Tuscan Chicken

There’s a version of this dinner I make when the fridge has odds and ends in it — half a bag of spinach going soft, a jar of sun-dried tomatoes with two tablespoons of oil left in the bottom, mushrooms that need using tonight or never. Somehow it always turns out like I planned it that way.

Tuscan chicken isn’t really Tuscan. It’s more American-Italian, the kind of dish that borrows sun-dried tomatoes and parmesan and calls it a day. I’m not mad about it. The sauce is the whole point — cream, garlic, parmesan, reduced down until it clings to the chicken instead of pooling around it.

Why This Works

Searing the chicken first and pulling it out before the sauce goes in matters more than it looks like it should. Cook the chicken all the way through in the sauce instead, and by the time the cream has reduced, you’ve got rubbery chicken sitting in a broken-looking sauce. Pull it out early, let it rest on the board while the mushrooms and cream do their thing, then slide it back in at the end just to heat through — it stays tender.

The mushrooms need their own five to seven minutes alone in the pan before anything else joins them. Mushrooms hold a shocking amount of water, and if you rush this step and add the cream too soon, that water leaks out into the sauce and thins it. Let them go long enough that the pan actually looks dry again, then move on.

And the pan itself isn’t a throwaway detail — sun-dried tomatoes and any acidity in the dish don’t play nice with cast iron or unlined copper. You’ll get a slightly metallic taste and the sauce can curdle at the edges. Stainless steel or a nonstick skillet, no exceptions here.

Ingredients

• 2 large chicken breasts, halved (about 1½ lbs)
• 1 tsp fine sea salt, divided, plus more to taste
• ½ tsp freshly ground black pepper, divided
• ½ tsp garlic powder
• 2 Tbsp light olive oil, divided
• 1 Tbsp unsalted butter
• 8 oz brown (cremini) mushrooms, thickly sliced
• ¼ cup sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil, drained and chopped
• ¼ cup green onion, green parts only, chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1½ cups heavy whipping cream
• ½ cup parmesan cheese, finely shredded
• 2 cups fresh baby spinach
• Fresh chives, chopped, for garnish (optional)

Instructions

1. Melt the butter with 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large stainless steel or non-reactive skillet over medium heat.
2. Season the chicken all over with about half the salt, ¼ teaspoon black pepper, and the garlic powder.
3. Add the chicken to the hot skillet and sauté 3–5 minutes per side, until it hits a safe 165°F on an instant-read thermometer.
4. Pull the chicken out onto a cutting board and let it rest.
5. Slice it if you want — I usually do, it soaks up more sauce that way.
6. In the same pan, still over medium heat, add the remaining tablespoon of oil and the sliced mushrooms.
7. Sauté 5–7 minutes, stirring now and then, until they’re golden and the pan has gone dry again.
8. Stir in the sun-dried tomatoes, green onion, minced garlic, remaining ½ teaspoon salt, and remaining ¼ teaspoon pepper.
9. Cook about 1 more minute, just until the garlic smells like garlic.
10. Pour in the cream and scatter the parmesan over the top.
11. Bring it to a light boil, stirring pretty often so the cheese doesn’t clump at the bottom.
12. Turn the heat down and let it simmer 2 minutes, until it’s thickened enough to coat a spoon.
13. Taste and adjust the salt and pepper — parmesan varies a lot in saltiness, so don’t skip this.
14. Add the spinach and stir just until it wilts down, maybe 30 seconds.
15. Nestle the chicken back into the pan.
16. Spoon the sauce over the top so it’s coated.
17. Take the pan off the heat.
18. Garnish with chives if you have them.

Prep Time: 10 minutes Cook Time: 25 minutes Total Time: 35 minutes Servings: 4

Tips

• Don’t crowd the chicken breasts in the pan — if your skillet’s on the smaller side, sear them in two batches. Crowd them and they steam instead of browning, and you lose that base flavor the whole sauce depends on.
• Shred your own parmesan off a block if you can. The pre-shredded bags are coated in cellulose to keep them from clumping, and that same coating keeps the cheese from melting smoothly into the sauce — you’ll get little grainy bits instead of a silky finish.
• If the sauce looks thin after step 13, give it another minute or two of simmering rather than reaching for cornstarch. It’ll thicken more as it sits, too.

Variations

Swap the spinach for kale if that’s what you’ve got — just give it a minute or two longer to soften, it’s tougher than spinach. I wouldn’t sub in sun-dried tomatoes that aren’t oil-packed, though; the dry kind rehydrated in water never gets that same soft, almost jammy texture, and the dish loses something. Chicken thighs work here too if you want more forgiveness on cook time — they’re harder to overdo than breasts.

Make-Ahead

The sauce doesn’t hold up well made a day ahead and reheated — cream sauces with parmesan tend to separate a bit in the fridge, and reheating brings back the grainy texture rather than the silky one you started with. If you’re prepping ahead, cook the chicken and slice it the day before, then make the sauce fresh the day you’re serving. That part only takes about ten minutes anyway.

FAQ

Can I use chicken thighs instead of chicken breasts? Yes — thighs actually give you a bit more room for error since they stay juicy even if they cook a touch longer than planned.

Why did my sauce curdle? Almost always the pan. Cast iron and unlined copper react with the acidity from the sun-dried tomatoes and can cause the cream to break — stick with stainless steel or nonstick.

What can I serve with Tuscan chicken? Pasta soaks up the extra sauce the best, in my opinion — mashed potatoes are good too, but pasta is what I reach for most.

Can I make this dairy-free? Not really successfully, no. Cream and parmesan are doing most of the work in the sauce, and the coconut-cream substitutes I’ve tried change the flavor enough that it stops tasting like the same dish.

How do I store leftovers? Refrigerate in an airtight container for up to 3 days. Reheat gently on the stovetop over low heat rather than the microwave — it keeps the sauce from separating as much.

Closing Thoughts

This is one of those dinners that tastes like it took longer than it did, which is really all I want from a Tuesday. If you’ve got extra sauce left in the pan after the chicken’s gone — and you probably will — toss in some cooked pasta right there and call it a second meal.

About the Author

I’m Kima, and I test every recipe on this site in my own kitchen before it goes up — usually more than once, until I can tell you exactly where it can go wrong. Weeknight dinners that don’t cut corners are what I care about most.