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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Your Lemon Butter Chicken looks delicious, going to try it tonight.
Would you mind if I put this recipe on my Gluten Free website, full credit will be given.
Thank you.
Yes, of course! I just ask that the recipe is not republished in any manner.
This looks delicious! I want to make it this weekend but my family only eats chicken breasts ughhh lol any idea how long they would need to go in the oven for? I really don’t want to ruin the recipe. Thx!
Unfortunately, without further recipe testing, I cannot answer with certainty. As always, please use your best judgment regarding substitutions and modifications.
Just put this in the oven but the lemon curdled my cream! I’m hoping that when it bakes it gets fixed.
Ours curdled too 🙁
I decided to add onions, carrots, jalapeños, zest & TONS of fresh herbs to distract from the curds. Its still tasty… just not smooth & creamy 🙁
This recipe was absolutely amazing ! Everyone loved it.
How do you keep the cream from separating especially with lemon juice
I have found that it is best when the ingredients are at room temperature before the cream is added.
Wow! So even though I kind of messed this up – it was still amazing! I only had breasts, so I thawed them, cut them in half and sauteed in butter – but I forgot to put the paprika on! So, after transferring them I threw paprika, salt and pepper on and made the sauce (and I didn’t have thyme! so I threw in some seasoned salt). Simmered and wilted the spinach, poured over breasts and baked 20 min. They were sooooo good. Can’t wait to try with this thighs (always on sale).
So delicious! I just made this recipe and the whole family loved it!
Recipe sounds great and video looks good but in picture sauce looks like it broke? Wonder if this happens a lot with this recipe?
“Broke”? What do you mean?
She means the sauce curdled, which can happen when cooking at a high temperature when adding an acid (the lemon juice, or white wine, for another example) to the heavy cream.
Most people don’t bring their ingredients to room temperature before they use them, and that increases the risk of curdled (“broken”) sauce.
When you’re using heavy cream in a dish and you’re going to cook it at a high temp, you need to bring that cream to room temp OR you can even heat it up in a small saucepan, to prevent its breaking. Same thing happens if you add white wine to heavy cream, if the wine is cold or the cream is cold, the sauce will break OR if your pan temperature is too high.
It’s a pan sauce! Nothing to break! It’s not an emulsion!
I love your site. While on Pinterest, I seem to end up on your site. I must say the lemon chicken, I got lost. Lemon chicken is my fav! But I don’t have any greens, how much lemon? lemon juice, or squeeze a whole lemon?
Anyway, I will certainly keep browsing your recipes. Trying to find a batter using buttermilk, I am using frozen fish fillets. I just love fish and chicken!!!! Thank you, a great site!!!!
I made this tonight and used skinless/boneless thighs and half&half cream. The sauce was watery but the dish was good. DH said dinner “smelled good” when it was in the oven and DS2 gave it 8/10. It tasted like rotisserie chicken to me. I’d make it again.
Hi
Can I cook this without oven ?
Like, can I just cook it in my stove ?
Asking this, as I dont have an oven.
Thanks
Yes, it’s definitely possible!
My food came out burnt. lol. put it at 400 for 20 minutes too and the chicken was over 165 degrees internal also the spinach was dried up and black.
This is actually perfect for a low-carb diet! It looks delicious, and I’ll definitely be trying it! Thanks!
The autoplaying video is so annoying. Could you turn that off? I like to have a *choice* as to whether to watch a video and not have it shoved down my throat, and blasting my ears off. THANkS!
Yes, you have the “choice” to turn them off by simply clicking the “close” button.
If you’re using Firefox as your browser, you can stop the automatic playing of videos on any site with an add-on called FlashStopper. Probably available for other browsers, too. When it’s installed, the videos do not start playing until you click on the video’s “play” button.
OMG! I do not write reviews ever! But this was amazing! Both my kids ate every bite! Will definitely be making this again!
My husband and I just started Keto. This recipe was amazing! My husband LOVED it and my super picky 11 year-old really loved it too.
I did use only 4 large organic chicken thighs but the same amount of sauce it calls for. When I removed the chicken from the cast iron pan I used, I put the garlic in when it was still on medium high & it immediately burned, so if you are using cast iron, be careful, turn the heat down before you add the garlic. I ended up having to use a mesh strainer to get the burned garlic from the sauce and replaced it with a generous dash of garlic powder. Otherwise the only change I made was to use 2 tablespoons of bottled lemon juice (I didn’t have any fresh lemon on hand). I also added another tablespoon of butter and an additional dash of cream near the end of the summer just to thicken it up a bit and make it a little more creamy (but we are on Keto and trying to get fats in!).
Thanks for an awesome recipe! Husband is already talking about making it again for company.
Turning the temperature down will also prevent the sauce from curdling.
Made this last night for dinner and it was beautiful . Flavour spot on. I did not have spinach but served with steamed broccoli. I would go as far to say this is the best chicken recipe I have tried on Pinterest, and so easy. Many thanks
awesome, i want eat it now 😀
Hi, like your dishes. Maintain the Fantastic hard work as well as The photography is great. Given that uncovering your blog on Pinterest, I have added lots of your dishes to my collection. Thanks.
Amazing !!!