Creamy Tuscan Chicken

This Creamy Tuscan Chicken is always a crowd pleaser! Tender, juicy chicken breasts smothered in a rich, white wine cream sauce with fresh spinach and sun dried tomatoes. An impressive meal for a dinner party or a date night in!

Why You’ll Love Creamy Tuscan Chicken

This tender and flavorful Creamy Tuscan Chicken recipe makes for a restaurant-quality meal cooked right at home! The chicken breasts are submerged in a white wine cream sauce and rest on a bed of fresh spinach while they bake, keeping the juices locked in.

The flavor is unmatched, it’s bursting with vegetables and tender, juicy chicken. Just try to get a better chicken dinner out at a restaurant!

Ingredients You’ll Need

Here’s what you’ll need to throw together this mouth-watering chicken dish. Scroll down to see the exact ingredients in the recipe card.

• Chicken Breast: Boneless, skinless
• Basil: Dried.
• Garlic Powder
• Paprika
• Olive Oil
• Fresh Baby Spinach
• Onion
• Garlic
• White Wine: Any label should work, just not a very sweet variety
• Chicken Broth
• Sun Dried Tomatoes
• Parmesan Cheese
• Heavy Cream
• Salt and Pepper
• Flour: To thicken the sauce as needed.

How to Make Tuscan Chicken

This chicken comes together in just a handful of steps. With only 15 minutes of active prep, getting dinner on the table is a breeze.

1. Prep Your Ingredients: Preheat the oven to 400°F. Season the chicken breasts on both sides with the basil, salt, pepper, garlic powder and paprika.
2. Sear the Chicken: Pour the olive oil into a large, 12-inch skillet over medium heat. Add the chicken breasts and cook them for 3-4 minutes on each side. Transfer the chicken to a plate and cover it with foil.
3. Make the Sauce: Add the onion to the same skillet and cook it for 2-3 minutes. Add the garlic and cook it for 1 minute longer, then season with salt and black pepper. Sprinkle in the flour and stir to combine. Pour in white wine and let it reduce for 1 minute. Pour in the chicken broth while whisking, then add heavy cream, parmesan cheese and sun dried tomatoes. Bring the sauce back to a simmer and let it cook for 5 minutes. Taste it and adjust the salt and pepper as needed.
4. Bake the Chicken: Place the spinach in the bottom of a 9″ x 13″ baking dish. Lay the chicken breasts on top of the spinach and then pour the sauce on top of the chicken, making sure to cover the spinach as much as you can with the sauce. Cover the dish tightly with foil and pop it in the oven for 25 minutes. Test to make sure that the chicken is cooked through to 160°F using a meat thermometer. Remove it and let it rest, covered, for 5 minutes.
5. Plate and Serve: Place the chicken breasts onto a platter. Slice the chicken before serving it to make portioning easier. Pour the spinach and sauce over the top.

Tips for Success

This Tuscan chicken is sure to impress your friends, family or date with its complex, sophisticated flavors. Here are some things to keep in mind so it comes out perfect every time.

• Tenderize the Chicken: An easy way to get your chicken breasts to cook evenly is to pound them out before baking, until they have the same thickness all the way through. This will help to keep some parts from drying out as they cook.
• Use the Right Pan: When you cook an acidic ingredient like sun dried tomatoes in a cream-based sauce, a chemical reaction can happen to make your sauce curdle. This is more likely to happen if your pan is made of cast iron or copper and less likely to happen with ceramic or stainless steel, so make sure you choose the right pan.
• Scrape the Pan: When you make the sauce in the pan, use a wooden spoon to scrape the bottom as you stir it. This will infuse the flavor-packed char on the bottom of the pan into your sauce, making it taste even better.

Variation Ideas

Creamy Tuscan Chicken is a classic dish for a reason, but that doesn’t mean you can’t experiment with it. Try one of these ways to add a little of your own flair.

• Add Mushrooms: Many traditional Tuscan chicken recipes also include this classic ingredient. Sautée some mushrooms and throw them in the sauce to add body and texture.
• Add Red Bell Pepper: Roasted red bell pepper makes a great substitute for sundried tomato in this recipe. These two red veggies have a similarly rich, strong flavor.
• Try Chicken Legs: Chicken legs or chicken thighs make another good cut for this dish. Make sure you adjust cooking times so that the chicken cooks all the way through to the recommended cooking temperature of 165 degrees.
• Go With Shrimp: In fact, it’s perfectly possible to move away from chicken altogether. Instead of baked chicken, use seared shrimp in this dish for a fun new flavor.
• Spice It Up: There are a few ways to add a little kick to this dish. The more traditional way is to throw in some red pepper flakes, but you can also go for a stronger spice with hot sauce or cayenne.

Serving Suggestions

You may want to cut the chicken into smaller servings, since this recipe makes a ton of food. I love to lay out a bed of couscous for this meal. The tiny pearls soak up any extra sauce so that not a single drop is wasted.

You can also serve Tuscan chicken on top of some fluffy Mashed Potatoes, and pasta or rice work nicely as well.

Once you’ve laid the chicken over your grain of choice, drizzle a few generous spoonfuls of sauce from the baking dish all over the top. Serve a helping of tender vegetables like these Green Beans Almondine on the side, and you’ve got a winner chicken dinner!

Storage and Reheating

Not only is this chicken easy to store, it’s also great for making ahead of time. The chicken stays juicy in the cream sauce, and everything reheats beautifully in the microwave.

Slicing the chicken breasts ahead of time will help the chicken to reheat quicker and more evenly. Keep it covered tightly in the fridge for up to 3 days.

Does Tuscan Chicken Freeze Well?

Tuscan chicken isn’t always the best thing to freeze. This is because the acid and cream in the sauce can sometimes make it curdle.

You can freeze the chicken by itself up to 3 months, then defrost it overnight, make the sauce and cook the chicken in it as you would normally.

More Comforting Italian Dinner Ideas

• Parmesan Baked Chicken Breasts
• Creamy Chicken Marsala
• Chicken Francese
• Chicken Milanese

Print