If you’re looking for something quick, easy and delicious to make for dinner. tonight, our Creamy Tuscan Chicken Recipe is your answer! Our recipe only takes 30 minutes to make, uses just a handful of basic ingredients and is incredibly versatile!
Is Tuscan Chicken a Dish from Italy?
Tuscan chicken actually didn’t originate from Italy, but was created by the Olive Garden years ago and called Tuscan Garlic Chicken! True story. I’ve never actually ordered the dish from there, but definitely remember seeing it advertised on tv over a decade ago.
While the original Tuscan chicken recipe uses lightly sautéed strips of red bell peppers, we swapped ours out for thin strips of sun dried tomatoes for a brighter punch of flavor.
How to Make Creamy Tuscan Chicken
Ingredients
Process
- Slice each breast in half lengthwise, so you have 4 thinner breasts.
- Season with salt and pepper.
- Dredge each piece of chicken in flour, shaking off any excess.
- Melt some butter to a skillet.
- Add coated chicken and sear for a few minutes on each side.
- Transfer chicken to a plate and set aside.
- Melt remaining butter and add onion and garlic. Sauté until onions just begin to cook down. Season with salt and pepper.
- Add sun-dried tomatoes and continue to sauté.
- Pour cream into skillet.
- Stir together and simmer until cream reduces slightly.
- Stir Parmesan into sauce and stir until combined and sauce has slightly thickened.
- Add spinach to skillet.
- Gently stir spinach into sauce until wilted. Season with salt and pepper.
- Add chicken back into skillet. Spoon sauce over chicken pieces and simmer until sauce has thickened and chicken has just cooked through. Serve.
Tools You Will Need
Can This Creamy Tuscan Chicken Recipe be Made Ahead of Time?
Yes! Our recipe can be made up to 3 days ahead of time.
Make Ahead
Fully make tuscan chicken as instructed, except don’t add the Parmesan cheese. Cool and transfer dish to an airtight container and store in the refrigerator.
Best Way to Reheat
Pour sauce into a skillet and gently simmer over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally. Stir Parmesan into sauce and continue to simmer until sauce slightly thickens, about 2 minutes. Nestle chicken breasts into the simmering sauce and continue to simmer for 3 to 5 minutes or until chicken has warmed through.
Serving Suggestions
Pasta is most commonly served with this dish, but there are a variety of other serving suggestions that we love:
- steamed rice – either white or brown taste delicious.
- other grains – some of our favorites are quinoa, farro, bulgar, or a combination!
- over a baked potato – that’s right! Give that chicken a quick chop, stir it back into the sauce and ladle everything over the baked potatoes.
- steamed or roasted vegetables – and keep it low carb!
- a crusty baguette – to soak up all the delicious cream sauce.
Variations
We love the versatility of this recipe. You really can customize it to fit your taste exactly! Some of our favorite variations are:
- Sautéed wild mushrooms can be incorporated into the creamy sun-dried tomato and spinach sauce to bulk it up.
- Torn kales leaves are a heartier alternative to spinach.
- Thinly sliced and sautéed strips of red bell pepper (or roasted red bell pepper) can used used instead of the sun-dried tomatoes.
- Fresh diced tomatoes can also replace the sun-dried tomatoes.
- Swap the boneless, skinless chicken breasts out for large seared shrimp for a protein alternative for this dish.
- Add some heat to the dish with a couple pinches of crushed red pepper flakes.
- Make this recipe gluten free by swapping gluten free flour in for the all purpose flour.
More Easy Chicken Recipes You Will Love
Creamy Tuscan Chicken
INGREDIENTS
- 2 boneless, skinless chicken breast
- 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
- 3 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1/4 yellow onion diced
- 2 garlic cloves minced
- 1/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes (packed in oil) thinly sliced
- 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
- 3 ounces Parmesan grated
- 2 1/2 ounces spinach leaves
- salt and pepper to taste
INSTRUCTIONS
- Slice each breast in half lengthwise, so you have 4 thinner breasts.
- Season each breast on each side with salt and pepper and dredge in flour, shaking off any excess.
- Melt 2 tablespoons butter to a skillet over medium heat.
- Add coated chicken and sear for about 3 minutes on each side.
- Remove chicken from skillet and set aside.
- Melt remaining butter and add onion and garlic. Sauté for 5 to 6 minutes or until onions just begin to cook down. Season with salt and pepper.
- Add sun-dried tomatoes and continue to sauté for an additional 3 to 4 minutes.
- Stir cream into skillet and simmer until cream reduces slightly, about 4 minutes.
- Stir Parmesan into cream mixture until smooth creamy.
- Add spinach to skillet and stir until spinach leaves have just wilted. Season with salt and pepper.
- Add chicken back into skillet, spoon some sauce over each pieces and simmer for 3 to 4 minutes. Serve.
Did you make this recipe? We want to see!
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This looked delicious in the picture so I had to try it. I had some cherry tomatoes fresh from the garden I used since I didn’t have sun dried tomatoes. I only used 1 clove of garlic. I browned it and the onion in butter. I did not use any oil. Also, since your site name has the word bacon in it, I felt I needed to add bacon. Oh, and I added more parmesan and forgot to put in spinach. I wanted to serve it over noodles but I ended up using rice. Noodles would have been spot on. I did not use pepper either. It was fabulous. My 10 year old is extremely picky and she loved it so much, she asked if I could make it again tomorrow night so my husband could try it too. Even without my veriations, this recipe is awesome. If someone doesn’t like tomatoes, I didn’t taste them but I had about 6 oz of parmesan in mine.
awesome! just got done eating. my family loved it!!! i added a little extra spinach lol but it was awesome. had it over some penne. thank you! :)
I just made this and my husband loved it! I served it over leftover rice with cilantro. I could have sent you a picture of the finished product but oops we ate it! Your recipe was easy to follow and it was delicious . I will be making it again yum!
Just made this tonight and I thought the sauce was a bit concentrated. I’d definitely make it again but add less parm and maybe add or sub some chicken stock in for some of the heavy cream. Also, I’d use 1/2 cup of flour since after dredging the chicken there was a lot leftover.
With that said, it was very yummy and i’d make it again.
I made this last night! It was delicious. I served with penne pasta and it was a little dry heating up leftovers. It was yummy when fresh and my son even ate it!
WOW! I decided to slice 5 mushrooms and add to the onion and didn’t use the flour and it was crazy good. Definitely will be having at least once a week.
I apologize – wrong recipe. This is a great recipe that everyone loves.
I’ve made this several times, and the taste is very authentic. However, even with the heavy cream, it is still not quite thick enough.
Can you make this with diced chicken?
Definitely! Cooking times will vary a little, but it will work just fine!
I made this tonight. It was delicious
The fam loved it
This recipe is amazing!!! We loved it. Definitely on my keeper list.
Yay!
The absolute BEST. Thanks for amazing recipe.
Delicious, definitely recommend you give it go!
Great step-by-step instructions! Beautiful, clear photos every step of the way! Love your format!!! Recipe is tasty too!!
Awesome! and I don’t usually cook!
Love this recipe! It was so creamy! I added some white cooking wine while the onions were sautéed. It had a great flavor.
Love this recipe! It was so creamy. I added some white cooking wine with the garlic and onions while they were sautéed. It had a great flavor!
Nice dish
This is an absolutely delish recipe! I cook at least 2-3 a month. I’ve served over red potatoes, rice and penne pasta.
So happy you love this recipe!!
I love the way this turned out! And I haven’t made chicken in years (really bad with it) but this may be the best chicken I ever had. I used cherry tomatoes instead of sun dried, I included capers and mushrooms in the sauce, I poured a small bit of sherry in there and lemon juice, and seasoned with red pepper. Sooo good! Will definitely make this often.
Love your alterations for this recipe! So glad you enjoyed it!
Made for a crowd for the first time so the pressure was on- and boy did it deliver. Everyone loved it. This is going straight into my personal recipe book. 5 stars all day!
Oh I’m so happy to read this and even happier that everyone enjoyed the dish!!
This is my go to chicken dish!!! It is absolutely delicious and my family loves it!!!
Incrediblely tasty and very creamy!
This one is going to be in heavy rotation from now on! So yummy. We paired it with roasted vegetables. The only thing that would have made it easier is if measurements were offered in grams or cups rather than US oz. It can make conversions tricky if you are overseas.
Hi Hannah! So happy to read you enjoyed this! We actually have a recipe converter at the bottom of the ingredient list, to make it metric compatible as well!
Oh my! I made this tonight and it was so tasty. My boyfriend and I absolutely loved it. We teamed it with crushed garlic potatoes and wok fried tender stem broccoli. What a simple but effective dish. We can’t wait to have it again. It’s definitely going to be on our regular dish. The sun dried Toms give it such a lovely flavour. Thank you :)
I made this last Sunday and it turned out amazing. I paired it with steamed broccoli but I can see that this would do even better with additional carbs in the form of pasta! We really enjoyed this.
So happy you enjoyed this! Steamed broccoli on the side sounds so good…especially for sopping up all the extra sauce!