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A dinner for garlic lovers! Succulent chicken topped off with a creamy garlic and Parmesan sauce. One-skillet easy!
Having literally loads of boneless skinless chicken breasts because I buy in bulk whenever they are on sale, I’m always looking for different ways to make them. Personally I find them too dry to bake so I try to introduce sauce into the mix and I prefer to cook them stovetop so they don’t overcook.
I visit Allrecipes often because there I find lots of every-day-type meals that have many photos from folks who’ve actually made the recipe and lots of reviews where cooks tell it like it is! And that’s where I found the original recipe for this chicken.
One thing I didn’t care for and changed was the way the chicken is cooked. Originally, it was done on a BBQ grill. There were instructions for oven, but as I said before, I prefer not to cook this cut by either of those methods.
So what I did was bread them with Italian-flavored bread crumbs and saute them in a bit of olive oil. Another thing I always do is hammer chicken breast to a uniform thickness so the cutlet cooks evenly. I also find it tenderized them some and does prevent them from becoming too dry. One more plus to doing this is they cook faster–and that always helps with this less-juicy cut.
I also changed the proportion of garlic and cheese. I wanted the cheese to be at best a condiment and let the garlic shine through. I also found that this needed double the amount of flour because the sauce was on the thin side for my taste.
After I cooked the chicken, I did something I rarely do–wiped out the pan with a paper towel. Reason is, I wanted the sauce to be totally white and not get discolored from the browned bits in the pan. If you don’t mind a slight discoloration, then don’t wipe out the pan. Your sauce, of course, will have more flavor because the browny bits are loaded with flavor.
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The Recipe
Chicken with Creamy Garlic Sauce
Ingredients
- 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
- 1/2 cup half-and-half -OR- light cream
- 1 - 1 1/2 cups Italian flavor bread crumbs
- 2 tbsp olive oil divided
SAUCE
- 2 tbsp butter
- 2 tbsp finely minced garlic
- 2 tbsp flour
- 1/2 cup chicken stock
- 1 cup cream heavy cream preferred
- 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 2 oz softened cream cheese
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp white pepper
Instructions
- Using a meat mallet (smooth side), pound each breast between sheets of plastic wrap or wax paper to 1/4-inch thickness. This will give you a pretty large piece of chicken, so what I do is cut each pounded-down breast in half lengthwise.
- Heat a large skillet over medium heat; add 1 tbs of the olive oil.
- Dip each piece of chicken in the cream, letting excess cream drip off, then dredge in the Italian bread crumbs. You will probably have to cook the chicken in 2 batches.
- Place chicken in hot skillet, browning well on each side, about 5 minutes each side, until chicken tests done (175 degrees F or juices run clear when you cut.
- Add remaining 1 tbs of oil and repeat browning with remaining chicken.
- Place chicken on a platter, cover and keep warm in a 200 degree F oven.
- Wipe out the skillet, if desired.
- Melt the butter over medium heat and add the garlic.
- Cook garlic until it becomes fragrant--about 3-5 minutes--don't let it brown!
- Add the flour and blend it well into the butter/garlic. Let this cook about 1 minute.
- Slowly add the chicken stock stirring constantly until there are no lumps.
- Slowly blend in the cream then add the salt and pepper. Cook for about 5 minutes.
- Add the Parmesan and cream cheese and stir until the cream cheese melts and blends into the sauce.
- Pour sauce over chicken and serve immediately.
- Serves 4 hearty appetites, 8 light appetites
Nutrition
Angela says
This dish sounds delicious. It looks elegant, and definitely worthy to serve to company. Perhaps it’s only my imagination, but it seems to me that they’ve cut WAY DOWN on the ‘Italian seasonings’ in the (Progresso) Italian Seasoned Bread Crumbs. I found the bread crumbs to be very bland lately, so I now always add more seasonings to them (oregano, basil, dry parsley, garlic powder, onion powder, grated Parmesan cheese (from the green jar), and salt & pepper. This is a huge flavor improvement in the breadcrumbs.
Judith Hanneman says
You are SO right!!! I haven’t bought flavored breadcrumbs in a long time–I generally buy plain and flavor myself–but the last time they were on sale, I picked up 1 package just to see. NO FLAVOR!!!! I’ll use ’em up but will not buy again. Better to do it yourself!!!
Mara says
Can I use flour if I don’t have bread crumbs on hand?
Judith Hanneman says
Sure! The crumbs just give it a bit of crunch is all.