Breaded Garlic Chicken in Lemon-Butter Sauce
Breaded, browned, and then baked while simmering in a simple lemon-butter sauce, this chicken is tender, versatile and absolutely delicious.
We eat chicken a lot around these parts and I never tire of finding different ways to fix it.
It’s quite a versatile meat, I’d say! Nestled in curries, beautifully grilled, all set for tacos, and simplified in the slow cooker, just a few yummy chicken variations.
This latest recipe, sent to me by Allie M., was a fantastic new way to prepare our much-loved chicken. Breaded, browned, and then baked while simmering in a simple lemon-butter sauce, this chicken is tender, versatile and absolutely delicious.
We served the chicken over fettuccine noodles and the light, tasty sauce was divine drizzled over the chicken and pasta.
Loved this one, oh yes we did. Thanks, Allie!
What to Serve With This
- Divine Breadsticks or Cheesy Garlic Bread
- Steamed vegetable like broccoli or peas
- Simple green salad (or something more fancy like this Gourmet Green Salad)
One Year Ago: Cheese Rolls with Buttery Parmesan Crust
Two Years Ago: Vanilla Pudding Cinnamon Rolls with Cream Cheese Frosting
Breaded Garlic Chicken in Lemon-Butter Sauce
Ingredients
- 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
- 1 cup seasoned flour, (1 cup flour, 1 teaspoon salt, ½ teaspoon pepper)
- 5 cloves of garlic, finely minced
- 1 tablespoon parsley flakes or 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
- 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice, from about 1 lemon
- 3 large eggs
- ⅓ cup finely grated Parmesan cheese
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 5 tablespoons butter
Instructions
- Place the seasoned flour in a large gallon-size ziploc bag. Set aside. In a shallow pie plate, beat the eggs until mixed and add the Parmesan cheese. Whisk to combine. Set aside.
- In a large skillet, melt one tablespoon butter and one tablespoon olive oil over medium heat. Let it begin to heat and sizzle while you prepare the chicken but be careful not to let the butter burn and turn brown.
- Put the four chicken breasts in the bag with the seasoned flour, close the bag, and shake to coat the chicken in the flour. One by one, take the chicken out of the bag and dip into the egg/Parmesan mixture. Place the chicken carefully in the skillet with the hot oil/butter. Repeat with the other chicken breasts. Let the chicken cook on the first side, without moving or flipping the chicken, for 1-2 minutes until a nice, golden crust has formed. Carefully, using a wide spatula, flip the chicken and let it continue to cook for 1-2 minutes on the other side until it is golden brown. The chicken will flip easiest if it has had time to sizzle and cook to form a nice crust.
- Remove the chicken to a 9X13-inch pan. Set aside while you make the sauce.
- In the same skillet that you browned the chicken, melt the remaining four tablespoons butter. Add the minced garlic, lemon juice, and parsley. Simmer the sauce for 1-2 minutes, stirring and scraping up any browned bits that were on the bottom of the skillet.
- Pour the sauce evenly over the chicken breasts and bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through. Serve over noodles, rice or potatoes.
Notes
Recommended Products
Recipe Source: adapted from Allie M., a reader
This is probably a dumb question, but do you use fresh parmesan or the bottled kraft kind? Thank you!
I use freshly grated Parmesan (not the kind in a bottle).
This sounds so delicious and I can’t wait to make it but I do have a question, I only have thin sliced chicken breast how long do u think I should bake it for? I was thinking 15 to 20 mins but I wasn’t sure!! Any help is appreciated!!
Yes, I think 15-20 minutes is a good starting place.
Hi Mel, my girlfriend and I made this for dinner and it turned out so well. We ate it with some pasta and a kale salad. This is definitely going to a repeat recipe for us thank you!
Did you mean to put the chicken in the flour first? I had to take mine out of the skillet and redo with egg THEN flour because it was just egg coated chicken. I can’t be the only one but it seems that I am….?
I do not cook often, and it seems like most people who left comments did not make the mistake that I did. The recipe instructions say to first dip in flour and then dip in egg, which turns it into a chicken omelette. Either the recipe is wrong or I am going to be pleasantly surprised in 35 minutes.
Delicious!!! I wanted a little bit more sauce so I added unsalted butter, lemon juice, and some white wine! It is absolutely to die for! I have inhaled it each time! So flavorful! Shared it with my sister as well!! Yummy!!
My 9-year-old son picked this recipe for dinner. He rated it “Infinity out of ten, even with the green stuff (parsley)!” A big thanks to you and Allie for sharing.
Haha, that’s an adorable rating system.
I happened upon your website for the very first time to make your breaded garlic chicken with lemon butter sauce and I have to say it was the BEST chicken I ever ate !! It was so moist and flavorful, plus easy to make !! I have also used the coating mixture with homemade pesto sauce and that was delish also !! I will definitely use your website more often !!
Love this recipe! The other day I mixed pad Thai sauce into the egg portion of the dish. after filleting the chicken I just cooked it on the stove and served it over pad Thai. It was really good!
Mel,
This is the best boneless chicken recipe , we added heavy cream for sauce and served with roasted veg & Julia Childs Dauphine Potatoes . All plates were returned empty.
Thanks again for sharing your recipe
Charles , Val , Connie & Anna
Hi Mel, I decided I would try with boneless chicken thighs as I have these in my freezer..do I need to do any adjustments using the thighs instead of the breasts for this recipe? Thank you!
Usually you want to increase the cooking time with chicken thighs. I haven’t made this recipe with them but I’d definitely keep my eye on the time.
Hi Mel,
I have a local store that sells organic chicken, but all of their chicken breasts are bone in and have the skin on – which I could remove easily I suppose, but are there any recipes that I could substitute bone in for the boneless? I would love to try this recipe, but I know it would suit boneless and skinless so the coating would adhere and I did try to search on your site for bone in…but couldn’t see any. Do you have any bone in recipes or know of any of yours that could substitute nicely? Sorry for all the questions!!
Hi Melissa – good question. I don’t think I’ve even posted a recipe for bone-in, skin-on chicken since I always buy boneless, skinless. Could you use a sharp paring knife to quickly cut the chicken breast away from the bone?
Amazing recipe.
Don’t have any lemons on hand. Would lemon juice work? Should I adjust the amount? It is a last minute meal with no time to go to the store. Thanks – I’ve been a fan of this website for quite a few months and have enjoyed every bit of it!
Hi Kerri – are you talking about bottled lemon juice? I think that could work in a pinch although it might not have the same bright, fresh flavor.
We LOVE this recipe!! It is my go-to for company. Such simple ingredients that I always have in house and company always loves it! My only complaint is that my portion control always goes out the window when this is on the table! YUMM
Oh. My. Gosh. This. This was so easy and so absolutely yummy. I pan fried asparagus and green beans in the same skillet after and drizzled with leftover fresh lemon juice and parm. So yummy. Next time I have guests this is the menu.
How is this a no oven meal?
Lauren – it was put into the No Oven category by error. It’s fixed now.
As a 17 year old high school lad who occasionally likes to cook for his parents, I found this recipe delicious and easy to make. Chicken, Garlic, lemon, parsley and butter are all staples in my house, so it was as simple as opening the fridge for me! the best reaction was definitely my mother’s, who raved that it was to die for with all its flavor (again, garlic lovers) and juiciness. Thanks a bunch!
Amazing. Like all your recipes. Thanks to your friend Allie for the recipe and thanks Mel for always posting the best!
Made this tonight! Totally tasted like I just ordered from an awesome italian restaurant! Thanks for making me look good 🙂 Hubs and kids gobbled it up!
made this tonight. started having doubts when it didn’t look like there was enough sauce but it came out pretty good! My husband really enjoyed it. served with salad and mashed potatoes.
This is an awesome recipe!! Definitely one of my new favs..especially since I’m pretty picky about my food being pregnant. I doubled the sauce like you suggested and put the chicken over angel hair pasta with butter and parmesan..yum! Thank you for posting!!!!
I don’t know how I waited so long to make this. Absolutely delicious!!!
Thanks Mel! I made it per the instructions. I used 6 pieces of tilapia that totaled about 20 oz. I cut the flour mixture in half and doubled the butter and lemon juice for sauce – all else was per the recipe. I only baked it for 15 minutes at 350. Will try with chicken next time! another winner from Mel’s Kitchen Cafe!
Hey Mel! I’m going to try this with tilapia tonight. I saw the other’s persons comments but I’m a bit confused. Seems like I skip the egg/parmesean mixture, but do I still brown it in a skillet with just the seasoned flour? Or just head straight to the pan to bake it? Not sure why I couldn’t still do the egg/parmesean mixture. Let me know if you have a chance, otherwise I’ll wing it!
Hi Katie – I’ve never made it with tilapia even though someone else commented they have. If it were me, I’d follow the same steps in the recipe with the tilapia. Good luck!
If you heat the olive oil first, then add the butter, the butter won’t brown (as long as you watch your heat).
This was very good! Thanks Melanie! I will have to disagree with those that added more butter/sauce. I doubled the sauce and the chicken was drowning in butter! We ended up having to pour some of it off, cause it was just unappetizing, but the Chicken breading and flavor over all was wonderful! There were no leftovers and the kids loved it too! Next time I make this, I will just stick to how the recipe says. Oh, also I didn’t have the parmesan, so I just did without. It was still fantastic! I also added lemon zest to the breading mixture and shook it up into it. Thanks so much for this great recipe!
Just made this. My fiance says its a keeper! I agree!! Yummy, Thank you. I have made Chicken Franchaise, Chicken Marsala, and Chicken Scallopini. He likes them all, but loves this.
It’s cooking now! My hubby and I made this in no time, and the items needed are readily available so no need to run to the grocery store! Thanks!
Tried this last week and we loved it! It is going in my permanent book. Thanks for sharing!
so i’ve made this more times then i can count & i love it more every time. thanks for sharing!
My family loved this recipe! I am saving a bunch of your recipes to make for family this Christmas! Thanks Mel.
This was so good! Made it tonight 🙂 Thanks for yet another amazing dinner!
I’ve tried this recipe twice in as many weeks now. The first time, I made it for 4 adults and 1 toddler and doubled the sauce. It worked out very well, and everyone loved it. The second time (just last night actually), I omitted the lemon butter sauce and substituted a jar of marinara sauce, making it like a chicken parmesan. It was very, very yummy. And I will definitely be doing BOTH versions again…maybe not as frequently 😉
Absolutely delicious! I mixed bread crumbs with panko for the breading because I was out of flour. Hubby who is a very picky eater raved about it. Definite repeat.
This was incredible! My entire family loved it …even the picky ones. Another winner, Mel. Thanks so much!!!!
Thanks so much for getting back to me on the freezing question! I forgot i asked it and was just revisiting your site for recipes. I think you might be right about the breading not freezing right. Thank you!
This was sooo yummy! Thanks for posting!
I made this a week or so ago and it was so good! I posted it on my blog today. Thanks for the “yumminess” Mel!
This looks delicious! Do you think that you could freeze this? If so, when would you recommend freezing it? Before the final bake?
Thanks!
Hi Molly – I’ve never frozen this so I don’t know how it would work out. I’m worried the breading might not freeze that well, to be honest!