Chicken and Potatoes with Garlic Parmesan Cream Sauce
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Crisp-tender chicken baked to absolute perfection with potatoes and spinach. A complete meal in one!
Au revoir, Paris! It’s been an amazing week, but it’s time to get home so that I can burn off all these macarons, baguettes, hot chocolate, and falafels. Not to mention that massive Nutella-banana street crepe I had in the middle of the night.
But before I head to the airport for a 12-hour flight back home, I really need to share this with you: my newest chicken recipe yet with a garlic Parmesan cream sauce that will blow. your. mind.
You also have your potatoes and spinach baked right in for a complete meal in one. See, aren’t you happy that I’m coming back? This just means I’m making more chicken recipes the minute I hit LA.
Chicken and Potatoes with Garlic Parmesan Cream Sauce: Frequently Asked Questions
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.
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.
Kale, cabbage, swiss chard and collard greens are all great subs.
Chicken and Potatoes with Garlic Parmesan Cream Sauce
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
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.
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Notes
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Cannot believe how good this was, husband and I almost finished the whole pan. I used chicken breast instead of thighs, I love how the ingredients in your recipes are things I already have or just need a thing or two from the grocery store. The chicken, potatoes, and spinach were so complimentary of each other, but that sauce was the highlight of the dish, finger licking good.
Can this recipe be made with chicken breast? My family does like thighs.
Yes, absolutely.
Delicious flavor and I will definitely make it again with some adjustments:
First, I had to increase the cooking time by quite a bit. The potatoes need to be cut into bite-sized pieces so they don’t come out hard. I’d double the spinach next time and decrease the butter a bit. I love butter as much as anyone, but it seemed a little much…
I liked the fatty, sauciness of it, but I can see why it’d be too much for some. Served with ciabatta, or some other crusty bread, I love it.
Evening at the improv over here.. Really wanted to make this recipe tonight but had to do some subbing. Still came out really good. Didn’t have fresh parsley used dried, found that the box of chicken stock in the pantry was open (did I do that?) so threw it out and used whatever pan juices and water. I used boneless skinless chicken breasts. Since I had much less liquid, I only used one tablespoon on flour. Also a splash of good Chardonnay to deglaze. Frozen spinach instead of fresh which may have helped the liquid situation…Lastly I had to sub the break-in-case-of-emergency grated parm in a can but it was still fine. I had Yukon gold potatoes on hand, cut them into bite size pieces (8ths) and roasted them on a sheet pan with olive oil and salt and a little parm till they had a little color and would release from the pan. I felt they wouldn’t cook in time in the chicken pan and wanted a little texture so this worked really well for me. I added them in for the last five mins or so, so they could soak up the flavors. I used a cast iron skillet btw. So really didn’t change the bones of this recipe, and even my picky five year old liked it.
I made this without the spinach (I ran out!) And the color, as expected, was very bland. But the dish wasn’t! The only thing I would do differently is boil the potatoes for about 10 minutes before baking it. Definitely adding to the recipe book!
Hi, I have made this twice now. Excellent. I used nice new potatoes from the garden. I like the spinach in it even though it’s not my favourite . I added some sun dried tomatoes I had the second time and that was great as well.
I like a lot of your recipes, but this one didn’t work for me. Way, way too much butter and like other posters, the potatoes were nowhere near done after 20 mins. Suggest halving the butter (both when sautéing the chicken and especially for the sauce) and boiling the potatoes or microwaving them, something, before putting in the oven.
I’ve made this today and I have to say this was mind blowing! Just divine. Definitely a keeper! Thank you so much for such a wonderful recipe.
Tried this today. Hard potatoes and bland. Do not put the spinach in after the chicken, add it to the sauce after the Parmesan melts. Definitely boils potatoes first and longer cook time
Greasy, soupy mess, though I followed the recipe precisely. I had to up the cooking time, though I cut my potatoes into 1/8ths. Decent flavor but probably won’t make again. My 4 & 7 year olds liked the flavor of the chicken, but the soupy cream sauce (which was perfect on the stove top) was a huge turn off for us all.
Next time I will probably just cook the chicken separate from the potatoes & top with the cream sauce at the end so it’s not broken
I made this last night, it was a hit . So much flavor. I just kept making everything in the same pan to keep all those juices for cream sauce.
AMAZING!!!!!
I would love to make this dish but I do not understand what half and half is, or am I being thick.
Hope someone can help.
Thanks
Anne in the UK.
The UK equivalent seems to be half cream or single cream. You can read more about it here. Hope that helps!
This recipe was amazing!! I doubled it for 8 people, with 16 thighs,used my large electric skillet to do the whole thing, the
bottom of the pan was scraped clean! This one is a keeper! Thanks!
I added a large onion and it was great!!! Thanks for the recipe!!!
I made this last weekend and it was oh so good and delicious!!! I had some green beans with it to make a complete meal. Might try with skinless chicken and half butter to see if that will be just as tasty. Very easy to prepare and not much clean up. I gave numerous copies to my friends and will be making this again tonight! Thank you so much for this recipe!!!!!
I want to make this so badly but I am not a fan of parmesan cheese. I don’t like the smell. Can I substitute it?
Unfortunately, without further recipe testing, I cannot answer with certainty. As always, please use your best judgment regarding substitutions and modifications.
Just made this today and it was great. I never seem to do a recipe without changing something. I omitted the Italian seasoning and just added more basil, more pototoes and fresh mushrooms. The variations were good
Prepared this one over the weekend. YUMMY! Everyone enjoyed it and said it is a repeater! Thank you again! Looking for the next one to try! So many GREAT choices!! I’ve been asked to do the salmon with sriracha sauce again. 🙂
I made this chicken dish tonight OMG first I made some bacon this morning so I saved my bacon grease to cook the chicken in and then I followed the recipe step by step except for spinach I used fresh green beans cooked them like the recipe called for the spinach what an amazing dish I can not wait for my husband to try this tomorrow. This will be a monthly dinner dish for us .
I made this yesterday and my family loves it. Thanks for your amazing recipe which has high success rate and so easy to follow.