Herb Chicken with Lemon Cream Sauce
This cream sauce is seriously out of this world. So tangy, buttery, creamy and just melt-in-your-mouth AMAZING!
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! We spent most of our day watching Butters running around in a sequin Santa suit.
Yes, that’s really a sequin suit. It’s truly amazing. And something I want to leave on 365 days out of the year.
But more importantly, I need this lemon cream sauce in my life more than anything.
Coupled with the browned up bits from searing the chicken with added butter, garlic, and heavy cream, this cream sauce is E-P-I-C.
I may even want to try this again in pasta form because like I said – this sauce is everything.
This and the santa suit.
Now my life is complete.
Herb Chicken with Lemon Cream Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- Zest of 1 lemon
- ½ teaspoon dried thyme
- ½ teaspoon dried rosemary
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 8 bone-in skin-on chicken thighs
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
For the lemon cream sauce
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes, or more, to taste
- ½ cup chicken broth
- ½ cup heavy cream
- Juice of 1 lemon
- ½ teaspoon dried basil
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
- In a small bowl, combine olive oil, mustard, lemon zest, thyme and rosemary; season with salt and pepper, to taste. Using your fingers or a brush, work the mixture onto both sides of the chicken.
- Melt 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; drain excess fat, reserving 1 tablespoon, and set aside.
- Add garlic and red pepper flakes to the skillet, and cook, stirring frequently, until fragrant, about 1-2 minutes. Stir in chicken broth, heavy cream, lemon juice and basil; season with salt and pepper, to taste
- 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 165 degrees F, about 25-30 minutes.
- Serve immediately.
Did you make this recipe?
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Made this – very tasty. While I enjoyed this recipe I was a bit surprised by how much longer the cooking time was than the time listed. The sauce took about 15 minutes to start to thicken and the chicken took over 1 hour in the oven. This the second recipe I have made from this site and both times the cooking times list have been drastically under-estimated. Look forward to making this recipe again on a weekend with more time.
I had to come back today to let you know how good this was!! I made it last night for dinner while my husband went out with the guys. He ate dinner while out and STILL POLISHED OFF A WHOLE PLATE of this deliciousness. I served it over linguine that was boiled in chicken broth, and zucchini. I’m so glad the zucchini was only salted and peppered, because the sauce on it was outstanding. Pinning to my “Tried and Loved” board on Pinterest 🙂
This is lovely one of my favorite dressings. Thanks for sharing this recipe.
Simon
Made this tonight with a pasta dish on the side (pasta, walnuts, peas, garlic, and goat cheese). This chicken is phenomenal, and the pasta dish was complimented perfectly by a tiny bit of the lemon cream sauce that ran around the plate. Absolutely phenomenal chicken! The only downside was smelling the sauce and chicken while it finished cooking. I was SO hungry! 😉
I would say this turns out best if you switch steps 5 and 6. So after sauteing the chicken, go ahead and roast it by itself while making your pan sauce. Then pour the sauce on at the end or put the chicken back in the skillet sauce for 5 minutes after roasting. That way the sauce won’t separate or evaporate into too little sauce during roasting. That’s what worked for me and i got it to look more like the picture. Also I doubled the mustard/olive oil rub because the amount didn’t seem to be enough for 8 thighs. Delicious recipe though with a couple of modifications!
Now one of my favorite recipes!
I made this tonight with reduced fat cream, that I needed to use up.. I threw in some sliced carrot with the chicken and sauce and they absorbed some of the flavours. Served it with mashed potato, steamed cauliflower, broccoli and corn. It was absolutely delicious! Thanks for a great recipe.
Sounds amazing!
The chicken breast look perfectly cooked, the sauce is creamy, and the ingredients although simple but combined brought out a great flavor thanks you for sharing.
Decent, easy, but lacking in the flavor department. Also, extremely unhealthy but… you can just use less sauce and then it’s not quite as bad! It just tasted like bitter lemon… no depth of flavor. I made it exactly as written. I will not make this recipe again.
I’m sorry that this recipe did not turn out the way you had imagined. I only post recipes that have been successfully tested in my own kitchen, and as you can see from the comments here, many of these readers have had great outcomes in the final dish as well. However, I understand that we all have different taste preferences, and I really appreciate your honest feedback.
Wow, I don’t know how this sauce could lack in the flavor department. I tend to overspice just about everything, and yet this sauce turned out perfectly and overflowing with flavor (and without me meddling with it as I normally do with recipes)! Did you add the garlic?
The chicken breast look perfectly cooked, the sauce is creamy, and the ingredients although simple but combined brought out a great flavor . I love this recipe. Thanks for sharing!
Hi,
Do you think this will freeze well?
Thanks
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.
Chungah, I love your recipes! I am making this tonight for the first time-can’t wait to try it. I was wondering if you could tell me which specific skillet or brand you use for this recipe-I have looked everywhere for an oven-proof skillet big enough to hold 8 chicken thighs and deep enough for some sauce. I have to either cut recipes in half or do multiple rounds since my current oven-proof pans are too small. Any recommendations you have for a big, oven proff skillet would be appreciated!
I use All-Clad – one of my favorite brands!
I have a big family to feed so I usually sear off chicken in batches and move them to a pyrex baking dish and then make the sauce and just pour it over (or under to keep the skin crispier).
I am so disappointed…made this last night and the sauce WOULD NOT THICKEN! I don’t understand! These recipes on this site are AMAZING! I wish I knew what I did wrong cuz as far as taste goes, even my extremely picky eaters loved it, it was just watery. Any suggestions?
Angela, did you follow the recipe exactly as written without any substitutions? Also, reducing a sauce takes some time and patience but I promise – it works! 🙂
I made this, tonight, using triple the measurements of the herbs, because I used all fresh from my garden. I have to say that I was very impressed! This dish is out of this world! OMG, that sauce!!! Mine didn’t come out as thick as in the picture, but it was still amazing! I will make this, again. Next time, I will reduce the cream, first, using a bit more, then, slowly incorporate the chicken broth and lemon juice in. I think I’ll have better success with the sauce being a thicker consistency. This one is a 5 star recipe! 🙂
This was more amazing the second day (leftover heaven). I did this completely on the stovetop with chicken breasts (cooked separately with the herbs and olive oil, then placed in the sauce pan with the reduced sauce already cooked.) I thought it was a little too lemony (I had used a fairly large lemon) so I think half a large lemon would be perfect. I also added some corn starch which made it thick and awesome.
Damn! That was delicious! My second time making it and it was fabulous. Only thing I recommend is doubling the sauce. My husband and I like a lot of sauce on our chicken and brown rice 🙂
I am obsessed with your recipes. Your site is all I use for cooking, so thank you for months worth of amazing meals! I am going to make this one tonight but I do not have a skillet that is oven proof. Can you advise on what the next best way would be to make this? Should I just transfer it all to an oven safe dish/pan? Thank you in advance + sorry if that’s a bad question!
Nope – not a bad question at all! Yes, you can transfer to an oven-safe dish.
I made this last week and it came out delicious!! the flavor of the sauce is even better than my favourite beurre blanc, i used fresh thyme as it gives more flavour, i will definitely make it again.
Wow wow. I made this for dinner and it was delicious. The sauce was very tangy and good. I did add a little dill and shallots to the sauce and used chicken breasts because that’s what I had on hand. My sauce didn’t thicken very well but that didn’t hurt the taste. I’ll be putting this into the rotation. Thank you!
Never mind, I wasn’t seeing the entire recipe.