Creamy Tuscan Chicken Recipe

Even the most experienced of cooks have their go-to recipes, and this Tuscan chicken is a dish that recipe developer Feta Topalu says she's been making for years. "When I first started cooking," she tells us, "this dish and a few other favorite ones were on constant rotation in our house." The reason for this, she explains, is that "when we liked something, it just stuck." While she's expanded her repertoire quite a bit since those days, she assures us that "this one still makes its appearance at least once a month."

The great thing about this Tuscan chicken recipe, she says, is that everything is cooked in one pan, which makes for a quick clean up. Not only is the dish easy to make, though, but it also tastes amazing; Topalu describes it as having "an unbelievable amount of flavor from the garlic, sun-dried tomatoes, and Parmesan cheese," ingredients she feels are "a match made in heaven."

To make this dish, you'll be starting with boneless, skinless chicken breasts. You'll also need a selection of herbs and spices including dried basil, oregano, thyme, and marjoram as well as garlic powder, salt, pepper, fresh rosemary, and a few cloves of garlic. The sauce starts off with a base of heavy cream and is flavored with shallots, sun-dried tomatoes (the oil-packed kind), and Parmesan cheese. You'll also need some butter and oil for cooking and, as a finishing touch, some baby spinach to stir into the sauce.

While Topalu says you can use chopped fresh spinach in place of baby spinach, she but does not recommend using frozen spinach, warning that "the finished dish would not have the same appearance and it could alter the texture." Another ingredient swap you can make is to use ½ teaspoon dried rosemary in place of the fresh stuff. While Topalu tells us that typically, the fresh-to-dried herb ratio when swapping is 3-to-1, she goes on to say that "when measuring out the dried rosemary, there is air in between the needles, so for this reason I feel like you can't go wrong with using ½ teaspoon."

Start by pounding the chicken breasts so they are all the same thickness as this will ensure that they cook at the same speed. Once you finish bashing and smashing the chicken, season it with the dried herbs plus the salt and pepper.

Heat the olive oil with the stove burner set to medium, then pan-fry the chicken for about 6 to 8 minutes on each side (12 to 16 minutes in all) until it's cooked all the way through. Take the chicken out of the pan to rest while you prepare the sauce.

Melt the butter in the same pan you used to cook the chicken — there's no need to wipe it out first. Sauté the shallot and rosemary in the melted butter until the shallot starts to soften and appears translucent. Add the garlic and tomatoes to the mixture and cook them for 1 minute, then stir in the cream and Parmesan. Bring the sauce to a simmer, then add the spinach and cook it for about 2 minutes until it wilts. Taste the sauce and add some more salt and/or pepper if you feel they're needed.

At this point, the sauce is pretty much done, so put the chicken back in the pan and spoon the liquid over it. Turn the heat down to low and cook the chicken in the sauce for 4 to 5 minutes in order to warm it up. If you like, you can then sprinkle some extra Parmesan over the chicken before you dig in.

Topalu suggests pairing this Tuscan chicken with asparagus, mashed potatoes, spaghetti squash, or Caesar salad and says that it would also go well with dinner rolls or focaccia bread. If there are leftovers, she assures us they should be good in the refrigerator for 3 days, but advises they're "best reheated on the stovetop." The Tuscan chicken can also be frozen once it has cooled down, although for best flavor and texture, it's best to thaw it overnight in the refrigerator rather than moving it straight from the freezer to the oven or microwave.