Chicken with Sun-Dried Tomato Cream Sauce
Crisp-tender chicken in the most amazing cream sauce ever. It’s so good, you’ll want to guzzle down the sauce!
I know Thanksgiving is in a few days but I just needed a break from all the turkey-stuffing-sweet potato-brussels sprouts taste testing and try something fun with something completely unrelated to Thanksgiving. Like chicken.
But this is definitely not your ordinary chicken dish. It’s better. Way better. After all, how can you go wrong with a sun dried tomato cream sauce with the most crisp chicken thighs?
The cream sauce is just so good, you’ll actually want to just skip the chicken and eat the sauce with a spoon instead!
Chicken with Sun-Dried Tomato Cream Sauce
Crisp-tender chicken in the most amazing cream sauce ever. It's so good, you'll want to guzzle down the sauce!
Ingredients
- 8 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes, or more, to taste
- 1 cup chicken broth
- ½ cup heavy cream
- ⅓ cup julienned sun dried tomatoes in olive oil, drained
- ¼ cup freshly grated Parmesan
- ¼ teaspoon dried thyme
- ¼ teaspoon dried oregano
- ¼ teaspoon dried basil
- ¼ cup basil leaves, chiffonade
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
- Season chicken thighs with salt and pepper, to taste.
- Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a large oven-proof skillet over medium high heat. Add chicken, skin-side down, and sear both sides until golden brown, about 2-3 minutes per side; set aside.
- Melt remaining tablespoon butter in the skillet. Add garlic and red pepper flakes, and cook, stirring frequently, until fragrant, about 1-2 minutes. Stir in chicken broth, heavy cream, sun dried tomatoes, Parmesan, thyme, oregano and basil.
- Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer until slightly thickened, about 3-5 minutes. Return chicken to the skillet.
- Place into oven and roast until completely cooked through, reaching an internal temperature of 175 degrees F, about 25-30 minutes.
- Serve immediately, garnished with basil, if desired.
Did you make this recipe?
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I have been making this dish for years and everyone loves it, even the picky adult eaters. I especially love the chiffonade fresh basil leaves – that just takes it up a notch. I use only fresh basil and omit the dried. I prefer to use chicken breasts instead of thighs and find that I like to briefly cook the chicken on the grill, just enough to get some grill marks and dry up some of the chicken juices, then transfer to the baking dish and finish cooking in the oven with the sauce; if I don’t grill a little first I feel that the chicken juices dilute the sauce too much. I also feel that the chicken broth dilutes the heavy cream too much so I stopped using chicken broth all together in this recipe and replaced it with heavy whipping cream, so I use a total of 1½ cups of heavy whipping cream, sometimes two cups just to create more creamy sauce. I bake mine covered until the sauce is vigorously bubbling. So damn delicious!
This was such a flavourful and yummy dish! I would double the ingredients of the sauce next time … one can never have too much sauce!
Update on my previous review as this was in oven. Really good! Loved it. I’ll be more careful with garlic next time. Sauce is so tasty thank Suzy
In the oven as I post this review, my garlic when I added it to skillet burnt I didn’t think to turn the heat down so I carefully scooped out as much as I could so it doesn’t taste bitter. I then grated more. I’m hoping I haven’t spoilt the taste. For novice cooks I’m just letting you know to be careful of this , I needed a warning when reading the preparation . The receipe looks very nice I hope mine is too Suzy
So, so SO good, every time! My husband and I love this recipe and make it on repeat. My teen didn’t love it at first, but recently suggested/requested it and devoured seconds tonight.
We add spinach (fresh or frozen) when we pull it out of the oven for an extra color and nutrient boost.
I have been making this for years. Finally decided to leave a 5 star review. Wonderful recipe! Thank you
Can I make the sauce separately and grill the chicken and pour on top later
This is my go-to recipe when I want to impress people I am cooking for. It’s such a great recipe. I love to serve it over pasta or for a low carb option over baby spinach.
One of my favorite recipes. I use both the white and dark meat chicken. I have also used this sauce when cooking vegetarian.
I followed the directions to a tee and it came out very very oily. I thought upon eating it that I must have missed a step to drain the chicken grease from the pan after searing it, but it wasn’t there and I did follow the instructions. As it was, I would not make this dish again…but all of the rave reviews, I must give it another try. Next time I’ll drain the pan after I’m done searing the chicken. The chicken was very moist and the sauce did taste great before it cooked in the oven, but it was just an oily mess at the end that I didn’t find very appealing.
Made this for Xmas eve this year. It was fantastic. I used boneless skinless chicken thighs that were trimmed and cut in half. Bake time and temp were lowered and it came out so wonderful and juicy. The sauce is truly divine and I only added basil after taking out of the oven.
We love this recipe. I just love sun dried tomatoes. My husband is not a fan of chicken thighs or skin, so we do use boneless skinless breasts and cut them down a bit. It is still so delicious!! We serve this over rice mostly, sometimes egg noodles.
Is this similar to the Marry Me chicken?
Comparing the recipes they seem very much so but this one from Damndelicious was invented two years before the so called marry me chicken so this recipe is the original! I printed this recipe out already in 2014 and this dish has been my family’s favourite ever since.
One of our favorites
Adventurous vegan here! I replaced the chicken with two blocks of sliced, pressed tofu, the heavy cream with coconut cream, the chicken stock with vegetable stock, and the butter with vegan butter. It turned out delicious! It was extra tasty with toasted baguette slices and peas on the side.
I’ve been using your recipe for years now.. I cook for two different families and I get always request “the chicken with sun dried tomatoes”.
Delicious Every. Single. Time
This has become one of our most favourite chicken dishes. I first made it and made homemade pasta for it and then with mashed potatoes, rice….
It is so flavourful!
I’ve been making this a couple years now- exactly as written except I use breasts instead of thighs and double the sauce. It is SO delicious, my family raves about it every time. Serve with pasta or rice, either is so good. This is a home run!
I commented on this recipe back in September of 2020 but I have to comment again. This dish is still one of my favorite chicken recipies of all time and I make it regularly. I have made it with bone-in thighs, bone-in breasts and boneless breasts. All work great, but my family favors boneless chicken breasts and we probably will only make it that way from now on. As a side note, the boneless breasts (which I slice in half so they are not thick) only require about 10 minutes in the oven. I double the sauce so I have plenty extra. I would recommend using whatever type of chicken is your favorite!
I have made this half a dozen times and it’s been a HIT each time. Tonight my husband said “WOW!!! That’s REALLY good” with his first bite lol.
Some alterations we make sometimes: using the oil from the sun dried tomatoes instead of the butter; blending most of the tomatoes (drained) with the cream/broth (if my son will be eating it), adding fresh or frozen spinach after pulling it out of the oven so it wilts into the cream. We serve over rice or even spinach for an extra veggie boost.
Oh, we also make it with chicken tenderloins or breasts if that’s what we’ve got handy. Very adaptable recipe!