Chicken and Potatoes with Garlic Parmesan Cream Sauce
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A complete meal in one! Baked crisp-tender chicken with potatoes and spinach, so good!
Featured Comment
I have been using this recipe for years! At least 5! I have tried this with all sorts of chicken (boneless skinless thighs are our favorite, but mostly for ease of cutting with 4 younger kids), but what I came here to say is TRY THIS WITH SWEET POTATOES! We like it with regular, but we substituted one time because it’s all we had and we never went back! Sooo yummy. We dice ours into smaller cubes and layer at the bottom of the dish, making sure chicken and sauce cover/coat the potatoes, and we don’t have a problem with undercooked. It’s delish!
why i love this recipe
- Complete meal-in-one. This hearty chicken dinner has it all! And the potatoes and spinach (or any other leafy greens) are baked right in, soaking up all the flavors of liquid gold (aka pan juices).
- Includes the most heavenly, dreamy garlicky Parmesan cream sauce. This is a cream sauce of dreams – rich, silky and just so so good, coating the chicken and potatoes oh-so-perfectly.
- Impressive and budget-friendly. Using bone-in chicken thighs is inexpensive and so impressive for weekend company or visiting family (added bonus: dark meat is much more flavorful and juicier than white meat).
- Plenty of leftover sauce. The gift of leftover sauce can only mean one thing – you can toss with pasta, toss with rice, toss with all of the things. Or sop with all the crusty bread (my personal favorite).
how to make this impressive yet easy peasy chicken and potato dinner
- Make the garlic parmesan cream sauce until the desired consistency is reached (note: heavy cream will yield a richer sauce)
- Season the chicken and sear until the skin is golden brown and crispy
- Cook the spinach until wilted in the pan juices
- Add everything to a baking dish, roasting until both the chicken and potatoes are cooked through and tender
- Serve, spooning over some of that leftover sauce on anything and everything
tips and tricks for success
- Bone-in is ideal. While boneless, skinless chicken thighs can be used with a shorter cooking time, bone-in will be juicier and have extra flavor.
- Brown the chicken first. This will add all the extra, deeper flavors here, sealing all the juices inside, and keeping the chicken nice and crisp while baking.
- Add in leafy greens. This is a great recipe to sneak in leafy greens for those picky eaters. Spinach, kale, collard greens, swiss chard, or arugula are all great options.
- Make it richer (or lighter). Heavy cream will have a higher fat content than half and half or milk, yielding a thicker consistency. Swap out the half and half for heavy cream for a richer sauce, or whole milk for a lighter sauce.
- Freshly grated Parmesan goes a long way. Pre-packaged shredded cheese contains anti-caking agents that can hinder their ability to melt smoothly. Freshly grated cheese is always best, melting more smoothly and evenly, and creating a far superior cream sauce.
- Serve with crusty bread. Serve with all the homemade crusty bread for dipping, sopping and dunking!
pro tip
Use baby potatoes.
Baby potatoes are ideal here to ensure that they cook through at the same rate as the chicken, yielding evenly cooked, crisp-tender potatoes. Baby potatoes also require minimal prep time and do not require peeling. If using larger potatoes, cut into smaller, uniform pieces to ensure even cooking until soft and tender.
what to serve with Chicken and Potatoes with Garlic Parmesan Cream Sauce
Chicken and Potatoes with Garlic Parmesan Cream Sauce: Frequently Asked Questions
Can I use fresh herbs instead?
Absolutely! But because dried herbs are often more potent/concentrated than fresh herbs, you need less when using dry. The correct ratio is 1 tablespoon fresh herbs to 1 teaspoon dried herbs.
What is half and half?
Half and half is equal parts of whole milk and cream. For 1 cup half and half, you can substitute 3/4 cup whole milk + 1/4 cup heavy cream or 2/3 cup skim or low-fat milk + 1/3 cup heavy cream.
What can I substitute for the spinach?
Kale, cabbage, swiss chard and collard greens are all great subs.
How can I store leftovers?
Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for 3-4 days.
Chicken and Potatoes with Garlic Parmesan Cream Sauce
A complete meal in one! Baked crisp-tender chicken with potatoes and spinach, so good!
Ingredients
- 6 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
- 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
- 3 cups baby spinach, roughly chopped
- 16 ounces baby Dutch potatoes, halved*
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves
For the garlic parmesan cream sauce
- ¼ cup unsalted butter
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1 cup chicken broth, or more, as needed
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- ½ teaspoon dried basil
- ½ cup half and half*
- ½ cup freshly grated Parmesan
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Equipment
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Lightly oil a 9 x 13 baking dish or coat with nonstick spray.
- Season chicken with Italian seasoning, salt and pepper, to taste.
- Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a large cast iron skillet over medium high heat. Add chicken, skin-side down, and sear both sides until golden brown, about 2-3 minutes per side; set aside.
- Melt remaining 1 tablespoon butter in the skillet. Stir in spinach and cook, stirring occasionally, until it begins to wilt, about 2 minutes; set aside.
- Place chicken in a single layer into the prepared baking dish. Top with potatoes, spinach and garlic Parmesan cream sauce.
- Place into oven and roast until completely cooked through, reaching an internal temperature of 165 degrees F, about 25-30 minutes.
- Serve immediately, garnished with parsley, if desired.
For the garlic parmesan cream sauce
- Melt butter in the skillet over medium heat. Add garlic, and cook, stirring frequently, until fragrant, about 1-2 minutes. Whisk in flour until lightly browned, about 1 minute.
- Gradually whisk in chicken broth, thyme and basil. Cook, whisking constantly, until incorporated, about 1-2 minutes.
- Stir in half and half and Parmesan until slightly thickened, about 1-2 minutes. If the mixture is too thick, add more half and half as needed; season with salt and pepper, to taste.
Video
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Really enjoyed this meal, but my sause was too think. Tried to add more half and half, but maybe I needed to add more water. Other than that, it was a great meail.
this was real good, but…. (1) smaller chix thighs, based on cook time would be advised, I do believe mine were larger hence a longer cook time, (2) issue I had with the recipe it does not call for a transfer of pans after the braising of meat, followed by the spinach, I did cook my spinach down in the chix fat, I will not do it that way again, although the taste was good. (3) I did use Yukon Gold potatoes due to the shorter cook time, (4) the parm/cream sauce worked out great and did exactly what the recipe said it would do. Overall a great recipe, Im looking fwd to doing it again.
Made this last night for dinner and it was delicious. I even made a major mistake and forgot to add the parmesan. I just topped the whole thing with the cheese and baked it and it was totally fine. After making the sauce I was a little nervous that there wasn’t enough sauciness for the dish, but it was perfect. Total comfort food. Would have been nice with a salad, but ain’t nobody got time for that.
Just tried the recipe tonight and it couldn’t be any easier. I cut the potatoes a little smaller and it cooked perfectly with the chicken. The sauce is not overpowering and blended very well with the dish. Definitely a keeper! The other recipes in the site looks and sounds interesting, that I may have to try more, including the doggie treats and homemade food. Thanks for sharing!
I just tried this and it was good. the sauce turned out amazing, but i did put a bit more seasoning into the sauce. The potatoes were still rock solid, so i took the chicken thighs out and let the potatoes cook in the oven on its own. overall a great recipe, i’ll make sure to have my potatoes boiled already, and add them closer to the end to still get flavor but also be fully cooked.
Fantastic recipe I’ll make at home and hope to make all these wonderful recipes
This was fantastic! Hubby and I thoroughly enjoyed. I eigthed small red potatoes but found I needed to cook them longer than the chicken (I used chicken breasts cut up). So, like ADITI, next time I will pre-cook potatoes. Probably microwave for a few mins. then throw into the casserole. Also, I added some sliced green onions to the spinach sauté.
This is a keeper, Chungah! Thank you for the lovely blog.
Absolutely loved the sauce!
My oven might be fairly weak though as I had to cook it for almost an hour – mostly to get the potatoes to cook (and I cut them quite small too) – will DEFINITELY make again but next time, might just parboil the potatoes first.
So looking forward to trying your other recipes! Thanks for all your hard work!
As chicken thighs are on offer this week at my favourite store and I have some potatoes that need to be cooked, I will do this again on Wednesday or Thursday – we are looking forward to it. When I cooked this six weeks ago, my husband could not get enough of it – thank god I did enough so we had the leftovers for lunch the next day. The only thing is that I either have to cut the potatoes in smaller cubes or increase the time in the oven as the potatoes were still hard after the indicated cooking time. As there is almost no work with this dish and it’s so delicious, I do not have any problems leaving it in the oven for an hour 😉
I made this last night and it was delicious. I had to cook it for about 45 minutes as the potatoes were not ready after the 30 minutes specified in the recipe. Highly recommend this recipe.
It’s in the oven now.. Can’t wait to try it…
May I use boneless skinless thighs? This looks sooo good!
Yes, absolutely.
Do you include nutritional information with your recipes?
Nutritional information is provided only for select and new recipes at this time. However, if it is not available for a specific recipe, I recommend using free online resources at your discretion (you can Google “nutritional calculator”) to obtain such information. Hope that helps!
I made this tonight and it was a big hit with my family of five! Even my extremely picky 7-yr-old daughter liked it! I used chicken breast, cut into strips, and only fresh herbs that were available in my garden this time of year: rosemary, thyme, oregano and parsley. (I don’t care for the flavor of dried basil, so will always skip that.) I decreased the butter in the sauce to 3 tablespoons, and did not have a problem with the sauce separating during baking.
My most significant modification was that I added about 1/4 cup white wine (Chardonnay) with the chicken broth, which enriched the flavor with a subtle sweetness. I tried throwing my cut potatoes (thin-skinned yellow potatoes — my favorite for roasting) into the sauté pan with some butter and cooking for a few minutes after removing the chicken, but I still had to cook the recipe about 10 minutes longer (40 minutes) to get the potatoes to the desired softness. I also deglazed the pan with some white wine after removing the potatoes before adding the spinach, which I forgot to chop first. I cooked the whole thing in a 9″ square stoneware baking dish, but will try the 9×13 next time. Mine turned out looking not even remotely like the photo — looked just like a casserole, as everything was drowning in sauce. HOWEVER, the delicious flavor made up for the less-than-stellar appearance. I really loved the flavor and texture of the spinach in there, and of course the added nutrition! This was a really nice change for us. Hopefully it won’t take me an hour to put it all together next time, LOL!
I just made this today and it was really good. I sautéed the spinach with green onions and I added green onions and a little lemon pepper seasoning to the overall dish. I overdid it on the spinach which dominated the flavor of the sauce but was still delicious none the less. I am looking for different recipes to try because I get so tired of the same meals that I cook. I will add this to my recipe index.
This was fantastic! 2 questions, what are baby dutch potatoes and how do you keep the sauce from separating?
1. Baby Dutch potatoes are tiny potatoes that can be found in your local grocery store.
2. It is best to use half and half at room temperature. Fat content will also affect curdling issues.
Hope that helps!
I made this for my family the other night and it turned out great! My only issue was that when everything was cooked through there was a buttery layer sitting on top of the food…as if the sauce separated?? I’m not sure what happened exactly…Any thoughts? I hope to make this again because it still tasted amazing, and when I plated the food it still looked great!
I haven’t made it yet but will be. What I don’t understand is why these recipes always say cook 30 minutes in oven when that is never enough time to cook a dish like this. You may be using an industrialized, fast cooking oven but a regular one doesn’t cook that fast.
Just made this tonight and it was delicious! I cut my potatoes into roughly 1″ pieces and they cooked perfectly. I also added a few splashes more of cream/whole milk because the sauce was a bit too thick for me. My only change for next time would be to use fresh herbs instead of dry. I also made the whole thing in one (oven safe) pan without transferring to a baking dish. Turned out great!
Can this be frozen?
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.