Crispy chicken with your favorite vegetables in a simple creamy garlic pan sauce. On the table in 45 minutes!
We’ve got a super simple skillet dinner that comes together in only about 35 minutes.
What this meal is:
√ Quick and easy.
√ Fresh flavor to the max.
√ Feel-good and wholesome.
√ Protein packed.
√ Gluten free.
√ Saucy and satisfying.
The whole idea is similar to this cilantro lime chicken and lemon thyme chicken. Cook chicken, make a pan sauce, bake. This time I’m adding roasted veggies to the mix to make a perfectly rounded-out meal in one.
If you love simple & wholesome chicken dinners, here are more favorites:
Cornbread Chili Casserole, Bruschetta Chicken, Slow Cooker Chicken Chili, Baked Chicken Meatballs, Chicken Pot Pie, & Apple Cider Chicken
You can use any veggies like broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus, etc. I chose small potatoes and butternut squash (and I suggest you do the same!). Chopped both up and roasted for 15 minutes with a little olive oil, salt, and pepper. You’ll need about a cup of veggies per person.
While the veggies are in the oven, cook the chicken in a skillet on the stove. You want it browned and a little crisp on the outside. It will continue to cook in the oven a little later. Set that chicken aside and get started on the creamy garlic pan sauce.
Whole milk and chicken broth are the base of the creamy sauce. You can use heavy cream or even half-and-half instead, but I strongly discourage you from using a lower fat milk. Lower fat milks are more prone to curdling when added to heat because they do not have a high fat content. More on that in the recipe notes. To prevent the whole milk from curdling (because sometimes it can!), whisk in a little cornstarch before adding to the pan sauce. And never add cold milk to the warm pan. That’s enough on milk curdling today.
Also in the creamy sauce? We’ve got diced onion, a smidgen of butter (flavor!), parsley, and a whole lotta garlic. You’ll need 5 fresh garlic cloves, minced. I added whole cloves to the sauce as well. Just for extra flavor and because they look pretty. I’ll note that in the recipe below. The extra flavor thing, not the pretty food thing.
Allow the sauce to simmer, then add the chicken and veggies directly to the skillet. Place the whole skillet in the oven and bake for 5-10 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through. How easy is that? The chicken is crisp and the veggies absorb that crazy flavorful bubbling garlic sauce.
Me: “Did you like this dinner?”
Family: “Your breath.”
Skillet Chicken & Veggies with Creamy Light Garlic Sauce
- Prep Time: 35 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: serves 4
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Cooking
- Cuisine: American
Description
Crispy chicken with your favorite vegetables in a simple creamy garlic pan sauce. On the table in 45 minutes!
Ingredients
- around 4 cups vegetables (cubed butternut squash, quartered small potatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, chopped asparagus)*
- 2 Tablespoons olive oil, divided
- salt & freshly ground black pepper
- 4 skinless boneless chicken breasts (I used 3 because they were large)
- 1 cup chicken broth (I recommend reduced sodium)
- 1 Tablespoon unsalted butter
- 1/4 cup finely chopped onion
- 5 whole garlic cloves, minced*
- 2 teaspoons dried parsley
- 3/4 cup whole milk, at room temperature*
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- optional: fresh parsley for garnish
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°F (204°C). Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Spread vegetables on top and lightly drizzle with 1 Tablespoon of olive oil. Sprinkle with a little salt and pepper. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and set aside. Keep oven on. (Time saving tip: Get started on steps 2 and 3 as the vegetables bake.)
- If the chicken breasts are uneven in thickness, pound them down so they’re all even. This way all the breasts will cook through simultaneously. Evenly sprinkle the chicken with 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper.
- In a large ovenproof skillet, heat 1 Tablespoon of olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the chicken and cook for 6-7 minutes, turning once. You want the chicken nice and browned on the outside. (It doesn’t have to be cooked all the way through yet.) Set chicken on a plate and cover tightly with foil until step 5.
- Remove skillet from heat and add the broth, butter, onion, garlic, and parsley. Return to heat. Cook and stir to scrape up the browned bits from the bottom of the skillet. Bring to a boil. Allow to boil gently, uncovered, for 5 minutes. Whisk together the milk and cornstarch, then slowly whisk into the sauce.
- Add chicken and cooked vegetables to the sauce and place the skillet in the oven. Bake until the chicken is completely cooked through, about 5-10 minutes.
- Serve chicken, vegetables, and sauce together with a little fresh parsley for garnish if desired. Leftovers keep well in the refrigerator for a few days. Reheat to your liking.
Notes
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Baking Sheet | Silicone Baking Mat or Parchment Paper | Ovenproof Skillet
- Vegetables: I use about 4 cups total of a mix of quartered small potatoes and cubed butternut squash. These vegetables soaked up the sauce perfectly! You can also use my suggested vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, or chopped asparagus. Keep your eye on the vegetables in step 1 as different vegetables may be done in the oven before my potatoes and squash were.
- Garlic: One fresh garlic clove is typically equal to 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic from a jar. If using minced instead of fresh garlic, keep in mind that minced is slightly milder than fresh. You may need to add a little extra. If garlic is really your thing, add a couple whole garlic cloves to the sauce as well. I did this because I seriously love garlic.
- Milk: Let’s prevent that milk from curdling by using whole milk, not a lower fat milk. You can use half-and-half, heavy cream, or even coconut milk (to keep it dairy free) instead. Room temperature is key to help prevent the milk from curdling, as is the cornstarch.
- Skillet: Make sure your skillet is large and ovenproof. 11-12 inch is best as the veggies AND chicken must fit!
- Nutrition Information: Using SparkRecipes calculator, this gluten free chicken dish with the butternut squash and potatoes comes out to about 415 calories, 15g fat, 32g carbs, and 37g protein per serving (one 6 ounce chicken breast, one cup veggies, extra sauce). If your chicken breasts are smaller or larger than 6 ounces each and you use other vegetables, these numbers will differ.
- Adapted from Cilantro Lime Chicken
Keywords: garlic chicken and vegetables
Such an easy dinner and a delicious garlic sauce too!
★★★★★
Hi Sally! I love making your recipes, I’m living in an apartment at college for the first time this year and your recipes are simple and delicious! My roommates are always in awe of what I make, and don’t believe me when I say these recipes aren’t difficult at all! I used butternut squash and carrots this time because that’s what I had on hand and it was delicious! I had the veggies in the oven for about half an hour and ended up turning them on broil for the last bit because I did not want them to be mushy and it turned out perfect! Thank you for your simple, tasty meals! No more dining hall for me!
Hi Liv, This makes me so happy to read! I’m thrilled you have been enjoying my recipes and I bet this was delicious with butternut squash and carrots!
I made this tonight! I used bone in chicken pieces (drumsticks & thighs), brushed them with concentrated chicken stock before searing the pieces. Made the sauce double as I used a lot of chicken, used chicken & veggie stock. Then cooked the chicken in the sauce on the stove top. Came our perfect!!! Thank you!
★★★★★
Summer time now so I subbed zucchini and yellow squash, mushrooms, baby carrots, onion and red bell pepper. Sliced all that and pan fried with a little butter. Just before cooked thru I added chicken cubes and some sliced sausage then mixed in your sauce recipe. Once the chiken was done, we ate ! Very delish and no oven to heat up kitchen.
Have been looking for a nice recipe for oven chicken and vegetables that doesn’t take forever, and this is the one! It’s excellent, the garlic makes it. Don’t use those pre-made sauces when this one is so easy and tasty!
Hi there. I just happened to see your recipe and I was wondering if I could make it with what I have on hand but I don’t have cornstarch. Do you think it would turn out the same if I substituted flour? Or do you think that’s a bad idea?
Thanks for your help!!
Cornstarch is best, but flour would work too.
We’ve been so bored with meals lately, and after I made the crockpot chicken chili, I came back to your website and found this recipe…. So delicious!
I’m so happy you found this recipe! It’s one of my favorites for a flavorful dinner!
Tried making this last night….what a disaster lol
If I can make some suggestions to improve on it……
1) make sure the veggies are cut SMALL, and if using potatoes, par boil them first , bake them at 425 instead
2) Change the teaspoon of corn starch to a table spoon. Sauce was too runny
3) even for me, pulling the skillet out of the oven was HEAVY and dangerous. Best to transfer all contents to a large baking dish so you can grab it with both hands
4) cut up the chicken pieces in stead of whole breasts. Easier to serve to more than two people
5) sauce was a little bland for me. Maybe a 1/4 cup of white cooking wine as well
6)parsley didn’t have enough flavor to impact the dish. I’m going to use fresh scallions next time
7) edits sesring the chicken, egg wash, then lightly coat with flour. It will give it that crispiness that will be awesome once cooked in the sauce.
I was really bummed that following these directions exactly turned out so terrible. I had to throw it away and make some pizza for me and my son.
Gonna make a few alterations next time because I think this dish has great potential!!!
I love this recipe! It looks SO GOOD! I was just wondering, is there anyway to do this recipe all on the stove, as I don’t have a skillet that is oven-safe? Maybe cook the chicken for longer? Even though this recipe does give me a good excuse to go by a nice new piece of cookware for my kitchen! 🙂 can’t wait to try this!
Absolutely you can skip the oven! And you got it– cook the chicken for longer making sure it is fully cooked on the inside.
Made this for dinner tonight and it was delicious, and I used skim milk! I also didn’t finish it in the oven since I don’t have a skillet that allows for that. Didn’t turn out as pretty as yours, but everyone enjoyed it! Thank you for sharing your wonderful recipes Sally! 😀
Hey Sally!
I’m doing the Whole30 this month and have been trying to gather as many recipes as possible so I don’t get too bored with the same old things! Do you think I could substitute coconut milk for the regular milk and arrowroot powder for the cornstarch to make it compliant? If you aren’t sure, I might just give it a whirl anyway and I’ll let you know how it goes!
Megan
I’m sure those would be fine substitutes. Let me know how it goes!
I made this for dinner last night. It was delicious! I have lost 38 lbs and am still watching and it was so easy to adjust this recipe to go right along with my plan. I used coconut oil and almond milk instead of whole milk. So so yummy!
I made this tonight for dinner and it was awesome! I used potatoes, broccoli, sweet onion and orange pepper for the veggies. I also used half-and-half instead of milk. It was great, lots of flavor and super easy to make!
Hey Sally! I made this tonight and it was delicious!! My husband, toddler and I all loved it! I loved that it was a lighter sauce! Thanks a lot!!!
I made this for dinner tonight! It was AMAZING the whole family loved it!!!
This recipe sounds delicious! Is there any way to make it dairy-free?
Coconut milk works instead of whole milk.