Garlic Butter Chicken Breast

Garlic Butter Chicken Breast is tender, juicy chicken cooked in flavorful garlic butter sauce in just 30 minutes. Perfect for weeknight dinners!

If you love moist chicken, then I think you will love this baked honey garlic chicken breast and lemon garlic chicken.

This easy garlic butter chicken breast is amazing! The garlic butter sauce makes baked chicken breast tender, moist and juicy plus adds a ton of flavor too!

It is a perfect weeknight dinner because you don’t have to brine, marinate or even pound the chicken breasts. It is so quick and easy!

Made in one skillet for less clean up and in just 30 minutes. Winner winner chicken dinner! Your entire family will love it!

And the results are amazing! Don’t worry about dry or tough chicken here, it won’t happen. This chicken in garlic butter sauce is a family favorite chicken recipe for a reason. Just like this chicken breast in Instant Pot and chicken breast in crock pot are.

Ingredients You Will Need

To make flavorful garlic butter chicken breast you will need 5 simple ingredients. Don’t worry, the seasoning is super easy to make at home or use your favorite one.

• Chicken breasts: 4 large boneless skinless chicken breasts, about 2 pounds.
• All-purpose seasoning: It is my go-to homemade spice blend made with basic ingredients in 5 minutes. You could also use Italian seasoning with 1 teaspoon of salt and 1/2 teaspoon of pepper. Or use store-bought seasoning salt.
• Butter: Use unsalted butter because seasoning has salt in it already.
• Fresh garlic: 3 large garlic cloves that have been minced. If you love garlic, use more. If you garlic is less potent, use more as well. I used 3 large Russian garlic cloves which are very flavorful.
• Olive oil: For frying chicken breasts.
• Fresh herbs (optional): Fresh parsley or fresh basil would make nice garnish and add flavor but are totally optional.

How to Make Garlic Butter Chicken Breast

Here is how to make garlic butter chicken recipe in a few simple steps.

You just need one cast iron skillet, and if you don’t have one, just use regular skillet and baking pan to bake the chicken breasts in it after searing.

• Make the seasoning: In a small bowl, combine salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, dried parsley, dried oregano and red pepper flakes. Stir well and transfer to a container with tight fitting lid for storage. Set aside as we will need it in just a minute.
• Season the chicken breasts: Pat dry chicken breasts with paper towels and sprinkle with 1 teaspoon of all-purpose seasoning on both sides.
• Sear them: Preheat cast iron skillet on medium-high heat and add olive oil. Pan fry chicken breasts for 2 minutes per side, just until golden brown. Remove from heat.

• Make the garlic butter sauce for chicken: In a small bowl, add 4 tablespoons of butter and melt in a microwave or on a stovetop. Add minced garlic, 2 teaspoons of seasoning and minced garlic. Stir well and pour over the chicken breasts in a skillet.
• Bake the chicken breasts: Cook uncovered in a preheated oven to 400 degrees F for 25 minutes. Ovens vary, so if yours runs hotter bake on a middle rack, otherwise bottom rack is the best.
• Let them rest: Remove garlic butter chicken breasts from the oven and cover with any lid, aluminum foil or even a cutting board like I did. Let chicken rest for 5 minutes before cutting and serving it.

How Long Should I Bake Chicken Breast?

You might have a question – “how long should I bake chicken breast?” and it’s a valid question. Cook time depends on 2 things:

1. Thickness of the chicken breast and
2. Oven temperature.

With my baked chicken breast, I prefer to cook it at 450 F. But with this garlic butter chicken breast, I opted out for a lower temperature to avoid burning garlic and butter.

Here is a quick time chart for your reference.

• Under 2 inches thick breasts: 25 minutes.
• Over 2 inches thick breasts: 30-35 minutes.

How Do I Know When It’s Done?

How do you know when your chicken breast is ready to eat? As per US food safety, when you insert an internal read thermometer into the thickest part of the chicken breast and it reads 165 F, your chicken is ready.

I highly recommend to invest into a quality meat thermometer. It will become helpful when cooking and checking internal temperature of any kind of meat.

Tips for Best Results

• Even thickness chicken breasts: Choose similar size chicken breasts so they cook evenly. If you cook small chicken breasts with medium to large sized breasts, little ones will turn out dry and rubbery by the time big ones are ready.
• Chicken thighs: Boneless skinless chicken thighs will work in this garlic butter chicken breast recipe. Boneless chicken breasts just look prettier. You could also use bone-in chicken thighs with skin-on and bake for longer time.
• If you don’t have cast iron skillet: Sear chicken in a large skillet, then transfer to an ovenproof baking dish and follow the recipe.
• Don’t skip resting: When chicken breasts rest under the cover, their juices redistribute and meat becomes more tender.
• Larger garlic pieces: Mince garlic into larger pieces, so it doesn’t burn during baking.
• Don’t burn the garlic: Make sure not to burn the garlic pieces as it will change the taste of the dish. If you notice it starts burning, scoop it off the breasts into the sauce or cover the pan loosely with aluminum foil.

Serving Garlic Butter Chicken

Serving garlic butter chicken is my favorite part! Everyone’s eyes light up at a sight of golden browned chicken with rich garlic butter sauce.

Best part is you can spoon the sauce over any plain side dish like rice, quinoa, spaghetti noodles or potatoes and it instantly becomes a complete meal that’s full of flavor!

For low carb meal, serve over spaghetti squash noodles.

How to Store

Store: Store leftover chicken in an airtight container for up to 5 days. I prefer to store chicken breasts whole and not sliced to retain maximum moisture. I also think storing in glass containers is better for taste reasons.

Freeze: Cook, cool completely and freeze chicken in airtight container for up to 3 months. Thaw in the fridge overnight or on a counter for a few hours.

FAQs

More Chicken Breast Recipes

We love this easy chicken recipe and hope you will too! Here are more of our go-to recipes you should try.

• Chicken breast with tomatoes
• Lemon chicken breast
• Oven barbecue chicken breast
• Baked chicken breast
• Lemon pepper chicken breast
• Chicken breast marinade