Creamy Tuscan Chicken
This looks like I spent hours on it. I spent 25 minutes. I accept compliments anyway.
Ingredients
- 2 large chicken breasts, pounded to even thickness
- 1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes in oil, drained and chopped
- 3 cups baby spinach
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 3/4 cup chicken broth
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 1/2 cup grated parmesan
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika Kasia’s addition
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- Salt, pepper, red pepper flakes
- Fresh basil for serving
Method
Sear the Chicken
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Season chicken with salt, pepper, Italian seasoning, and smoked paprika. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Sear the chicken 5-6 minutes per side until golden brown and cooked through (165F / 74C internal). The crust matters — don’t move the chicken while it cooks or you’ll lose the golden colour. Transfer to a plate.
Build the Sauce
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Same skillet, reduce to medium heat. Add garlic — 30 seconds, fragrant, not brown. Add the chopped sun-dried tomatoes and red pepper flakes. Stir for 30 seconds. Pour in the chicken broth and scrape up all the fond (those golden brown bits on the pan are pure flavour). Let it simmer 2-3 minutes until slightly reduced.
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Add the heavy cream and parmesan. Stir until the cheese melts and the sauce is smooth, golden, and creamy. Taste it. Try not to eat it all with a spoon before the chicken goes back in.
Add the Spinach
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Add the baby spinach in handfuls. It looks like way too much spinach. It wilts down to almost nothing in about 60 seconds. That’s the beauty of spinach — 3 cups of raw becomes 1/2 cup of cooked, and it distributes through the sauce like it was always there.
Combine and Serve
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Nestle the chicken back into the sauce. Spoon sauce over the top. Tear fresh basil over everything. Serve with pasta, rice, crusty bread, or my personal favourite: kopytka, because those Polish potato dumplings were born to catch creamy sauce.
Creamy Tuscan Chicken — Italian Restaurant Flavours in 25 Minutes
This looks like I spent hours on it. I spent 25 minutes. I accept compliments anyway.
Creamy Tuscan chicken is one of those recipes that has “restaurant” written all over it — golden seared chicken breast in a creamy garlic sauce with sun-dried tomatoes, baby spinach, and parmesan. It looks like the kind of plate that comes with a garnish of microgreens and a $28 price tag. In reality, it’s a one-pan weeknight dinner that comes together faster than my kids can finish arguing about whose shoes are whose. And here’s the best part: it’s how I finally — FINALLY — got my youngest to eat spinach.
The spinach situation deserves explanation. My youngest treats leafy greens like a personal attack. Salad? No. Spinach omelette? Absolutely not. Spinach on pizza? “You ruined it, mama.” But spinach wilted into a creamy, cheesy, garlicky sauce with chicken? Eaten without comment. Not enthusiastically — we’re not there yet — but eaten. I call that a win. In a household where green vegetables are a constant negotiation, any route to spinach consumption is a valid route, and creamy garlic sauce is the route that worked.
What Makes It “Tuscan”
Honestly, calling it “Tuscan” is generous. Real Tuscan cooking is simple, rustic, and olive-oil-forward. This recipe is more “American restaurant interpretation of Italian flavours” — but “creamy garlic sun-dried tomato spinach chicken” doesn’t roll off the tongue as well. What makes it feel Tuscan: the sun-dried tomatoes, the garlic, the Italian herbs, and the simplicity of the technique. What makes it feel American: the heavy cream. Actual Tuscans would probably use olive oil and wine instead. But I’m a Polish mom in Chicago and heavy cream is how we show love, so here we are.
Ingredients
- • 2 large chicken breasts, pounded to even thickness
- • 1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes in oil, drained and chopped
- • 3 cups baby spinach
- • 4 cloves garlic, minced
- • 3/4 cup chicken broth
- • 1/2 cup heavy cream
- • 1/2 cup grated parmesan
- • 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- • 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika (Kasia’s addition)
- • 2 tablespoons olive oil
- • Salt, pepper, red pepper flakes
- • Fresh basil for serving
How to Make It
Sear the Chicken
Season chicken with salt, pepper, Italian seasoning, and smoked paprika. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Sear the chicken 5-6 minutes per side until golden brown and cooked through (165F / 74C internal). The crust matters — don’t move the chicken while it cooks or you’ll lose the golden colour. Transfer to a plate.
Build the Sauce
Same skillet, reduce to medium heat. Add garlic — 30 seconds, fragrant, not brown. Add the chopped sun-dried tomatoes and red pepper flakes. Stir for 30 seconds. Pour in the chicken broth and scrape up all the fond (those golden brown bits on the pan are pure flavour). Let it simmer 2-3 minutes until slightly reduced.
Add the heavy cream and parmesan. Stir until the cheese melts and the sauce is smooth, golden, and creamy. Taste it. Try not to eat it all with a spoon before the chicken goes back in.
Add the Spinach
Add the baby spinach in handfuls. It looks like way too much spinach. It wilts down to almost nothing in about 60 seconds. That’s the beauty of spinach — 3 cups of raw becomes 1/2 cup of cooked, and it distributes through the sauce like it was always there.
Combine and Serve
Nestle the chicken back into the sauce. Spoon sauce over the top. Tear fresh basil over everything. Serve with pasta, rice, crusty bread, or my personal favourite: kopytka, because those Polish potato dumplings were born to catch creamy sauce.
Creamy Tuscan Chicken vs. Marry Me Chicken
People ask me this all the time because the recipes look similar. Both have creamy sauce, sun-dried tomatoes, and parmesan. The differences: Tuscan chicken has spinach (marry me chicken doesn’t). Marry me chicken has a more pronounced garlic-parmesan flavour. Tuscan chicken has Italian herbs as the dominant flavour. Both are incredible. If I had to choose — and I don’t, because I make both regularly — Tuscan chicken is the weeknight option (quicker, lighter) and marry me chicken is the impress-someone option (richer, more dramatic).
Tips
💡 Pro Tips
✓ Pound the chicken to even thickness. Uneven chicken = overcooked thin parts and raw thick parts. 30 seconds with a meat mallet saves the dish.
✓ Sun-dried tomatoes in oil. The oil-packed ones are softer, more flavourful, and easier to work with. Dry-packed need rehydrating.
✓ Add spinach at the very end. It only needs 60 seconds. Overcooked spinach is slimy and dark. Fresh-wilted spinach is bright green and silky.
✓ Smoked paprika adds depth. Not traditional, but I add it to everything. The subtle smokiness makes the sauce feel more complex without adding another ingredient.
Variations
• With chicken thighs: Juicier and more forgiving. Sear the same way, may need 2-3 extra minutes per side.
• With artichoke hearts: Add a can of drained quartered artichoke hearts with the sun-dried tomatoes. Classic Tuscan addition.
• With pasta: Slice the chicken, toss with cooked penne, and add extra cream to make the sauce coat everything. One-dish dinner.
• Without cream: Use coconut cream for dairy-free, or substitute more broth with extra parmesan for a lighter sauce.
How to Store
Keeps 3-4 days in the fridge. Reheat gently on the stovetop — add a splash of broth if the sauce has thickened. The spinach will darken slightly but the flavour stays great. Not ideal for freezing because cream sauces can separate and spinach gets watery after thawing.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this actually healthy?
It’s got chicken (protein), spinach (iron, vitamins), tomatoes (lycopene), and garlic (everything good). The cream and cheese are the indulgent parts, but compared to restaurant versions, homemade uses far less cream. It’s balanced enough that I feel good serving it to my family, and delicious enough that they don’t know I’m serving them spinach.
Can I use frozen spinach?
Yes — thaw and squeeze out all the water first. Frozen spinach has more water content, so if you skip the squeezing, your sauce will be thin and watery. Fresh baby spinach is easier and looks prettier, but frozen works in a pinch.
What if my kids still won’t eat the spinach?
Blend it into the sauce. Seriously. Add the spinach to the cream sauce, hit it with an immersion blender, and the green disappears into the golden sauce. They’ll never know. Is it deceptive? Yes. Does it work? Also yes. Parenting is sometimes about strategy over transparency.
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