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.
Video
Notes
Did you make this recipe?
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Me this today and the timing is seriously off. After the allotted time potatoes were hard and chicken raw. Took almost an hour. And chicken 2as not browned. Also, wat too much flour in the roux. Needed to add more chicken broth to think. Dont think will make again.
love this recipe! Any sugesttions on how to make this ahead of time or in a crockpot?
This was just AMAZING!!! I don’t ever leave comments unless something is THAT good and this is. I didn’t have Parmesan but I was already into the recipe so I threw in some mozzarella that I grated (I don’t know if it added anything but whatever). And by accident, I measured 1 1/2 cups of stock and I’m not a huge half and half fan so I used only half so the sauce was more like a Marsala in color and consistency. So good. I also used a cast iron to begin with so I just threw everything back in the sauce and in the oven for a one pan meal! Very pretty presentation too! This is company worthy!
Very yummy!! Thank you♡
I think this was a great recipe! I would suggest covering the pan/dish when putting in the oven in order for the potatoes to cook thoroughly. To also avoid the chicken getting dry, add a little chicken stock to the pan and then cover it. Turn the heat down to about 325/350 so that you don’t brown the parmesan sauce and to cook everything thoroughly! It worked well for me and was delicious! Very moist, creamy, and amazing!
This is a very nice dish. My only problem was the potatoes. I cut them smaller than the recipe instructed and they still took forever to cook through. This was not great for the tenderness of the chicken. I think next time I will boil the potatoes a bit first or put them to cook alone before the rest is ready. Maybe this recipe is meant to be baked in a large flat tray rather than a baking dish. I don’t know. The recipe says only 25-30 min in the oven is needed. Took about 3 times as long at the stated temperature. Nevertheless everyone said it was delicious even if the chicken was dry – probably because they were all so hungry by then.
Very good. I used boneless chicken thighs instead of bone in. Used baby Yukon golds cut in half. Cooked perfectly in the 30 minute bake time. Also used frozen chopped spinach.
Made this last night it was so delicious, used small red skin potatoes cut in quarters. Will definitely make again!
Loved it. I mixed thighs and breast and also covered with foil to bake. Potatoes cooked great!
My kids loved it! I did boneless skinless chicken breasts and skipped browning and it was still incredible. The sauce is amazingly good.
4 stars for the recipe as is, 5 stars if you par boil/pre cook the potatoes – they really do need it.
We also replace half the potatoes with Cauliflower, and put it on top so it’s crispy and cheesy – delicious!
The dish tastes really good! However, I cut the potatoes in to pieces that were smaller than quarters and they still were not cooked in time. Next time, I will probably put the potatoes in while I prep the rest so they cook enough. Hopefully, that will work.
We followed the recipe pretty closely, but with gluten free flour. We liked it, but it didn’t seem to work well as an all-in-one meal. The chicken never got crispy because it was under the sauce. The spinach was somewhat slimy, and the potatoes were underdone. I took the done chicken out, and continued to cook the potatoes a while longer. They were pretty tasty. The chicken itself was bland, and it took some creativity to get so much grease out of the cheese sauce. I would make this again as just a potato dish, with the chicken cooked separately.
I made this before & it was delicious next time will add more spinach & precook the potatoes. I was wondering any insight on preparing the night before & then just cooking the next day for dinner?
This is such a delicious meal! The sauce is restaurant quality! I’m planning on making a pan of this to bring to a family member who recently loss her spouse. If it’s going to go right in the freezer, do you recommend I cook it ahead of time or should I give it to her uncooked to freeze?
You are so so sweet, Kelli! Also, I am terribly sorry for your family member’s loss.
In regards to your question, unfortunately, without having tried this myself, I cannot answer with certainty. But if you get a chance to try it, please let me know how it turns out!
Do you have suggestions on freezing leftovers?
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.
This was great! Of course, I made a few minor modifications…. used chicken breasts instead of thighs, included the juice of 1 lemon and did not use potatoes but cooked pasta on the side and drizzled the cream sauce over it. Delish! Thanks for the recipe!
This was fantastic! I used chicken breasts instead of thighs, 5 cups of spinach (because I love it!) and the juice of 1 lemon. Instead of potatoes, I just put everything in the baking dish and then cooked some noodles on the side. Once the chicken/sauce was done (about 25 mins) I just drizzled the gravy over the chicken and noodles. Awesome recipe and thanks for sharing.
Ok, I admit that I am pretty hopeless at following recipes, adding stuff, increasing stuff as I go and I was under pressure to equal an expected traditional English Sunday roast which I am getting so bored with, So I read through every comment on this recipe to absorb every suggestion. Firstly, the cooking times in the original recipe were perfect for my oven. Other than that I did the following based on other posts and my own bits…added some diced red capsicum and fried that up in the hotter pan before adding the spinach. Before adding the chicken broth to the roux I reduced about 1/2 cup of dry white wine. I probably used about 1.5 cups chicken broth to get a consistency I was happy with, before using about 1/2 cup of full cream milk and 1/4 cup of thickened cream to the pan with the stock and herbs (we don’t have half and half) I also used about 3/4 cup of parmesan. As the skin on the chicken was so golden and crispy I was very careful to place the baby potatoes (which I had cut into quarters and steamed in the microwave for 7 minutes) around the chicken along with the spinach and capsicum and then poured the cream sauce around the chicken rather than on top so that lovely skin was still exposed After the dish was cooked I added zest from 1 lemon over the entire dish with the parsley. Very, Very happy with the end result.
Great tasty recipe ,I added button mushrooms , my husband loved ,it so will certainly be making again, thank you .