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.
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This looks great! I love the basil, it adds such a rustic touch. Same with the sun-dried tomatoes. Love it!
I don’t eat dark meat. How would you recommend making this dish with white? Looks really yummy!
You can substitute chicken breast to adhere to your taste preferences.
HI do you think bone in skin on chicken breast would be an ok substitute?
Yes, absolutely, but you may have to adjust cooking time as needed to ensure that the chicken is completely cooked through.
sounds relish. Would like to use skinless boneless thighs. Would that work? Do I need to adjust cooking time?
Yes, cooking time may need to be adjusted as needed.
Made this last night with boneless skinless thighs and substituted sour cream because I didn’t have heavy cream on hand. The family LOVED it and asked for it again tonight with pasta. The sauce is amazing. A new family favorite. Only needs about 10 minutes in the oven if boneless and skinless.
Made this tonight,but with jarred roasted red peppers and no basil cause I didn’t have any.It was delicious! I did want to drink the sauce.Thickened it with some corn starch and it was perfect.
When the recipe asked for heavy cream are they talking about the heavy whipping cream with the milk aisle?
Heavy cream and heavy whipping cream are not the same, but they should definitely be next to each other in the milk aisle. You can read more about their differences here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/02/whipping-cream-vs-heavy-c_n_6247804.html.
I think it depends where you live. I’m in western Canada and our whipping cream is 35%. We do not have (or at least I haven’t seen) anything labeled heavy cream with 36% milk fat in our grocery stores. When recipes call for heavy cream, I use whipping cream. 🙂
Another lovely recipe to try. Thank you.
Wow, this looks amazing, that sauce!! I would drink it!
This looks like it is begging to be served over pasta. I think it will be supper one night this week.
I substituted chicken breast chunks, doubled the sauce, tossed with penne pasta after I removed it from the oven, and topped with shaved Parmesan. It was superb and will now be one of our monthly dishes.
Found your website about 2 months ago and signed up for emails. I LOVE your recipes. Your pictures are beautiful! Thanks so much! I always can’t wait to try the new ones as soon as I get them 🙂
I don’t even eat chicken and I know you make a ton of chicken dishes and there are so many chicken recipes out there, but this one is special! Wow, just gorgeous lighting! I love it. So beautiful! And I also love sundried tomatoes 🙂
This recipe is damn delicious but every time I make it, the sauce does not appear to “come out”. It doesn’t look like the picture and I would say appears separated after coming out of the oven. :Looks fine prior to going into the oven. I am absolutely using the right cream. What am I doing wrong?
Shannon, I don’t think you did anything wrong as a little bit of separation is completely fine – I’m not sure if you can tell from the photos here but my sauce had separated too!
Hi, my sauce didnt separate since I skipped the oven part! I left the chicken finish on the stove top and it was so delicios. I dont have a oven proof pan so I had no choice. I cooked it on the stove top for about thesame time suggested fir the oven
I made this last night and experienced the same separation. I put the sauce in a pan and added more of the heavy whipping cream about 1/3 cup and stirred it, let it simmer and it was delicious. Eight people at the table and they wanted more sauce. This is a great dish. Im glad I found this on Facebook!
The separation could be caused by the acidity of the tomatoes. Try stirring in a pinch of baking soda to the tomatoes before adding them to the cream mixture. The fizzing that occurs is a chemical reaction that is neutralizing some of the acidity in the tomatoes. I know this works to keep creamy tomatoe soup from curdling.
ThI just made it too with the same results.
The recipe is incorrect. The chicken ought to go into oven after browning, then take out of skillet after cooking in oven and make the sauce. Place chicken back into sauce, add fresh basil and serve. Won’t make that mistake again. But ruined the sauce on this one.
Joel – thank you for trying my recipe. The recipe is actually correct as written (I have made this myself at least 7 times now) but as always, it is best to do what you are most comfortable with. Isn’t that the beauty of home cooking?
The fat from cooking the chicken causes it to separate. Happened to me too! Tried it again with making the sauce completely separate from the chicken and it turned out perfect. I just oven roasted the thighs rubbed with a little olive oil, salt and pepper like I traditionally do. It turned out sensational!!! As an added POW to the sauce I added a couple of fresh mushrooms… oh goodness it really added even more to it 😀
Hi Sue,
I am wondering…you browned the chicken and put in the the oven like so and then cooked the sauce in the oven as well or on the stove?…if so for how long did you cook the sauce?…how does the chicken pick up the flavors of the sauce without roasting in the oven?…I want to cook this and have it come out delicious like yours did. thank you.
This has become a family favorite in our home. One of my nephews just called to ask for the recipe. I’ve added one more step when I make it and that is to add a little cornstarch or flour with water after it’s finished cooking to thicken the sauce just a little bit more. And yes, it is Damn Delicious!
One of my favorite recipes. I add artichokes and serve it over noodles. It’s even good with boneless skinless chicken breast. We are never disappointed! Thank you!
I made this recipe tonight for the first time and I used standard cream. The only separation I had was some fat rising to the top which I scooped off to make the dish lower calorie and it tasted amazing! Thanks Chungah.
Try this: Don’t add the cream and cheese to the broth when bringing the broth to a boil. After the boil reduce the heat and add the cream and cheese and only simmer. Milk produces look crudely if boiled.
Hi, I’m just wondering if I cooked it today can I refrigerate and eat it tomorrow?
Yes, absolutely. We ate the leftovers for the next few days.
Delicious! I seasoned the chicken “my way” (with adobo, oregano) only difference I did was make the chicken separately and drained the fat with some paper towel. Added some salt and pepper to the sauce too.
Isn’t it beautiful! I added mushrooms to my dish but it is increditble without them! Also served on a bed of al dente angel hair pasta