salted just go easy when you season to taste and preferably use low-sodium stock if you've got it. Important to measure correctly (i.e not heaping tbsps) otherwise you'll end up with way too much butter.

b) Lemon - The sauce is quite a rich, so I like serving with a lemon wedge. A gentle squeeze over at the end cuts through the richness. Don't squeeze it straight into the pan or it'll break up the sauce. Lemon is optional.

c) Herbs - Parsley is the classic pairing with garlic butter and goes beautifully here. I have tried with thyme and rosemary, which both work nicely, but they're a lot stronger so just be aware of that. In all cases make sure you're using fresh herbs. Dried herbs won't have long enough to infuse the sauce.

d) Calories - slight over estimate as not all the flour is picked up. Whole recipe shared between 4.

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Nutrition

Calories: 337kcal | Carbohydrates: 8.39g | Protein: 30.72g | Fat: 19.52g | Saturated Fat: 9.01g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1.452g | Monounsaturated Fat: 7.095g | Trans Fat: 0.01g | Cholesterol: 116mg | Sodium: 690mg | Potassium: 499mg | Fiber: 0.4g | Sugar: 0.54g | Vitamin A: 496IU | Vitamin C: 1.8mg | Calcium: 26mg | Iron: 1.32mg

Looking for more?

You’ll find plenty more delicious comfort food like this in my Debut Cookbook ‘Comfy’

For another garlic butter chicken recipe check out my Garlic Butter Chicken Orzo!

For more similar recipes check out these beauties:

Chicken Breast Recipes

• Creamy Bacon Chicken
• Creamy Tarragon Chicken
• Creamy Roasted Red Pepper Chicken
• Creamy Tomato Chicken
• Chicken Marsala
• Chicken Francese