Chicken breast recipes can be so dull – time to step it up! Cream and lemon are a luscious combination and is sensational served over golden crispy chicken. A quick and easy 10 minute recipe with few ingredients, serve this Creamy Lemon Chicken with pasta, mashed potato or for a low carb option, creamy cauliflower mash!
Chicken Breast Recipe
I was browsing my Instagram feed the other day, and all I could think was “it’s so yellow and orangey.” I shared this observation with my mother, and her immediate response was “Well, of course. You post so many cheesy bread, potatoes and meat. Everything you like is yellow and brown. Even Dozer is yellow.” (Imagine this with a Japanese accent and finished with a snort of laughter).
I had no smart comeback for that. Because it’s completely true. 😂
So one of my (many) New Years’ resolutions will be (yet again) to post more green foods on RecipeTin Eats.
But for now – more yellow food.
In fact, a whole pan of yellow food. Golden brown (yellow!) chicken breast with a yellow lemon cream parmesan sauce. Bring on the yellow! 🙌🏻
What you need for creamy lemon chicken breast
Chicken breast – or boneless skinless thigh
Chicken broth/stock – gives the sauce flavour (it’s pretty dull without it)
Cream and lemon – because we’re making a creamy lemon sauce
Parmesan – for umami AND to help thicken the sauce
Mustard – sauce thickening and extra flavour/tang
Flour – to dust chicken (gives it a crust that the sauce wants to cling to, optional)
Garlic – because garlic goes in 99% of my savoury foods
Butter – because butter makes everything better
How to make creamy lemon chicken breast
You’re 10 minutes away from having this for dinner!
Here’s how it goes down:
Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper, dust with flour;
Pan fry until golden then remove
Add everything else in, then simmer for 3 minutes until thickened;
Return chicken into skillet to rewarm; and
Serve over pasta, mashed potato or for a low carb option, Creamy Mashed Cauliflower.
There’s plenty of creamy lemon sauce for this chicken breast recipe. Enough to toss through pasta!
What to serve with Creamy Lemon Chicken
Serve this with a crisp garden salad with a tangy French Dressing or Balsamic dressing. Or try one of these:
Side salad suggestions
Also, some warm bread rolls to mop the plate clean wouldn’t go astray! If you’re in the mood for homemade bread, try these easy No Knead Soft Dinner Rolls or this simple Irish Soda Bread (I call it Emergency Bread!).
– Nagi x
Watch how to make it
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Creamy Lemon Chicken Breast
Ingredients
Crispy Chicken
- 600g / 1.2lb chicken breasts (2 large) (Note 1)
- 1/2 tsp cooking salt (kosher salt)
- 1/4 tsp Black pepper
- 1/4 cup flour (plain / all-purpose)
- 40g / 3 tbsp butter , unsalted
- 1 – 2 garlic clove, minced
- 1 1/4 cups chicken broth/stock
- 3/4 cup cream , heavy/thickened (Note 2)
- 3 – 4 tbsp lemon juice (adjust to taste, start with 3 tbsp)
- 2 tsp Dijon mustard
- 3/4 cup parmesan cheese , freshly grated OR store bought finely shredded (Note 3)
To serve
- Pasta of choice (I used linguine)
- Finely chopped parsley
Instructions
Crispy Chicken
- Slice chicken breast horizontally to create two thin steaks (so you end up with 4 thin steaks in total).
- Sprinkle each side with salt and pepper, then coat with flour, shaking off excess.
- Melt butter in a large skillet over medium high heat. Cook chicken 2 minutes on each side until golden and crispy, then remove onto plate.
Sauce
- Add a touch of butter if your pan is dry – but you shouldn't need it. Add garlic, stir 10 seconds.
- Then add chicken broth, cream, lemon and Dijon mustard. Bring to simmer and scrape the bottom of the pan to dissolve brown bits into the liquid. Use a whisk if needed to dissolve mustard.
- Add parmesan then simmer rapidly for 3 minutes or until sauce thickens slightly. Add salt, pepper and adjust lemon to taste.
- Return the chicken to the pan (pour in any juices on the plate too), turn to coat.
- Place chicken on serving plates with pasta or mashed potatoes. Sprinkle with fresh parsley if using. Spoon over Lemon Sauce and serve! (Bread for mopping wouldn't go astray either)
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Originally published January 2016, updated with new photos and video in November 2019.
Life of Dozer
In the big fancy house I’m currently housesitting while I’m in between houses – when he gets fed up following me up and down the stairs, he parks himself halfway!!
I made this tonight and my child absolutely raved about it. He said it was so so yum and kept asking for more chicken. This will definitely become a regular in our house.
I had this for lunch today and definitely liked it. I did several things: Used lactose-free cream & butter for the sauce & GF flour for the chicken coat. Both worked out fine; I wasn’t entirely sure if the salt & pepper combination for chicken was going to be bland, so I used italian seasoning to my chicken before coating them; I added mushrooms & spinach for veggies; I used little bit less of lemon, only 2 3/4 tbsp, as I wanted to see how much sourness I can tolerate. This was good for me; I also added chili flakes to the sauce to have more kick.
All in all, I am satisfied with it. Thank you, Nagi! 🙂
Oh, I forgot to add. I also used 1/2 shallot and minced it. Cooked it with garlic. I had pasta to go along with the sauce. 🙂
Made this tonight! Super yummy! Saved to my recipes in Pinterest. I used chicken tenders and put over rice! Delicious!!
This recipe is one of the BEST I’ve found on pinterest. EXCELLENT!!
Yum. This sauce is absolutely delicious. I used it differently to the recipe. I had some chicken that I had already crumbed and was going to serve with some salad on the side and I was looking for something different to use instead of mayonnaise or gravy to put on the chicken. I cooked the chicken in the oven as usual and made the sauce separately to pour over the chicken. The sauce certainly didn’t suffer flavor wise from not having cooked the chicken in the pan first. I added spring onion (eschallot) to sauce and reduced the amount of butter slightly. I served over the crumbed chicken with lettuce tomato and cucumber. Will most definitely do again.
LOVE. Turned out great. Added a little more chicken stock and cream for more sauce. Better than cheesecake factory chicken piccata.
This is one of my go to recipes. I make this quite often because it is just so easy and sooooooo delicious!! Thanx for sharing this gem!
Made this with chicken leg fillets,it was a very easy recipe and had dinner ready very quickly .It was soooo flavoursome and delicious I will definitely make again. I wonder how it would taste with prawns?
I don’t know what I did wrong here but the sauce was a dismal failure. I used evaporated milk because it’s more stable than cream if you need to reheat – which I did – but the sauce split instantly (no, the pan wasn’t too hot) and none of the ‘save your sauce’ tricks I know worked. A shame, because if you use good ingredients this isn’t cheap to make, plus there’s no re-making it because all the pan juices are in the failed sauce.
It may be that the lemon was added too soon, or too quickly. The acids in lemon causes dairy to curdle if not integrated just so. Try adding it closer to the end, slowly, while whisking continuously. Hope that helps!
Love the recipe. I added some baby spinach. So good
10 out of 10 an amazing dish thankyou
This recipe was absolutely amazing I am definitely making this again fantastic thanks
Okay this was yuuuuuummy! I made it as directed but I added in some mushrooms and broccoli for extra veg and I put the pasta into the sauce with a bit of pasta water right at the end. I didn’t measure the lemon juice, just used the juice of a whole lemon, and I didn’t measure the stock either, just used what I had left which I think was more than the recipe asked for but it really didn’t matter because the sauce is so fantastic. Definitely needed the addition of seasoning near the end ie. the seasoning on the meat was not enough for the sauce. Absolutely delicious! My kids and hubby agreed. Linguini is my fave pasta shape and it was absolutely perfect in this. Will def be keeping this one on high rotation!
My husband and I loved this recipe tonite!! I always use extra garlic and when I added it to the pan he came rolling into the kitchen like a cartoon character being pulled along with the scent by his nose! I also liked the work around with the evaporated milk because I didn’t have any cream.
This is very similar to a recipe my kids has loved you years called Lemon Tree Chicken.
Lemon-Tree Chicken
For convenience, make ahead; broil immediately before serving.
8 chicken -breast halves, skinned, boned 1 tsp grated lemon peel
¼ Cup flour 2 Tbsp. Lemon juice
¼ Cup butter or margarine 2 Tbsp dry white wine
1 tsp salt ½ cup whipping cream
1/8 tsp pepper 1 Cup shredded Swiss cheese (4 oz)
1 Jar Armour beef rounds (G-mom’s addition)
Coat chicken breast with flour. Melt butter or margarine in a large skillet over medium heat. Add chicken breast; brown in hot butter or margarine. Add salt, pepper, lemon peel, lemon juice, wine; simmer 5 minutes. Preheat broiler. Remove cooked chicken breast from skillet; place in greased, (beef rounds on bottom) 9 x 13 baking pan. Gradually stir whipping cream into sauce in skillet. Pour cream mixture over breast. Sprinkle with cheese. Broil, about 4 inches from heat, until bubbly. Serve hot with sauce. Makes 4 to 8 servings.
Another superb summer recipe. Thanks Nagi.
Very good recipe. Easy to follow because Nagi always provides lots of info in the Notes – I really appreciate that! I added some lemon zest because I love the lemon flavor and I used half and half instead of heavy cream (what I had on hand). I added about 1/2 of the parmesan cheese, but I don’t think it was needed. I made extra sauce because I served it over a bed of fettuccini. It was excellent! Thanks!
Delicious and so easy
Delicious
I made this tonight and used coconut cream instead of the normal cream. I also subbed out the parmesan for a dairy free one. Surprisingly with the substitutes, it was still delicious and easy to make. Will definitely make this again.