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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This recipe is amazing! It taste so wonderful and is
so easy to prepare.
What sides are recommended for this recipe?
I roast asparagus as a side, which works perfectly with the sauce. I also served with rice once and mashed potatoes another time – both were hits!
This looks super delicious. Can’t wait to try this tonight.
This is by far the best chicken recipe ever! And you’re right the sauce is unbelievable. Tasted like a fine restaurant quality dish. The amazing part it was pretty simple to make. Thank you for sharing this recipe. This will be a family favorite for years to come.
I am definitely going to make this dish again! It was quite tasty!
This is an excellent recipe, very much restaurant quality.
My entire family LOVE this recipe. The Parmesan cheese seems to clump even though I add it slowly. Any suggestions?
What I learned when adding cheese to any sauce is that you must let the roux first cool down then add the cheese slowly. And also having the cheese at room temperature when adding really helps as well. The high heat makes the cheese clump
I have this in the oven right now and it smells AMAZING! My husband is super exited to try this. This may have been answered already but I gotta know, please… should I cover or uncover once in the oven?
For those concerned about the sauce, just reduce it more before adding back the chicken.
Ive made this 20 times …..its now a family staple along with
Several recipes of Marcella Hazan.Thx so much.Brava to you
Delicious!! I made double & only a few pieces are left. This one’s a keeper!
What if I don’t have an oven proof pan; can I use a baking pan?
Yup, we use a deep baking pan and heat for the same punt of time. Also, if anything gets too srospy, you can cover it with alfoil.
It was great. I didn’t have spinach so I used asparagus. Has very good flavor
Absolutely fantastic! My roommates loved it.
Made this for my family. SUPER tasty, great flavors! I wish the sauce was a tad thicker, but other than that, DELISH! Husband wants this on rotation 🙂
I added thinly sliced potatoes after the spinach (I used about 4 cups of spinach), seasoned potatoes, increased liquid to come up to potatoes, put chicken on top, covered and baked until potatoes were fork tender. It was very very good! Easy, one pot meal that my family loved. Will definitely make again. As far as sauce, I didn’t mind it being runny, I wasn’t expecting it to be “thick”. I supposed if you wanted a thicker sauce you could make a roux with chicken fat/butter, flour, cream/chick broth. Then add veggies.
I doubled the lemon because I was craving lemon and I used 1 pound of fresh green beans in place of spinach. This was delicious!!!
Everyone who has issues with it thickening pls read!! I am so glad I finally found a recipe for Lemon pepper chicken!!
This is the best one so far. I think the issue people are having when making the sauce- the common complaint is they are not getting “thickened” in the sauce. Your recipe says slightly and I think when people read the word thickened, you’re expecting the consistency you get like in Alfredo sauce. Well I accomplished that ..it’s great when you can get that thickness. It is really good when you can use the extra sauce to pour over a side of pasta or rice. I think that is what people are looking for and they end up with soupy like. So here is what I did. Something really simple, but does take more time. You don’t have to drain the excess fat if you wish to leave it in for the added flavor benefit, you can if you’re not concerned about diet. I made the sauce exactly like the recipe and yes it does seem runny no matter what you do. I only added a tablespoon of flour at the end. I whisked for several min and it still didn’t do anything. I turned the heat up a smidge to let more heat build up. I whisked constantly some more. I went to go do something else in kitchen for three min I turned back to the sauce and it was really thickened almost too thick lol so I added two more lemon juice squeezes to water it down which worked perfectly. So all you do is add one tablespoon of flour dont add two thinking it’s not enough you will end up with some slime sauce. Who wants that? Lol Stick with one table spoon of flour after making the recipe & whisk it constantly for five minutes don’t do it too longer than that & then just let it sit for few minutes not doing anything to it & not looking at it. Don’t tocuh it don’t look at it once whisked the flour in, don’t be tempted to add more. Go do something for three-4 min around the kitchen as it sits on warm heat when you come back -I promise viola it’s thickened 🙂 by the way me and my boyfriend thank you for sharing this recipe we gobbled it all up no left overs <3
Why doesn’t the sauce for this recipe call for a roux?
I’ve seen this recipe in several places on the internet, and everyone says they have the same issue – the sauce won’t thicken (I’ve had this problem when making it, as well). I’ve seen two suggestions, either a reduction by boiling or adding cornstarch. Why not make a roux? Using a roux as a thickening agent is often preferred as it’s the best way to preserve flavor, texture, and consistency. And there’s a perfect opportunity to add the flour – when the garlic is being sauteed in the butter. It’s pretty much textbook.
Has anyone tried it this way?
When the sauce cooks in the oven it boils off even more, with a roux you may end up with a paste.
I love DD recipes!!! This dish was AHHHHHMAZING!!! And again, the husband is saying “OMG! This as great!” I agree!! I search the web for delicious dinner recipes, but ALWAYS return again and again to Damn Delicious!! Thank you for having the best recipes !!!!