This One Pan Tuscan Chicken is a quick and easy one-pot meal that’s sure to be a family favorite! Juicy chicken, a creamy sauce made with bursts of sun dried tomatoes, Parmesan cheese and spinach, and it’s all ready in about 30 minutes, making it a great weeknight dinner option.
This One Pan Creamy Tuscan Chicken recipe is perfect for when you want a hearty recipe that’s on the table fairly quickly! We love versatile chicken meals like my Creamy Garlic Chicken and French Onion Baked Chicken. This is one of my Chicken recipes you’ll definitely want in your dinner rotation!
With “back to school” season here, so is the pressing need for some quick and delicious dinner ideas.
And if you’re looking for a recipe to make on a busy weeknight, that is bursting with flavor, and tastes like it came from a fancy restaurant… boy do I have the recipe for you. One pan creamy tuscan chicken!
It has all the amazingly savory flavors of sun-dried tomatoes, garlic, and fresh spinach, combined with tender golden brown chicken breasts, and all smothered in a creamy sauce.
Plus, parts of it can be prepped ahead, leaving you with a meal you can get on the table really quickly!
While I’ve titled this Tuscan Chicken, it’s not necessarily a recipe from Tuscany. Tuscan-style, when it comes to food, usually involves a creamy sauce, sun dried tomato, and spinach/kale.
No matter what it’s called, I know you’ll love the tender chicken and ultra flavorful sauce!
How to make tuscan chicken?
This is just an overview; the full ingredients and directions are in the recipe card toward the bottom of this post.
- Drain sun dried tomatoes. Place fine mesh sieve over the top of a small mixing bowl, then pour the contents of the sun dried tomato jar into the sieve. The oil will drain into the mixing bowl, which is what is used to cook the chicken.
- Prep chicken. Start prepping the chicken by slicing the 2 breasts into cutlets. Then season cutlets with spices on both sides.
- Sear chicken. Once cooked, set aside on a plate.
- Cook sun dried tomatoes and garlic. Add the drained sun dried tomato halves and minced garlic to the same skillet as the chicken was cooked in – DON’T rinse the skillet out in between, you want those browned bits.
- Add flour. Stir in flour, and let it cook a minute to get the raw flour taste out.
- Add liquids. Pour in chicken broth, scraping the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon to really loosen all those browned bits. Stir in heavy cream and mustard.
- Simmer. Let mixture simmer for a few minutes, until the sauce starts to thicken.
- Add spinach. Stir the baby spinach into the sauce, cooking about 2-3 minutes, until it starts to wilt.
- Add Parmesan cheese. Stir in the cheese until melted into the sauce.
- Return chicken to the pan. Return the chicken to the skillet, turn to coat on all sides and spoon some sauce over the top.
Helpful Tip!
Typically stores carry two types of sun dried tomatoes; dry packed, and packed in oil. Dry packed tomatoes have a texture similar to dried fruit, and while tasty, aren’t best suited for this recipe. Sun dried tomatoes packed in oil have a better texture, and some of the oil is used to saute the chicken (which adds great flavor!).
Variations of this recipe
- Lightened up sauce – if you’d like to have a less heavy sauce, feel free to use more chicken broth and less heavy cream. You’ll want to have some, or else it won’t be creamy at all, but the ratio is up to you. Just make sure you have 1 1/2 cups of total liquid.
- Wine – adding a splash of dry white wine (like a chardonnay) to the skillet after cooking the sun dried tomatoes and garlic, about 1/3 cup, and letting it simmer down for a few minutes will add another great dimension to the sauce.
- Onion – adding some diced yellow onion to the skillet when you cook the sun dried tomatoes would be delicious too!
- Different Protein – this sauce would be fabulous with boneless skinless chicken thighs, pork chops, shrimp, or even tofu.
- Kale – while spinach is used the most in tuscan-style dishes, kale would be a great substitute!
FAQ’s
The reason I like to slice the chicken breasts in half is so they’re thinner and will cook faster and more evenly. Plus you get a better sauce to chicken ratio. To save some time, your grocery store may carry “thin sliced chicken”, or “chicken cutlets”, and those may be used in place of slicing regular chicken breasts.
We love to serve this recipe with a homemade Caesar salad, roasted asparagus, and garlic bread!
We prefer a dry white wine with this recipe, something like a Pino Grigio, or Chardonnay.
Making creamy tuscan chicken ahead of time
During my testing, I found this chicken recipe is best made before serving. However, you can certainly prep ahead!
Ways to prep ahead for this recipe:
- Chicken – the chicken can be sliced ahead of time and stored in the refrigerator for 1 day.
- Garlic – the garlic can be minced and stored in the refrigerator.
- Cheese – the cheese can be grated and stored in the refrigerator.
- Spices – these can be combined and stored at room temperature until ready to cook.
Storage
Any leftovers should be refrigerated in an airtight container and enjoyed within 3-4 days.
Reheat gently in a skillet, stirring the sauce so it doesn’t separate.
My Favorite Stainless Skillet!
This pan is definitely not cheap, but I wanted to be transparent that this is the pan I use in my kitchen. However, you can use any large and deep skillet/pan; I just recommend at least 10-12″ in diameter.
Be sure to scroll down to check out other readers’ comments for tips and reviews.
And don’t forget, if you’ve made this recipe, leave a comment and please consider giving it a star rating letting me know how you enjoyed it 🙂
Did you make this? Be sure to leave a review below and tag me @the_chunky_chef on Facebook and Instagram!
Ingredients
Chicken
- 2 large boneless skinless chicken breasts
- 1/2 tsp onion powder
- 1/2 tsp paprika
- 1/2 tsp dried Italian seasoning
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 3 Tbsp sun dried tomato oil (from the sun dried tomato jar)
Sauce
- 1 Tbsp butter
- 5 oz jar sun dried tomato halves or pieces drained
- 5 cloves garlic minced
- 1 Tbsp all purpose flour
- 3/4 cup reduced sodium chicken broth
- 3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
- 1 tsp dijon mustard
- 3/4 tsp dried Italian seasoning
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 1/4 tsp dried rosemary
- 1 – 1 1/2 cups fresh baby spinach roughly chopped if desired
- 2/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese fresh is best
Instructions
Drain tomatoes
- Place fine mesh sieve over the top of a small mixing bowl, then pour the contents of the sun dried tomato jar into the sieve. The oil will drain into the mixing bowl, which is what is used to cook the chicken. Set both the bowl and the drained tomatoes aside.
Prep chicken
- Hold your knife parallel to the cutting board and carefully slice the chicken from right to left (if you're a righty)… opening the chicken breast up like a book. Slice all the way through, so you now have 4 thinly sliced pieces of chicken.
- Season chicken on both sides with onion powder, paprika, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper.
Sear chicken
- Add 3 Tbsp of the reserves sun dried tomato oil to large skillet (I use cast iron or stainless steel) and heat over MED HIGH heat.
- Add chicken and cook about 3-5 minutes per side, until golden. Remove to a plate and cover loosely with foil to keep warm.
- If skillet isn't big enough to cook all 4 pieces of chicken at once, cook the chicken in batches.
Make the sauce
- Reduce heat to MED. Add butter and melt. Add sun dried tomatoes and garlic and cook about 30 seconds to 1 minute.
- Add flour and stir. Cook about 1 minute.
- Carefully pour in chicken broth, scraping the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon to loosen any browned bits. Pour in heavy cream and mustard and stir well to combine.
- Season with Italian seasoning, rosemary and black pepper. Cook 2-4 minutes, or until thickened slightly.
- Stir the baby spinach into the sauce, cooking about 2-3 minutes, until it starts to wilt. Stir in Parmesan cheese.
Return chicken to skillet
- Add chicken back to the skillet, and spoon sauce over the chicken, turning to coat.
- Top with additional Parmesan cheese if desired.
Want to save this recipe for later? Click the heart in the bottom right corner to save to your own recipe box!
Chef Tips
- If desired, you can omit using the sun dried tomato oil and use olive oil instead. I really love the added flavor from the sun dried tomato oil though.
Nutrition Disclaimer
The Chunky Chef is not a dietician or nutritionist, and any nutritional information shared is an estimate. If calorie count and other nutritional values are important to you, we recommend running the ingredients through whichever online nutritional calculator you prefer. Calories can vary quite a bit depending on which brands were used.
If changing the recipe serving quantity, the recipe plugin will change the ingredient values for you, but it does NOT change the written instructions, those are manually added and not subject to a slider. You will have to extrapolate that multiplication to any amounts listed in the instructions.
For example: if an ingredient calls for 4 cups, and you doubled the recipe, it will automatically change to 8 cups. In the instructions, if I say “use 4 cups of cheese”, you will have to realize that since you doubled it, you use 8 cups, not 4.
Elisa Purdy says
Made this tonight for dinner and it was *chef’s kiss* amazing!
Jessica says
Wow!! Just wow. This tastes like something you’d get at a restaurant. We loved it! Even my 2 year old ate a plate. Cant wait to make it again!!!
Tammy Jo says
This is truly a 5 Star meal without blowing your budget! I feel like a first class chef when I make and serve this dish! Thank you for sharing your great talent!