Creamy Tuscan Chicken with Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Spinach

This is one of those meals that impresses like a restaurant dish but really is easy. Creamy, garlicky, and loaded with sundried tomatoes and spinach, it’s one of our most-requested weeknight dinners.

The sauce alone is worth making this. Heavy cream, Parmesan, garlic, sundried tomatoes, and spinach all come together in one skillet. Serve it over pasta, rice, or just with some crusty bread.

what You’ll Need

For the chicken:

• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 chicken breasts (6 ounces each, or 12-ounce breasts sliced in half horizontally)
• Garlic salt
• Coarse black pepper

For the sauce:

• 3 tablespoons butter
• 3 to 4 garlic cloves, minced
• ½ cup sundried tomatoes in oil, drained (use the kind packed in oil, not the dry ones in a bag. Big difference!)
• 3 cups packed spinach, coarsely chopped
• ⅓ cup chicken broth
• 1½ cups heavy whipping cream
• ½ cup Parmesan cheese, freshly grated (pre-shredded Parmesan won’t melt into the sauce as well.)

For garnish:

• 1 tablespoon parsley, chopped
• 1 tablespoon basil, cut into thin ribbons

Instructions

Season the Chicken

If your chicken breasts are thick (like the big 12-ounce ones from Costco) slice them in half horizontally so they’re about ¾ inch thick. You want them thin enough to cook through quickly without drying out the outside. Season both sides generously with garlic salt and coarse black pepper.

Don’t skip the garlic salt here. Regular salt is fine in a pinch, but garlic salt does double duty and builds flavor before the chicken even hits the pan.

Sear the Chicken

Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat. Once the oil is shimmering — not smoking — lay the chicken in the pan. Now leave it alone. Don’t move it, don’t peek under it, don’t fidget.

Let it sear for 3 to 4 minutes until the bottom is golden brown, then flip and do the same on the other side.

You’re not cooking it all the way through here. It’s going back in the sauce later to finish. You just want good color on both sides. Set the chicken on a plate when it’s done.

Cook the Garlic

Turn the heat down to medium-low. This is important — if you go straight into the garlic on high heat, it’ll burn in about ten seconds and taste bitter. Let the pan cool down for a minute, then add the butter.

Once it’s melted and foamy, add the minced garlic and stir it constantly for about one minute. You want it fragrant, not brown.

Add the Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Spinach

Toss in the drained sun-dried tomatoes and all of the chopped spinach. It’ll look like way too much spinach. It always does. Give it 3 to 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, and it’ll wilt right down to almost nothing.

Make sure you’re using the oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, not the dry kind that comes in a bag. The oil-packed ones are softer, more flavorful, and blend into the sauce much better.

Build the Cream Sauce

Pour in the chicken broth and heavy cream and stir everything together. Add ½ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon pepper. Now start adding the Parmesan a little at a time, stirring between each handful until it melts into the sauce.

This is where grating your own Parmesan off the block really matters. Pre-shredded Parmesan has anti-caking agents on it that prevent it from melting smoothly — you’ll end up with a grainy sauce instead of a silky one. A Microplane or the fine side of a box grater works great here.

Simmer the Chicken in the Sauce

Nestle the seared chicken back into the sauce and let the whole thing simmer on low heat for about 5 minutes. Spoon sauce over the chicken a few times while it cooks. This finishes cooking the chicken through and lets it soak up all that flavor.

Keep the heat gentle here. If the sauce starts to boil hard, it can break and get oily. A low, lazy simmer is what you want. The sauce will thicken as it sits, so pull it off the heat while it’s still a little thinner than you think you want it.

Garnish and Serve

Scatter the chopped parsley and basil ribbons over the top and serve immediately.

This is one of those dishes that doesn’t get better sitting on the stove; the sauce thickens fast and the spinach keeps cooking. 

Storage Instructions

Leftovers keep in the fridge for 3 to 4 days. Reheat gently on the stovetop and add a splash of broth or cream to loosen the sauce back up. I wouldn’t freeze this one…cream sauces tend to separate and go grainy.

Serving Ideas

This is a saucy dish, so you want something that soaks it up. Here are our favorites:

• Over pasta 
• Over rice, just plain white or jasmine rice
• Over crusty bread 
• Over mashed potatoes 
• To round out the plate you can add a simple green salad or roasted broccoli. But in my opinion, the spinach counts as your vegetable!

Simple Variations to Try

• Add mushrooms. Slice and sauté them with the garlic before adding the tomatoes and spinach.
• Use chicken thighs. Boneless skinless thighs are cheaper, more forgiving, and more flavorful. Sear them the same way.
• Add a pinch of red pepper flakes. Toss them in with the garlic. Not enough to make it spicy, just enough to give the sauce a little warmth.
• Stir in artichoke hearts. Drain a can, quarter them, and add them with the sun-dried tomatoes for more of a classic Tuscan flavor.
• Swap the chicken for shrimp. Use about a pound of large shrimp and sear for 1 to 2 minutes per side until pink. Build the sauce the same way and add the shrimp back in at the end just to warm through.

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