Make this easy creamy lemon chicken tonight! It’s a delicious and comforting chicken dinner that everyone in the family will love. The pan-seared chicken is tender, and the creamy lemon sauce is rich and tangy. It is so good!
One of my favorite one-skillet dinners is this easy creamy lemon chicken! It’s a very easy weeknight chicken recipe that everyone in my family loves. The simple pan-seared chicken is tender thanks a few tricks on how to cook moist chicken breasts…no marinade needed. And the creamy lemon garlic sauce for the chicken is seriously to die for! Tangy, rich, and creamy!
This easy creamy lemon recipe takes only 30 minutes to make and it’s all done in one pan. I think this makes it an awesome weeknight chicken dinner, right?!
Ingredients in Creamy Lemon Chicken Recipe
The ingredients in this creamy lemon chicken dish are very simple.
For the pan-seared chicken, you’ll need:
- Chicken breasts: for 4 servings, split 2 chicken breasts into 4 cutlets.
- Salt and pepper: always!
- Italian seasoning: I love the aromatic flavors that Italian seasoning adds to this dish. Adds depth.
- All-purpose flour: The chicken cutlets are dredged in flour to 1) give it a golden brown crust, and to 2) provide texture and flavor as the coating absorbs some of that delicious lemon cream sauce. So, don’t skip the flour!
- Olive oil: for the pan
For the lemon cream sauce, you’ll need:
- Minced garlic: for flavor
- Unsalted butter: adds richness
- Chicken broth: the liquid base for the sauce
- Fresh lemon juice: adds tanginess, flavor, and freshness.
- Heavy cream: to thicken the sauce, add creaminess, and balance out the acidity from the lemon juice
- Seasoning and garnish: Salt and pepper will do. For garnish, use chopped parsley and lemon slices.
The Lemon Garlic Cream Sauce
This creamy lemon garlic sauce is so amazing! And it’s super simple, rich, and creamy. The heavy cream balances out the tanginess of the lemon sauce, making one perfectly balanced rich and tangy sauce.
To make the lemon garlic cream sauce for this dish, simply heat some butter over the skillet and add minced garlic, cooking until fragrant. Then stir chicken broth and fresh lemon juice, and bring to a simmer. Next, add the heavy cream and combine.
That’s the sauce! Then all you have to do is add the chicken back and simmer for about 5 minutes until slightly thickened. I seriously love this dish!
How to Make this Easy Creamy Lemon Chicken
This chicken recipes comes together in 30 minutes or so. Super easy and only one skillet required to make clean-up a breeze! Seriously, there are so many reasons to love this creamy lemon chicken!
Here’s how to make it in a few simple steps:
- Prepare the chicken: Cut each (large) chicken breast into 2 thinner cutlets. For moist and tender chicken: using a meat tenderizer tool, pound the chicken to even thickness. A uniformly pounded breast ensures even cooking, which lowers the risk of overcooking on any one side. Pounding the chicken also helps break down the fibers, resulting in tender chicken.
- Season the chicken on both sides: I used salt and pepper, plus Italian herbs seasoning.
- Dredge the chicken in flour: This is crucial! The flour will give it a golden brown crust and allow the chicken to absorb more of the sauce!
- Cook chicken: about 4-5 minutes per side or until internal temp reaches 165 degrees F.
- Make the sauce: it’s a combination of butter, garlic, chicken broth, fresh lemon juice, heavy cream, and seasoning.
- Return chicken to pan: simmer for about 5 minutes until slightly thickened.
That’s all! I like to garnish with chopped parsley and lemon slices. Highly recommended. And, per usual, you can find detailed ingredient quantities and instructions in the recipe card below.
I love to serve my creamy lemon chicken with these amazing crispy herb roasted potatoes! It’s the perfect pairing…seriously! Other ideas are my fluffy mashed potatoes or roasted broccoli with parmesan and lemon.
How to Keep the Chicken Moist and Tender
I get this question a lot: how do I keep my chicken breast from getting dry?!
I used to have the same problem and always got super frustrated and disappointed. BUT…after extensive testing and testing, I was able to make moist pan-seared chicken every single time. Yes, every single time!
You can find more tips and techniques in my moist and juicy pan-seared chicken guide, but here are the basics:
- Pound the chicken breast to even thickness. For this skillet creamy lemon chicken recipe specifically, you’ll actually split each chicken breast into 2 thinner cutlets FIRST, and then pound slightly until evenly thick. Don’t pound it too thin though.
- Don’t overcook it. Since these are thinner, about 4-5 minutes per side will do.
And there you have it…one-pan easy creamy lemon chicken in 30 minutes. I am sure you will love it!
More delicious and easy chicken dinners:
- Cajun Chicken Alfredo
- One Pot Mexican Chicken and Rice
- Easy Chicken Parmesan
- Chicken Quesadillas (these are seriously amazing!)
Thanks for stopping by and please don’t forget to pin this recipe. Much appreciated!
Kitchen Tips
- After splitting each chicken breast into two thinner cutlets, pound slightly it to even thickness, roughly. This will also break down the fibers a bit and prevent it from “curling up” on the skillet.
- This recipe calls for dredging the chicken in flour. There are 2 reasons for this: 1) it will create a beautifully golden brown crust, and 2) the coating will absorb some of that creamy sauce, making it ultra delicious!
- Use a large skillet to avoid overcrowding the pan. Overcrowding leads to steaming.
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Easy Creamy Lemon Chicken
Ingredients
Chicken
- 2 large chicken breasts
- Salt and pepper
- 1 teaspoon Italian herb seasoning
- ½ cup all-purpose flour
- Olive oil
Creamy Lemon Sauce
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- ½ cup chicken broth
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, plus more to taste
- 1 cup heavy cream
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Fresh chopped parsley for garnish
- Lemon slices for garnish
Instructions
- Cut each chicken breast in half lengthwise to get thinner cutlets. Over plastic wrap, slightly pound the chicken to even thickness as needed using a meat mallet. This is for even cooking and to tenderize the chicken a bit.
- Season both sides of the chicken cutlets with salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning (per chicken cutlet, use about ¼ teaspoon each: Kosher salt, ground black pepper, Italian herb seasoning). Dredge the seasoned chicken in flour and shake off any excess.
- Heat some olive oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Cook prepared chicken on both sides, about 4-5 minutes per side, until golden brown or until internal temperature reaches 165 degrees F. Remove chicken from pan and set aside.
- Don’t wipe the pan clean. Melt 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, then add garlic, and cook until fragrant. Add chicken broth and 1 tablespoon lemon juice. Taste it, and add the second tablespoon of lemon juice if desired (I ended up adding 2 tablespoons). Bring to a light simmer. Then, stir in heavy cream plus salt and pepper to taste until evenly combined.
- Return chicken to pan and bring to a simmer. Simmer for another 4-5 minutes until the sauce has thickened a bit.
- Serve with lemon slices and freshly chopped parsley. Enjoy!
Notes
- Special equipment: meat tenderizer tool or meat mallet
- Chicken: Get large and thick chicken breasts so that each cutlet is decently portioned. You can also get chicken cutlets from the store instead.
- Dredging the chicken in flour: Not only will the flour create a beautiful golden crust, but it also create a coating that will absorb some of that delicious sauce.
Kim Heslop says
Absolutely outstanding. Thank you
Tania says
That’s great to hear, Kim! Thank you for trying my recipe.
Donna says
I made this tonight because I happened to have all of the ingredients on hand. It was outstanding! So good! I served it with a medley of roasted veggies, also because I had them on hand—Brussels sprouts, green beans, summer squash, carrots, onions, and baby red potatoes. I will absolutely make this again.
Andrea W says
I made this tonight for dinner. My family loved it! They asked to have it in our regular rotation of dinners. I served it over angel hair pasta. We also had a side of green beans. A very delicious dinner! Thanks for the recipe!
kazy says
This came out so good. I loved it. So enjoyable to eat. I seasoned the chicken with my own combination of herbs, not Italian herbs. I did salt, pepper, garlic powder, paprika and I alternated each day that I baked it with different All Purpose Seasonings, like Mrs. Dash one night, Trader Joe’s Everyday Seasoning another night and Trader Joe’s 21 Seasoning Salute, even Ac’cent seasoning. Each night the chicken came out wonderful. I wanted this to last the week but rather than cook the sauce every night and saute the chicken in a skillet, I made enough creamy lemon sauce for 8 servings, pulled it out from the fridge about an hour before cooking, prepared 2 chicken breasts in the afternoon, seasoning it, dredging it in the flour and placing it in the baking dish and refrigerating until about an hour before baking it at 400 degrees for 15 minutes. Much less labor and dishes to clean. I served it with a Greek salad and about 1/4 cup of leftover Basmati rice. I hummed every time I ate it. Thanks so much.
Jennifer says
Would it matter if I don’t put the chicken back in the pan and just simmer the sauce on it’s own until it thickens?
Tania says
That’s totally fine!
Sherla says
My family loves this recipe!! It is so much easier to make than an original recipe I have. Thank you. Making it tonight with fettuccine noodles and baked asparagus spears. Third time making it. Only change is doubling amount since I am 5; 2 picky eaters who also love it! Thanks again for sharing.
Jenna says
BEST creamy lemon sauce and chicken I’ve ever had! And it’s so easy to make. Excited to put this in my cycle of dinners.
Cee says
This was absolutely delicious! The lemon flavour is not overpowering and adds a nice acidic component and brightness to what could otherwise be a heavy or rich sauce….I also added some garlic paste and cilantro paste for another depth of flavour. This sauce would be fantastic on fish or pasta!
Larisa says
Made this for dinner and the chicken turned out great, but the sauce did not. I used whole milk instead of heavy cream and it curdled when I added it. I even strained it, and added some milk again (not in the skillet) and it still curdled. Was my pan or sauce too hot? Or can’t you substitute whole milk for the heavy cream? The creamy sauce looks delicious, but it did not work for me. I’d love to try this again if the sauce will turn out.
Tania says
Hi Larisa! Milk and lemon together tend to curdle, but that doesn’t happen with heavy cream. If you try again with heavy cream, I’m sure it will turn out!
Alicia says
This was great and easy for a last minute weeknight dinner! My husband and I loved it, and I just served with microwavable brown rice. I ended up using 3 tablespoons of lemon juice which had a really strong flavor, but lemon is a huge pregnancy craving of mine so I loved it. Well done!!!
Tania says
Thank you, Alicia!!
Dana says
This recipe is delicious. I used lemon pepper seasoning and a little extra lemon juice in the sauce (I am a big fan of bold lemon flavor). I served over zucchini noodles that I added into the sauce and simmered until tender.
Kristina says
Made this for dinner tonight and it was a hit. The recipe made enough for my husband and I and he went back for seconds. We made it over rice noodles (the type you’d use for pad Thai) and sprinkled some pecorino Romano on top. The sauce covered the noodles perfectly without having to double. Delicious.
Gerard Ward says
I used sour cream instead of heavy cream and it tasted absolutely delicious.
Rob says
i also replaced heavy cream with sour cream, Delicious!!
Amanda says
We have tried several recipes from Cooking for My Soul now, and everyone is a hit. Made this last night for the first time and it is definitely going in the regular rotation. I doubled the sauce and made some fettuccini for a creamy pasta side, and roasted broccoli in the oven while everything else cooked on the stove. Came together in 30 minutes (as promised by Tania!) and the whole family loved it.
Tania says
Thank you so much, Amanda!
Renee says
This was delicious and so easy to make, with simple ingredients. Family loved it.