Garlic Butter Chicken
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What’s better than a juicy, tender chicken breast with crispy fries? How about garlic butter chicken with an irresistible sauce that’s oh-so-easy to make? This easy dish has only five steps, leading to an utterly delicious, simple-to-make meal.
Table of Contents
What you’ll love about this recipe
This garlic butter chicken recipe only requires a few ingredients that are easy to come by. You likely have most of the ingredients in your cupboard or fridge already. If not, you can find them at your nearest supermarket.
This protein-packed recipe feels decadent yet is primarily made with herbs, seasoning, and chicken stock. As a bonus, this garlic butter chicken recipe is great for meal prep during the week. Simply portion it out, and add a tasty side like these Roasted Sweet Potatoes or Air Fryer Potatoes to create a filling meal.
What’s garlic butter sauce made of?
The mouthwatering sauce for this garlic butter chicken is made with salted butter, minced garlic, white wine vinegar, chicken stock, and parsley.
Ingredients
Chicken Breast
Using boneless skinless chicken breasts helps keep the calories down in this easy chicken recipe. However, you can also use chicken thighs or drummies for a richer flavour.
If you have any extra chicken breast, consider turning it into Greek Chicken Salad.
Garlic
I prefer minced garlic for this garlic butter chicken dish, though you can always use the powdered version.
Parsley
Adding parsley creates a delicious fresh taste in the savoury garlic butter sauce and adds some colour to the dish.
Lemon Juice/White Wine Vinegar
This garlic butter chicken breast dish will work with white wine vinegar or lemon juice. Both add a nice acidity to the recipe.
See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.
Other chicken recipes you should try: Chicken Thigh Curry, Chicken and Chorizo Paella and Peanut Butter Chicken Satay Curry.
Adaptations
You can easily take this garlic butter chicken and turn it into a dairy-free dish. Simply swap out the butter for a non-dairy alternative, and it’s ready to go. Use a 1:1 ratio for this swap.
It’s also possible to turn this butter garlic chicken dish into a vegan meal using tofu instead of chicken breast. You’ll need to reduce the cooking time for this swap as well. As a note, tofu usually requires a heavier hand for seasoning.
How to make garlic butter chicken
- Start by prepping the chicken breasts by slicing in half across the width to form thinner pieces of chicken. Add rapeseed oil to a stainless steel pan (if possible) and increase the heat to high (Image 1).
- Once the pan is hot, add the pieces of chicken into the pan and leave to brown for 3 minutes, or until the chicken stops sticking to the pan. Season with salt and pepper. When the chicken takes on some nice colour and it stops sticking to the pan, rotate and cook for a further 2 minutes. Set the chicken aside. (Image 2).
3. Deglaze the pan with a splash of chicken stock, scraping all of the chickeny bits from the bottom of the pan (Image 3).
4. Reduce the heat to low/medium and add the butter and garlic into the pan (Image 4).
5. Once melted, fry for a couple of minutes before stirring the stock slooooowly into the pan to emulsify. Season with more pepper and pour the white wine vinegar (Image 5).
6. Add the chopped parsley into the pan and stir to combine. Place the chicken back into the pan. Baste the sauce over the chicken and reheat for around 2 minutes on a low heat. Serve with sides of your choice, I went for lots of broccoli and some fries (Image 6).
Tips for the best result
Incorporate these tips when cooking garlic butter chicken to ensure your recipe has no snafus!
1. Whilst you do want to sear the chicken over high heat, avoid putting the pan at too high a temperature, as it can burn the chicken and cause the chicken garlic butter sauce to evaporate too quickly.
2. Ensure you scrape the tidbits off the bottom of the pan. Otherwise, these tasty morsels can burn as you create the sauce, leaving a charred flavour behind. Scraping them off also adds a lot of flavour to the sauce.
3. Leave the parsley out of the butter sauce for the chicken until the last few minutes. Otherwise, the flavour will not be as intense.
Other side dishes to try with your garlic butter chicken; Air Fryer Green Beans, Cavolo Nero with Garlic & Lemon and Crispy Baked Buffalo Cauliflower Bites with Chilli Mayo.
FAQs
Yes, this recipe works with plenty of other herbs! You can add fresh basil, rosemary, or tarragon. Or, try a combination of herbs in the garlic butter sauce for chicken.
Yes, you can use low-fat butter instead of regular butter. It will make the dish feel slightly less rich but still taste similar.
This recipe is healthy, especially as you can decide which sides to serve it alongside it. If you’re concerned about using regular butter, you can opt for a low-fat version to help cut the calories. Serve garlic butter chicken breast recipes alongside steamed vegetables for a nutrient-dense meal.
Yes, you can absolutely meal prep garlic butter chicken! Separate the portions into containers along with sides of your choice; then, you’ll have meals for the entire week.
If you tried this Garlic Butter Chicken recipe, it would be mean so much to me if you could leave a review & a star rating to let me know how you found it! I love hearing about your experiences – it motivates me to keep creating more and more recipes for you guys 💛 Let’s get cooking! – Mimi x
Garlic Butter Chicken
Ingredients
- 75 g salted butter (£1.99/4)=(£0.50)
- 650 g chicken breasts, sliced into thin pieces (£3.68)
- 4-6 cloves of garlic, minced (£0.39)
- Handful of fresh parsley, finely chopped (£0.55)
Cupboard Essentials
- 1 tbsp rapeseed oil
- Salt & pepper
- 1 tbsp white wine vinegar OR juice of half a lemon
- 200-300 ml chicken stock
Serve with
- 1 head of broccoli, steamed/boiled (£0.69)
- 500 g freezer fries, approx 100g per serving (£1.00/2)= (£0.50)
Method
- Start by prepping the chicken breasts by slicing in half across the width to form thinner pieces of chicken.
- Add rapeseed oil to a stainless steel pan (if possible) and increase the heat to high. Once the pan is hot, add the pieces of chicken into the pan and leave to brown for 3 minutes, or until the chicken stops sticking to the pan. Season with salt and pepper.
- When the chicken takes on some nice colour and it stops sticking to the pan, rotate and cook for a further 2 minutes. Set the chicken aside.
- Deglaze the pan with a splash of chicken stock, scraping all of the chickeny bits from the bottom of the pan. Reduce the heat to low/medium and add the butter and garlic into the pan.
- Once melted, fry for a couple of minutes before stirring the stock slooooowly into the pan to emulsify. Season with more pepper and pour the white wine vinegar and chopped parsley into the pan. Stir to combine and place the chicken back into the pan. Baste the sauce over the chicken and reheat for around 2 minutes on a low heat. Serve with sides of your choice, I went for lots of broccoli and some fries.
Notes
- Avoid frying at too higher a temperature to prevent burning and evaporation of sauce.
- Scrape the bottom of the pan to avoid burnt flavors.
- Add parsley to butter sauce for chicken in the last few minutes for more intense flavor.
Nutrition
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