Description
This One Pan Chicken with Buttered Noodles recipe combines juicy seared chicken breasts with tender egg noodles cooked in a creamy garlic Parmesan sauce. Everything cooks together in one skillet for minimal cleanup and maximum flavor. Perfect for busy weeknights when you need comfort food fast!
Ingredients
For the Chicken:
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4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
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Salt and pepper, to taste
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2 tablespoons olive oil
For the Buttered Noodles:
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3 garlic cloves, minced
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2 cups chicken broth
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1 cup heavy cream
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8 oz (≈ 225 g) egg noodles
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3 tablespoons butter
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¼ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
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Fresh parsley, chopped (optional, for garnish)
Instructions
First thing grab some paper towels and pat your chicken completely dry because wet chicken just steams instead of getting that nice brown crust and you end up with sad grey chicken. Season both sides with salt and pepper and don’t be scared to use enough – underseasoned chicken is so disappointing and you can’t really fix it after.
If you got those giant Costco chicken breasts that are like a pound each and super thick on one side, you gotta pound them flat. I put mine between two pieces of plastic wrap and hit them with my meat mallet until they’re about the same thickness all over, maybe like three quarters of an inch. Otherwise the skinny part is basically jerky by the time the thick part is cooked through and nobody wants dry chicken.
Get your skillet on medium heat and pour in the olive oil. When it starts looking shimmery and moves around the pan easily that’s when you add the chicken. And then here’s the hard part – do NOT touch it. Don’t poke it, don’t flip it early, don’t peek under it to see if it’s brown yet. Just leave it alone for like 5 or 6 minutes to get that golden crust. Flip it one time, cook the other side another 5 or 6 minutes.
My stove runs cold so mine usually takes closer to 7 minutes per side but every stove is different. If you have a meat thermometer stick it in the thickest part and it should read 165 degrees. Take the chicken out and put it on a plate. Whatever you do DO NOT wash the pan or wipe it out because all those brown stuck bits are literally flavor gold and you need them for the sauce.
Toss your minced garlic right into that same hot pan and stir it around. It’s gonna smell absolutely incredible within like thirty seconds. But watch it really close because garlic goes from perfect to burnt in like two seconds flat and burnt garlic is so bitter it’ll ruin the whole thing. If it starts looking too dark too fast just yank the pan off the burner for a minute.
Pour in your chicken broth and the heavy cream. Use a wooden spoon to scrape up all those stuck brown bits from the bottom – this is called deglazing and it’s literally where most of the flavor comes from so don’t skip this part. Get it up to a simmer where you see little bubbles around the edges. Not a crazy rolling boil that’s splashing everywhere, just a nice gentle bubble. It smells so good at this point I usually have to stop my kid from trying to eat it with a spoon.
Just dump the egg noodles right into the liquid. Push them down with your spoon so most of them are under the liquid – some will stick up at first but they’ll soften and settle down. Put the lid on and let them cook for 8 to 10 minutes but here’s the thing – you absolutely HAVE to stir them every two or three minutes or they’ll stick to the bottom and burn.
I learned this the super hard way when I got distracted trying to help with homework and came back to noodles literally cemented to my pan and it took me like an hour to scrub it clean. So now I set a timer on my phone for 2 minutes, stir, reset the timer. If your sauce looks like it’s getting really thick before the noodles are soft enough just add a little splash of broth or water to loosen it up.
When the noodles are soft turn your heat down to low. Add the butter and Parmesan and keep stirring until everything melts together and looks creamy and coats all the noodles. It should look smooth and silky. If it looks oily and separated like the butter isn’t mixing in your heat was probably too high – you need low gentle heat for this part so everything emulsifies together properly.
Put your chicken back in the pan nestling it down into the noodles. I usually slice mine up first on the cutting board because it’s way easier to serve that way and honestly looks prettier too. Let everything sit together for a couple minutes so the chicken warms back up and all the flavors get to hang out together.
Throw some parsley on top if you remembered to buy it which I forget like half the time. Then just bring the whole pan to the table and serve directly from it.
Notes
Pound your chicken if it’s uneven. I know it’s an extra step but it’s worth it. Put it between some plastic wrap and whack it with something heavy until it’s about the same thickness all over. Otherwise the thin parts get dry before the thick parts are cooked.
Get yourself a cheap instant-read thermometer. Chicken should hit 165°F and then you know it’s done without guessing. Overcooked chicken is sad and rubbery.
Use real Parmesan that you grate yourself. The pre-grated stuff in the plastic container doesn’t melt the same way and honestly doesn’t taste as good. I buy a chunk from Costco and it lasts forever.
Watch your heat. If that sauce starts bubbling like crazy, turn it down. You want a gentle simmer, not an aggressive boil that’ll make your cream separate.
Don’t put the chicken back too early or it’ll overcook and get tough. I did this the first three times I made this and wondered why my chicken was so dry.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Category: Main Dish
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: American