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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OMG!!!! This was soooo good!!!!we love all the ingredients. I used half and half but I suppose you could use whole milk or and substitute. Just wanted to drink the sauce this is really amazing!!!!sent it to my daughter so she could try it too!!!!
I made this today, but after receiving an awesome electric pressure cooker from my Dad, decided to use it for the final cooking phase. I followed everything exactly except I browned my chicken in a separate skillet to accommodate all of the pieces I had (that would not fit in the pressure cooker). Where I don’t think any time was saved using this cooking method, I’d sure bet that there was some extra flavor infusion. Can’t say for sure since I haven’t followed the recipe using the oven, but needless to say, this recipe ROCKS!!
I first want to say I am a tough critic and I loved this recipe. The only thing I did a little different was I deglazed the pan after I browned the meat with the lemon juice. I also used half and half instead of cream to save a few calories.
I will promote this on: G+, FB, Pinterest and twitter.
Since I discovered this site less than a month ago, I have cooked several of your recipes. The Lemon Butter Chicken was my first and my favorite of the bunch. I don’t typically like chicken thighs but the chicken was so moist and tasted so good. When I make it again, the only thing I will change is when to add the spinach to the pan. I am going to add it at the end and not put it in the oven so the color will be bright green, instead of the dark green I got. It still tasted delicious though.
Thanks for sharing your recipes!! I have to figure out which one I am going to make tonight.
I don’t know if I had the juiciest lemon that’s ever existed or what, but mine was WAY too lemony. The sauce looked so good, but I literally gagged when I tasted it. I had to triple the stock and double the cream to make it edible. It looks like one other person had this issue as well. I’m hoping this ends up being edible.
Christie, perhaps your lemon was too large? It may be best to start with half a lemon, taste, and add more as needed.
I made this last night, WOW! It was so delicious!!! I love spinach so I used a whole large container. I served it with organic brown rice and my husband absolutely loved it! I think he had thirds of the rice ans sause alone! The sauce was perfect, although it could have been a little thicker so it stuck to the rice more, needed a spoon to really enjoy every drop. I love lemon and used the juice of one very large lemon. Love is meal!!! Will make the sause with halibut next time. Thanks for the recipe:-)
My wife wanted me to make this for her, so surprised her one night and told her i had to work late. I went to the store and bought the ingredients came he while she was upstairs, and prepared the recipe. While I was preparing the chicken, I sent her a text message letting her know i was almost home.
After, I put the chicken into the oven I went up stairs and acted like I just came home from work. Needless to say, she was a tad surprised when I told her I was going back down to get dinner out of the oven. She absolutely Loved it, and I also loved it. Two weeks later, I made it again, she would not leave me alone until I made it again. Thanks for the great recipe.
Can’t wait to try this dish tomorrow, I was wondering since i bought boneless skinless chicken, do i season the chicken and sear it on both sides as like your recipe. Thank You!
It’s really up to you but I recommend still doing the sear with boneless skinless chicken – it brings in so much flavor!
I made this dish last night along side jasmine rice and a simple salad…AMAZING!! I did have the same question as Tiffany on 3/5 and will make that small change next time draining off a bit of the oil before making my sauce. Thank you for helping me make the first time I cooked for my guy a success!! He loved it!!
Looks scrumpious! I was wondering instead of putting this dish in the oven, can i cook it in my crockpot casserole.
Unfortunately, it is very difficult to give exact conversion information to translate a traditional stovetop recipe to be used in a slow cooker without further recipe testing. However, here is an article worth checking out on a possible conversion guide: http://www.thekitchn.com/5-tips-for-converting-recipes-to-the-slow-cooker-189343.
I made this tonight and it was delicious! I did have a few questions though. Do I make the sauce in the same skillet that the chicken was cooked in, with all it’s juices? My sauce did turn out a little thinner and with a layer of grease on top, maybe next time I’ll try skinless chicken. I will definitely be making this dish again and again. Thank you for sharing!
Yes, it is best to use the same skillet to use up all the brown bits from the bottom of the pan. That’s where all the flavor is! But if there is too much oil, you can certainly drain some of it before proceeding with the lemon butter sauce.
Looks great! However the print button isn’t working…..Any suggestions?? Very excited to try this and others! But would love to be able to print….
Internet Explorer has recently made some updates that are causing print problems. I recommend using a different browser, such as Firefox, Google Chrome, or Safari. But if you can only use Internet Explore, you can highlight the recipe, left-click, and print from there. Easy peasy!
I copy and paste recipes into a Word document and save them to my hard drive. They are easy to acces at any time and eliminates the paper (my computer is in my kitchen). I group them for ease of finding by starting all chicken recipes with the word Chicken, then add the actual recipe title for the individual recipe, for example. I start pasta recipes with Pasta, soup recipes with Soup, apple recipes with Apple and so on. If a recipe could fall under two categories, such as beef & roasted vegetables, I will change the first word and save it in both categories. This recipe I would group under both chiken recipes and also save it with sauce recipes.
I need to add that I always include the web address below the reecipe title in case I want to view it again to see any new comments.
This recipe sounds amazing, i have seen quite a few interesting recipes, but we do not eat cheese of any kind, would this recipe work as well without?
Unfortunately, without further recipe testing, I cannot speak for how much this will change the overall taste/texture of the dish. Please use your best judgment.
Made this tonight and the chicken and sauce were great. Easy to make as well. I didn’t have any thyme so I substituted rosemary instead. Wonderful. But I served it with small boiled potatoes and they just didn’t work. The texture was wrong. Next time I think I’ll try rice.
Hi, i’ve cooked this amazing dish twice already and absolutely love it! Thanks so much for sharing the recipe. I have some guests over friday Night and would like to prepare the chicken a few hours early. Would you recommend baking it in advance or just preparing all steps up to the oven and then bake it right before they arrive? Thanks for your help!
I’m so glad you tried this dish! As for the preparation, I recommend baking right before your guests arrive since this is really best when served immediately.
I love this dish and can’t wait to try it. I’m a diabetic so I was thrilled to see how low in carbs this dish is! I’m going to make it and cook some more spinach on the side. Thank you for this recipe!
Could this be made as a freezer meal (freezing before cooking)? I wonder how the cream would do when thawed.
Unfortunately, I cannot answer this with certainty as I have never tried freezing this myself – there were no leftovers left to freeze! Please use your best judgment for freezing and reheating.
What can I use instead of heavy cream please. We don’t have it in this country (NZ).
Yu can try substituting milk or even heavy cream 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.
I tried to read all the comments to find an answer but didn’t see it.
I do not have an oven-proof skillet. I usually just use my LeCruset casserole dish. Will that work?
Yes, Susie. If you do not have an over-proof skillet, you can transfer the chicken to an oven-safe baking dish.
Love the chicken thanks
for sharing recipe