One Pan Creamy Tuscan Chicken

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.

1. 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.
2. Prep chicken.  Start prepping the chicken by slicing the 2 breasts into cutlets.  Then season cutlets with spices on both sides.  
3. Sear chicken.  Once cooked, set aside on a plate.
4. 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.
5. Add flour.  Stir in flour, and let it cook a minute to get the raw flour taste out.
6. 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.
7. Simmer.  Let mixture simmer for a few minutes, until the sauce starts to thicken.
8. Add spinach.  Stir the baby spinach into the sauce, cooking about 2-3 minutes, until it starts to wilt.
9. Add Parmesan cheese.  Stir in the cheese until melted into the sauce.
10. Return chicken to the pan. Return the chicken to the skillet, turn to coat on all sides and spoon some sauce over the top.

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!

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.

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 🙂

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.