Tuscan Chicken: The Creamy, Cheesy Dinner Recipe Perfect for Weeknights

What’s for dinner tonight? It’s the question that nearly everyone asks themselves once afternoon fades into evening, and for those with kids, the question may come even earlier (and over and over again). Thanks to this classic creamy Tuscan chicken recipe, courtesy of recipe developer Katie Rosenhouse, the heavily anticipated dinner question no longer has to be something you dread. “It’s hard to find a dish that me, my husband, and my 4-year-old all love, and this one was a total winner,” Rosenhouse says. And, something tells us that it’d be just as big of a hit with your family, too.

So, what makes Tuscan chicken (not to be mistaken for Marry Me Chicken) such a winning dinnertime entree? Well, for starters, it’s hard to beat the rich, creamy flavors that this dish has to offer. “The creamy sauce is beautifully balanced and incredibly deep in flavor, especially considering how quick this dish is to pull together,” Rosenhouse says. For context, the exact amount of time you need to pull this dish together is a mere 30 minutes. She also highlights the fact that this Tuscan chicken recipe really is simple enough for a weeknight meal, but you can easily dress it up with more fresh herbs and perhaps some freshly-grated Parmesan cheese to make it a little more sophisticated, and it would be perfect to serve to dinner party guests. 

You’ll need chicken breasts to kick off this recipe, along with salt, black pepper, and Italian seasoning to season the breasts and olive oil to brown them. To build the creamy sauce, you’ll need butter, mushrooms, more salt, a shallot, garlic, optional white wine for deglazing the pan, chicken stock, sundried tomatoes, and heavy cream. For final touches, you’ll stir spinach, Parmesan cheese, and fresh basil into the sauce, and when it comes time to serve, you may want extra fresh basil to garnish and cooked pasta to pair with the Tuscan chicken.

Season the chicken breasts on both sides with ½ teaspoon salt, Italian seasoning, and ¼ teaspoon pepper.

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat.

Add the chicken breasts to the pan and cook until browned on both sides (it will not be cooked through).

Transfer the chicken to a plate.

Add the butter, mushrooms, and ¼ teaspoon salt to the pan.

Cook until browned.

Stir in the shallot and garlic.

Cook until aromatic and lightly browned.

If using, deglaze the pan with white wine, cooking it down until it’s almost completely reduced.

Stir in the chicken stock and sundried tomatoes.

Add the chicken back to pan.

Reduce the heat to low, cover, and cook until the internal temperature of the chicken reaches 165 F, flipping the chicken once during cooking.

Transfer the chicken to a serving plate.

Add the spinach and cream to pan; cook, stirring often, until the sauce is reduced by half and the spinach is wilted.

Remove the sauce from the heat and stir in the Parmesan and basil.

Pour the sauce over the chicken breasts.

Garnish with additional basil and serve over pasta if desired.

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There are many pasta dishes out there with rich, fascinating, and often definitive origin stories, and then there are those like Tuscan chicken. At first glance, the origin of Tuscan chicken seems easy enough — surely it hails from the Tuscany region of Italy, right? Well, as with so many dishes, Tuscan chicken doesn’t actually have a clear-cut origin point in Tuscany, though it does reflect a general Tuscan-like approach to cooking. Traditional Tuscan cooking revolves around simplicity, showcasing tried-and-true ingredients (like chicken and mushrooms) in a non-fussy way that ideally will serve a crowd. So, looking at it from that standpoint, it’s easy to see why this dish might be called Tuscan chicken.

Of course, we’d be remiss not to mention the very American restaurant that helped popularize Tuscan chicken back in the day: Olive Garden. Though the Tuscan garlic chicken has been discontinued on Olive Garden’s menu, it certainly had its heyday circa 2013, boasting a creamy garlic sauce served with chicken over fettuccine. So, while Tuscan chicken doesn’t have a definitive origin point (and therefore we can’t be certain why it’s called Tuscan chicken to begin with), it’s safe to say that the delightful dish’s namesake reflects its steadfast place in the world of Italian-American fusion cuisine.

Despite already being such an easy dish to throw together on a weeknight, if you’re looking to simplify Tuscan chicken even more to the point of preparing it ahead of time, we have a few tips for you. “If you do want to prep it in advance, consider swapping the chicken breasts for boneless chicken thighs so they won’t dry out when reheating the way breasts can (adjusting the cooking time as needed until the internal temperature of the thickest part of the thighs reaches 165 F),” Rosenhouse advises. If you take this route, you can prepare the dish as written almost in its entirety — just stop before adding in the cream and spinach to the sauce. Let everything cool down, then transfer it all into the fridge for up to three days. “Reheat covered on the stovetop, adding a splash of broth if needed to loosen the sauce, until hot throughout,” Rosenhouse says, then remove the chicken from the pan, add in the spinach and cream, and finish the recipe as written. 

For those who aren’t looking to make the dish in advance but want to cut down on that cooking time even more, Rosenhouse recommends splitting the chicken breasts in half to form cutlets. By doing so, the chicken won’t need as much time to cook through.

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