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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Made this for dinner tonight and it was delicious, however I had to put in some extra effort bc I didn’t have any heavy cream on hand and I was only cooking for 2 so I cut it down to 4 thighs. Lesson learned: do not use the milk and butter sub for heavy cream when cooking. My dish came out super greasy/oily. I had to add a few Tbsp of flour and some additional milk/water until I got the proper “saucy” consistency. Next time, I’ll be more prepared and have the heavy cream on hand.
I made this last night and the flavor of the crispy chicken was fantastic, but I had an issue with the cream sauce in that it completely broke up into a mix of oll/grease and a pasty “cream suspension”. Again, the chicken itself was still terrific, but any ideas about where I may have gone wrong with the sauce? I’m sure the error was all mine as no one else has posted having the same problem…
Thanks again for a great recipe!
There could be many factors at play here but I worry that your heat source may have been set too high when the cream was added.
In the oven right now. Smells great. I only used 4 thighs, because there are only 2 of us, but made all the sauce in order to have leftovers for a pasta side. My question to you is, what size pan do you have in order to accommodate 8 thighs? I would need a much bigger pan if I made all 8. I would like to get a large pan for when I have guests and make the whole recipe. Also, what brand do you recommend for the stovetop to oven?
Thank you!
Trudi, I highly recommend this All-Clad 4403 Stainless Steel Tri-Ply Bonded Dishwasher Safe 3-Quart Saute Pan with Lid / Cookware, Silver.
My daughter and I made this last night, using a cast iron skillet. It was to die for. The only thing in the instruction was that I would have preferred it mention to pour off the excess grease from the chicken. We did, but for someone who doesn’t know their around the kitchen would not. Other than that. It was very good. Enjoy!!!!
Making this for dinner tonight – but quick question! Do you cover during oven cooking portion of recipe? Thanks!
Nope, no lid needed here.
If you add mushrooms and spinach and put it over pasta it is amazing. I’ve made it several times and I love it.
We had this recipe last weekend at our annual Girls’ Weekend near Napa, and it was fantastic! Our Friend, Iris, served it over delicious Polenta, and you seriously wanted to bathe in the sauce!
Made this tonight & it is truly amazing!! However I don’t like using heavy cream/ most dairy products…. So I used almond milk and thickened it with cornstarch. Also I made homemade sundried tomatoes & all together this is truly a fantastic meal!!!!
I made this recipe the other day I put extra heavy cream. OMG HEAVEN
I just finished making this dish and it turned out delicious, but I made the same error as a previous comment of curdling my cream. My pan was way too hot and burnt my garlic right away. The sauce still tastes good, but is way too oily and not thick at all (a result of my curdled cream) – it might be a good suggestion for others to drain the chicken grease off before adding the other ingredients. I also think I’ll either let the skillet cool or use another pre-heated one next time. These were my mistakes, though – thanks for the recipe!
I made this last night using skinless breasts. After baking I removed the chicken to a plate and added a little Wondra to thicken the sauce a little bit. I served the chicken with a side of seared brussel sprouts and drizzled the sauce over the chicken. You were right about this recipe. It tastes decadent and yet eating just one thigh I didn’t feel guilty. I can’t wait to explore more of your recipes. Great job!
Suppose we wanted to make this dish with chicken breasts opposed to thighs….does this change how you prepare the dish? Any suggestions?
Luis, you may have to adjust cooking time as needed to ensure that the chicken is completely cooked through.
Tried this recipe tonite and all i have to say is “DELICIOUS!”. I will be making this again in the near future. Fyi…..i used an iron skillet to cook it and it came out amazing! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks so much for sharing this recipe! It was amazing! The sauce is so addictive.
If I substitute It for skinless chicken breast how many should I use do u think for your recipe? I was thinking 4, also should I still sear both sides? Going to make this tonight
4 chicken breasts should be fine, but it also depends on the size of the chicken breasts as well. I’d say 2 pounds is a little bit more accurate. As for the sear, that’s really up to you!
Made this about a month ago. The flavor was delicious! It did yield more grease after searing the chicken, so next time I will pour more of that out to ensure sauce is creamier, but I enjoyed making the dish and looking at your wonderful photos! What kind of camera do you use? Thanks!
Thank you for the kind words! I am currently shooting with a Canon EOS 6D 20.2 MP and a 100mm f/2.8L IS. I only use natural lighting, and I utilize Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5 to edit.
Thanks!
I loved the taste of this but my sauce definitely curdled and was a bit too greasy. I think it was because I used a Le Creuset pan to put a good brown sear on the thighs and those pans get really hot. When the searing was over, there was no way I could put the garlic in because it would have burned, so I deglazed with the chicken stock first, omitting the extra butter due to ample chicken fat. Then, adding the cold heavy cream and putting the hot pan into a preheated oven at 400 degrees was probably too much. Might try a different pan next time with a lower oven temp. I did serve this with your zucchini parmesan sticks which I will be making over and over! Thanks for the recipes
What a bummer! It’s really best to keep the heat at a medium consistency and to drain the sun-dried tomatoes completely to cut back on the grease. I hope you get to try it again with better results!
instead of using heavy cream, could you use evaporated milk?
You can certainly try substituting evaporated milk but without further recipe testing, I cannot speak for how much this will change the overall taste/texture of the dish. Using a substitution may also result in a mediocre outcome.
Searched high and low for heavy cream. Could not find it anywhere in the store. Is there a special place in the grocery store for it? Thanks!
Not really – it’s usually right in the dairy section.
Girl you rock the recipes. Another great one.