Creamy Garlic Parmesan Chicken

Creamy Garlic Parmesan Chicken is pure weeknight magic—tender, juicy chicken cutlets swimming in the most luxurious, garlicky cream sauce that’ll have everyone at your table scraping their plates clean. This recipe uses simple pantry ingredients, comes together in one skillet, and tastes like you ordered it from your favorite Italian restaurant.

Love More Chicken Recipes? Try My Chicken Pillows With Creamy Parmesan Sauce or this Garlic Parmesan Chicken Pasta next.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

The combination of buttery garlic, tangy Parmesan, and silky cream creates a sauce so good you’ll want to lick the skillet. What makes it even better? It’s done in under 30 minutes using just one pan, which means less cleanup and more time enjoying dinner with your loved ones. The thin chicken cutlets cook quickly and stay incredibly tender, while the pan drippings create a deeply flavorful base for that knockout sauce.

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Ingredient List

For the Chicken:

• 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, each cut in half lengthwise to create 4 thinner cutlets
• Salt and black pepper, to taste
• ½ teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon butter

For the Sauce:

• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 3 cloves garlic, minced (or 1 tablespoon pre-minced if you’re in a pinch)
• ½ cup chicken broth or dry white wine
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• ½ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese (not the pre-shredded kind!)
• 1 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped for garnish

Why These Ingredients Work

So about cutting the chicken thin—I fought this for YEARS because it seemed like extra work. Spoiler alert: I was an idiot. Thick chicken breasts are literally the worst to cook. Either the middle’s still pink and scary or the outside’s so dry you need half a glass of water to choke it down. There’s no middle ground.

Thin cutlets cook fast, cook evenly, and actually stay juicy. I don’t know why I was so stubborn about this. Probably the same reason I refused to try Brussels sprouts until I was 30. Sometimes we’re just wrong about things.

The garlic situation here is a double whammy on purpose. You season the chicken with garlic powder first—that’s your base layer. Then you hit them with fresh garlic in the sauce—that’s your “oh wow there’s garlic in this” layer. I tried making it with just one or the other and my husband could tell something was off. He didn’t know what, but he knew. The double garlic is the move.

That tablespoon of flour seems random but it’s actually doing real work. Without it your sauce is just…liquid. With it, the sauce actually clings to the chicken like it’s supposed to. First time I made this I forgot the flour and everyone’s chicken was just sitting in a puddle. Not cute.

The chicken broth picks up all the stuck-on bits from the pan. Those brown crusty things that look like you need to scrub? That’s flavor, baby. We’re putting that directly into the sauce where it belongs.

Okay I’m gonna sound super annoying about this but GET A BLOCK OF PARMESAN AND GRATE IT YOURSELF. I know the shredded bag is easier. I KNOW. I lived off that stuff for years. But it has this anti-clumping powder—I think it’s wood pulp? Someone told me it’s wood pulp—that makes your sauce grainy instead of smooth. I made this both ways back to back and I swear on my grandmother’s grave the fresh-grated is better. My sauce went from “eh it’s fine” to “why is this so good.”

Heavy cream is what makes this fancy restaurant quality instead of just okay chicken. I tried half-and-half once when I ran out and it was…fine. But not the same. Not even close honestly. Sometimes you just gotta commit.

Essential Tools and Equipment

Nothing fancy:

• Big skillet (mine’s cast iron and I’m weirdly possessive of it)
• Sharp knife for cutting chicken
• Whisk
• Tongs (or a spatula if you can’t find your tongs, which happens to me constantly)
• Measuring cups and spoons
• Cheese grater
• Plate and aluminum foil

How To Make Creamy Garlic Parmesan Chicken

Step 1: Prepare the Chicken Cutlets

Take your chicken breast and put it flat on a cutting board. Rest your hand on top—not pressing hard, just steadying it—and use a sharp knife to slice through the middle horizontally. Like you’re trying to make two thinner pieces instead of one thick one.

Step 2: Sear the Chicken

Get your skillet hot on medium-high. Like actually wait for it to heat up properly. I know you’re hungry. I’m always hungry too. But if the pan’s not hot enough the chicken just sticks and steams and you’ll hate everything.

Add the olive oil and butter together. The butter’s gonna melt and get all foamy. When the foam dies down, that means the water evaporated and you’re ready. Put your chicken in carefully—it should make that satisfying sizzle sound immediately. If it just kind of…sits there quietly? Your pan wasn’t hot enough. Learn from my many mistakes.

Leave it alone for 5-6 minutes. Don’t poke it. Don’t lift the corner to peek. Don’t touch it. I know it’s hard. I struggle with this too. But you gotta let it develop that golden crust. Flip it over, cook the other side the same way.

When it’s done—and I finally bought a meat thermometer after undercooking chicken one too many times, I’m looking for 160°F—take it out and put it on a plate. Loosely cover it with foil. We’ll deal with it later.

Step 3: Build the Sauce Base

Do NOT wash that pan. I don’t care how crusty it looks. All those brown bits stuck to the bottom are about to become the best part of your dinner. Turn the heat down to medium and dump in your flour and minced garlic right into those drippings.

Stir it around constantly for a minute or so. You’re waking up the garlic and cooking the flour so it doesn’t taste like raw paste. Your kitchen should smell insane right now—in a good way. But WATCH that garlic because if it burns this whole thing is cooked. And not in a good way. Burned garlic is bitter and angry and ruins everything. I’ve learned this lesson exactly four times before it stuck.

Step 4: Deglaze and Reduce

Pour in your chicken broth. Or wine—I literally just use whatever white wine I’m drinking that night, assuming I remembered to buy wine, which is maybe 60% of the time. Take your whisk and scrape up all those stuck bits from the bottom. So satisfying. Like popping bubble wrap.

Let this bubble away until it reduces to about half. You’ll know because it looks thicker and more concentrated. When you drag your spoon through it you can see the bottom of the pan for a second. Takes maybe 3-4 minutes? I don’t time it, I just watch it.

Step 5: Add the Cream and Cheese

Pour in your cream and stir it all together. Now here’s where I messed up the first THREE times I made this. Are you listening? Don’t let it come to a hard rolling boil. You want gentle little bubbles around the edges, not volcanic eruption bubbles.

When you boil cream too hard it breaks and separates and looks curdled and weird. One time I did this when my friend was over and I had to pretend I meant to do it. She was nice about it but I saw her face. Let it simmer gently for a few minutes until it’s thick enough to coat the back of your spoon.

Take the pan OFF the heat. THEN add your Parmesan. This is the trick my friend’s Italian grandmother told me when I was complaining about grainy sauce at book club. She looked at me like I was raised by wolves but then helped me fix it. Add cheese off heat, stir until it melts, smooth as anything.

Step 6: Finish and Serve

Put your chicken back in that beautiful sauce. Nestle it in there. Spoon extra sauce on top because you can never have too much. Let it sit for a minute while the chicken soaks everything up like a sponge.

Taste the sauce. Does it need more salt? Add it. More pepper? Do it. I usually need to add a bit more salt but it depends on what broth you used. Some are saltier than others.

Throw the parsley on top. It’s not just for making it look pretty—though it does—it actually adds this fresh brightness that keeps the whole thing from feeling too heavy. Like when you realize you need to open a window. Serve it right now while everything’s hot.

You Must Know

The absolute fastest way to wreck this sauce is letting it boil too hard after the cream goes in. I get it. You’re impatient. You want it to hurry up and thicken. Me too. But crank up that heat and let it boil aggressively and it’s gonna split on you. You’ll end up with curdled grainy sadness instead of silky delicious sauce.

Keep it at a gentle simmer. Be patient. I know patience isn’t your strong suit—it’s not mine either—but trust me on this one.

Personal Secret: That meat thermometer I mentioned? Changed my entire life. Cost me like eight bucks at Target. I used to guess when chicken was done and lived in constant fear of either giving everyone salmonella or serving something you could use as a hockey puck. Now I just stick the thermometer in and when it says 160°F I’m done. It keeps cooking after you take it off the heat and hits 165°F while it rests.

Pro Tips & Cooking Hacks

Your pan has to be actually hot before the chicken goes in. Not “I turned the burner on 30 seconds ago” hot. Like properly heated up hot. I’ve thrown away so many pale sad pieces of stuck chicken because I was too impatient to wait for the pan to heat up right. Now I just…wait. Revolutionary, I know.

Don’t crowd your pan. If all your chicken pieces can’t fit with space between them, cook in batches. I have a medium-sized skillet so I always do two batches. Yeah it’s an extra few minutes. But crowded chicken steams instead of sears and you lose that gorgeous crust. Not worth it.

If you remember—which I’d say I do about 40% of the time—take the cream out of the fridge when you start cooking. Room temperature cream incorporates smoother. But honestly I forget more often than I remember and it works fine, so don’t lose sleep over it.

Sauce too thick? Splash in more broth. Too thin? Let it simmer longer. This is pretty forgiving as long as you don’t boil the life out of it.

Save pasta water if you’re doing noodles with this. That starchy water makes sauce stick to pasta better. Saw this on some cooking show once while folding laundry and it actually works.

Flavor Variations & Suggestions

Sun-dried tomatoes are SO good in this. The ones in oil, not the dried ones—learned that the hard way. Chop them up and throw them in with the cream. They add this sweet tangy thing that really works. My best friend makes it this way and honestly it might be better than the original. Don’t tell her I said that.

Mushrooms are great too. After you take the chicken out, throw in like 8 ounces of sliced mushrooms and cook them in all those drippings before you start making the sauce. Takes an extra 5 minutes but the mushroom flavor gets into everything. My husband requests this version specifically even though it means I have to actually slice mushrooms.

Spinach if you want to pretend you ate vegetables. Few big handfuls at the very end, it wilts right into the sauce. I do this when my sister comes over because she’s on some health kick and I want to look supportive.

You can use chicken thighs instead. Actually easier to not mess up because they stay juicier even if you overcook them a bit. But everyone in my house likes white meat better so here we are, making breasts and stressing about overcooking them.

Little squeeze of lemon juice at the end if it feels too heavy. Just a bit. Cuts through all that richness. Sometimes I need this, sometimes I don’t. Depends on the day honestly.

Half-and-half instead of cream if you want it lighter. The sauce won’t be as thick and there’s more chance it’ll break on you but it’s still pretty good. Not as good, but still good enough.

Make-Ahead Options

Sometimes when I’m feeling really organized—which is rare, let’s be honest—I’ll butterfly and season the chicken the night before. Stick it in a container in the fridge. Saves me like 10 minutes the next day which matters when you’re trying to have dinner on the table before everyone loses their minds.

Leftovers keep for a few days in the fridge. The sauce turns into basically solid gravy when it’s cold. Looks kind of alarming but it’s totally normal. When you reheat it, add a few spoonfuls of broth or cream to thin it back out. I use the stovetop to reheat it because microwaves make me sad.

Don’t freeze this. I tried once because I thought I was being smart and efficient. The sauce separated and got all grainy when I thawed it. The texture was wrong. My dog wouldn’t even eat it. Actually that’s a lie, my dog ate it, but he eats used tissues so his opinion doesn’t count.

Recipe Notes & Baker’s Tips

The sauce is ready when it coats the back of a spoon and stays there. Like if you run your finger through it on the spoon and the line holds for a second before it runs back together, you’re good. First time someone told me this I was like “what does that even mean” but now I get it.

Wine makes better flavor than broth if you have it. I usually have something open from the weekend—Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Grigio usually—and just dump some in. Whatever’s in your glass works. Just make sure it’s dry not sweet. Made that mistake once with some Moscato situation and the sauce was weirdly sugary. Would not recommend.

This is best right when you make it. Cream sauces keep thickening as they cool down so the longer it sits the thicker it gets. Still good, just not as saucy. Plan accordingly.

If you mess up and boil it too hard and it starts looking grainy, sometimes you can save it with an immersion blender. Doesn’t always work but sometimes it does. Worth a shot if you’re already at the “well this is ruined” stage.

Serving Suggestions

Usually I make pasta to go with this. Whatever noodles I have—fettuccine, angel hair, spaghetti even. Sometimes I toss the cooked pasta right in the skillet with the sauce before putting the chicken back in. Then everybody gets properly sauced pasta and there’s less fighting. Yes my children fight over who got more sauce. They’re delightful.

Mashed potatoes are insane with this sauce. Like the sauce and potatoes just become one thing and it’s pure comfort food magic. My dad literally will not eat this any other way. He calls ahead to make sure I’m making mashed potatoes. He’s 67.

For people doing low-carb—my sister’s always on some diet—zucchini noodles or cauliflower rice work. She seemed happy with it. Though she also said she missed real pasta which, yeah, same.

Bread is absolutely mandatory. I will fight you on this. You cannot make this much delicious sauce and not have bread to soak it up. I get whatever crusty bread looks good at the store. Sometimes the only thing left on my plate is bread swimming in sauce and I’m not ashamed.

Some kind of salad on the side makes you feel like less of a garbage person for eating all that cream. I do whatever greens are in the fridge with lemon juice and olive oil. Sometimes balsamic if I’m feeling fancy. Usually just lemon.

Green vegetable for color. Green beans, broccoli, asparagus when it’s on sale. Whatever makes it look like I made a balanced meal instead of just chicken swimming in cream sauce.

How to Store Your Creamy Garlic Parmesan Chicken

Stick leftovers in whatever container you can find with a lid. I have approximately 47 mismatched containers and can never find matching lids. It’s fine. Everything’s fine. Keep it in the fridge for 3 days, maybe 4 if you’re not too precious about these things.

The sauce solidifies when it’s cold. First time this happened I thought I’d ruined it but no, that’s just what cream sauces do. Totally normal even though it looks wrong.

Reheat on the stove if you can. Put everything in a pan on medium-low, add some broth or cream to wake it back up, cover it, and give it maybe 5-7 minutes. Stir it occasionally so it doesn’t stick. Comes out way better than microwave.

If you’re microwaving—I do this for lunch at work sometimes—short bursts at half power and add a splash of liquid. Otherwise the chicken turns into rubber and the sauce gets weird and oily.

Already told you not to freeze it but if you’re gonna do it anyway, I can’t stop you. Use a good freezer container, freeze up to a month, thaw in the fridge overnight, reheat gently while whisking constantly and hoping for a miracle. Good luck. You’ll need it.

Allergy Information

This has dairy in every possible form. Cream, butter, Parmesan. It’s basically a dairy festival. If you’re lactose intolerant or allergic, you’re gonna have a rough time.

You could try coconut cream instead of dairy cream—get the thick canned stuff not the drink kind. Vegan butter instead of regular butter. Nutritional yeast instead of Parmesan, though honestly that’s not gonna taste the same at all. My cousin’s vegan and made it this way and said it was okay. Not great, but okay. She still looked sad about missing the real version.

Questions I Get Asked A Lot

My sauce turned out grainy—what happened?

Either you boiled it too hard after the cream went in, or you used that pre-shredded Parmesan from the bag. I did both of these things multiple times before learning my lesson. The shredded stuff has anti-caking powder—wood pulp? Potato starch? Something weird—that stops it from melting smooth. And boiling cream too hard makes it break. Grate your own cheese next time and keep the heat lower. I promise it’ll be better.

Can I make this with frozen chicken?

I mean technically you can do whatever you want, but it’s not gonna work well. Frozen chicken leaks out so much water while cooking and won’t get that nice brown sear. You’ll end up with pale sad steamed chicken. Thaw it first—overnight in the fridge or in a sealed bag in cold water if you forgot like I always do. Takes an hour or so in cold water. We’ve all been there.

What’s the best wine to use if I skip the chicken broth?

Whatever dry white wine you’d actually drink. I use Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Grigio usually because that’s what I buy for myself anyway. Sometimes Chardonnay if it’s on sale. Just make sure it’s DRY not sweet. I grabbed the wrong bottle once—some sweet Riesling thing—and the sauce tasted like dessert. Not in a good way. Really not in a good way.

The sauce is too thin—how do I fix it?

Let it simmer longer before you add the cheese. More time = more water evaporates = thicker sauce. Basic science or whatever. If it’s still thin after the Parmesan’s in, mix a teaspoon of cornstarch with a tablespoon of cold water, stir that slurry into the sauce, and let it simmer another minute or two. Should thicken right up. Also remember it keeps getting thicker as it cools so maybe just wait a minute before you panic.

💬 Okay so if you make this PLEASE tell me how it goes! Did you love it? Hate it? Add something weird? I want to hear everything!