Lemon Butter Chicken
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Easy crisp-tender chicken with the creamiest lemon butter sauce ever – you’ll want to forget the chicken and drink the sauce instead!
Happy New Year! I know I should really be sharing some sort of salad or quinoa recipe with the start of the year but you know me and my chicken thigh obsession. I just can’t get enough, especially when a lemon butter cream sauce is involved.
And if you’re in the need of some clean greens for the new year diet, well, this dish has plenty of baby spinach. Good enough, right?
Plus, these chicken thighs carry quite a bit of punch with that fresh, zingy lemon flavor and that smoky goodness from the paprika. And this cream sauce is absolutely heavenly. Just be sure to have a spoon ready because you’ll want to sip on it straight from the pan!
Lemon Butter Chicken
Ingredients
- 8 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
- 1 tablespoon smoked paprika
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 cup chicken broth
- ½ cup heavy cream
- ¼ cup freshly grated Parmesan
- 3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 2 cups baby spinach, chopped
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
- Season chicken thighs with paprika, salt and pepper, to taste.
- Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a Dutch oven over medium heat. Working in batches, 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 Dutch oven. Add garlic, and cook, stirring frequently, until fragrant, about 1-2 minutes. Stir in chicken broth, heavy cream, Parmesan, lemon juice and thyme.
- Bring to a boil; reduce heat, stir in spinach, and simmer until the spinach has wilted and the sauce has slightly thickened, about 3-5 minutes. Return chicken to the Dutch oven.
- Place into oven and roast until completely cooked through, reaching an internal temperature of 165 degrees F, about 25-30 minutes.
- Serve immediately.
Did you make this recipe?
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Amazing! So moist and delicious, every body in my family loved it ! Thanks for sharing the recipes
Every time I want to impress someone with a nice dinner, I make this. It’s so yummy. And I want to drink the sauce. Thanks for the great recipe!
Thank you, Joanna!
…Serve immediately and DO NOT GRAB THE HANDLE OF THE HOT PAN WITHOUT AN OVEN MITT! My poor hand
Delicious chicken once the pain subsided though!
Oh no! Hope you’re ok!
Hello! This looks amazing. Can I use breasts instead?
Sure!
Love this recipe and the sun dried tomato cream sauce chicken recipe… we love these in the winter over mashed potatoes. It is like a match made in heaven..best way to use all the sauce.
LOVE THIS! thank you
Thank you so much, Allison!
What side would you recommend with this dish?
Hi Elizabeth! My absolute favorite side dish is the garlic parmesan roasted potatoes. But please feel free to check out all of my side dish recipes here.
Hi! Do I put both the sauce and the chicken in the oven or just the chicken alone? thanks!
Both the sauce and chicken is placed in the oven.
I made this chicken recipe yesterday and it’s as good as you say.
So glad to hear!
This recipe is awesome. I love to try for my husband and friends. I will be back with reviews.
It looks delicious, I love all the ingredients so I will make this recipe.
Great!
Have made this recipes and it was delicious! I was wondering if you could use frozen spinach instead and how much.
Hi Connie! Unfortunately, without further recipe testing, I cannot answer with certainty. As always, please use your best judgment regarding substitutions and modifications.
This was easy and delicious. The subs I made were: I only had ground thyme, so I adjusted the amount to suit my taste. I also did use the ol’ parm-in-a-green-shaker (instead of freshly-grated) since that is what I had on hand. And I made the full sauce recipe with only 4 thighs, but it was even better this way, as I was able to spoon the extra sauce onto white rice. My 10 y/o son loved both the rice and the chicken – high praise, seriously. Will definitely make it again – thanks for sharing!
So good to hear, Keisha! Thanks for sharing.
Thank you so much for this recipe, it was crazy delicious! I’ve had a few fails recently and I’m sure my husband was skeptical when I told him I was trying a new recipe. But we both can’t stop talking about how much we loved it. I didn’t use the paprika, ’cause I hate paprika, but otherwise, I followed your recipe to a T. If my 4 year old would try anything new and not boring, she would love it too. Only setback, that damn pan, this is the 2nd time I’ve touched the handle after it was outside of the over. Beware, cover the handle when you take it out of the oven, or maybe i’m the only one whose done this.
Anyway, YUM!
Thank you for your feedback Kelly!
I made this a couple of times. It is super yummy. I swear the sauce goes through like 4 stages during cooking. So don’t worry. At first I thought parmesan over powered it. After it baked a bit then I thought it is bland..I’m sad. Then I thought it is too soupy…Just let it do it’s thing and don’t disturb it. I did not give up. Once it was done baking no it is just right! It balances out at the end so don’t under estimate this recipe! If you modify it too much you will dosappoint yourself! I even made it once without the baby spinach and used baby bella mushrooms and it was so good that way too.
Thank you for sharing your experience with this recipe, Katherine. We appreciate it!
I’ve made this twice and each time it was delicious. It will be in my rotation. Thanks so much for another great recipe.
So great to hear Glenda! Thank you for sharing!
Made this tonight and Wow oh, Wow!!! The smoked paprika blended so well with the lemon-garlic-butter-cream sauce.
Super easy to make and packed full of flavor. Thanks for sharing…will definitely be making this one again!
So awesome Mathew! Thank you for sharing with us!
This IS delicious! The recipe calls for 8 chicken thighs, but the video used 4 (with all other ingredient amounts remaining the same. Is is supposed to be 8 or 4.
The recipe is correct as written using 8 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs. The video recipe is a scaled-down version.
Made this today, with the addition of my own garlic herb spice blend on the chicken ..before browning with the addition of the paprika! What a great smoky addition! I also added two tablespoons of cream cheese to thicken the sauce even more. Wish I could share a picture here they were quite beautiful! Thank u for sharing this great keeper recipe! Very KETO yum!
I know this recipe wasn’t intended to be low carb, but I’m on a keto diet and always looking for new chicken thigh recipes to mix things up so i don’t get bored.
This really hit the spot with me and my boyfriend. I will have to check out your other stuff. Thank you!
Hi, I would love to try this recipe however my apartment doesn’t have an oven would I be able to sear and then finish in the crockpot with the sauce? Do you have any suggestions?
Unfortunately, without further recipe testing, I cannot answer with certainty. As always, please use your best judgment regarding substitutions and modifications.
Because my oven wasn’t working, I finished this recipe on the stove top, in the skillet, uncovered and on Simmer. It turned out perfectly. I did begin with a roux for thickening, doubled the sauce ingredients, added the zest from one lemon and served it on Angle Hair Pasta. Ohhh myyy GOODness!!! There wasn’t a single bite or drop left over!