Here’s a super simple way to cook chicken for an easy weeknight meal! My Chicken Scampi takes only 20 minutes from start to finish! Chicken breast pieces lightly coated with cornstarch and spices, pan fried until golden and served in a delicious white wine sauce! Perfect for busy weeknights!
I love these types of easy dishes perfect for a busy weeknight. This chicken scampi was inspired by my Shrimp Scampi, but made even easier with just a few ingredients. This chicken is lightly coated in cornstarch and Italian seasoning, fried til golden and then served with a crazy simple white wine sauce with butter, garlic and lemon juice. Of course, I love to add a few red pepper flakes for a little kick.
20 Minute Chicken Scampi
- Yes! Only 20 Minutes Start To Finish
- Simple Pantry Staple Ingredients
- Easy To Follow Recipe
- Delicious To The Very Last Bite
This is such an easy dish that the whole family can enjoy. You can toss the chicken scampi with the linguini or simply serve it on top. There’s plenty of sauce to toss everything together and have a delicious meal. I love to garnish mine with some fresh parsley and plenty of Parmesan cheese.
Ingredient Notes
- Pasta – For this dish you can use either linguini, spaghetti or angel hair pasta, which is probably the most commonly used in a scampi dish.
- Chicken – I used chicken breast cut into bite size cubes, but you can also use boneless skinless chicken thighs.
- White Wine – You’ll want to use a dry, crisp white wine such as a Pinot Grigio, unoaked Chardonnay or Sauvignon Blanc. Use a wine that you love drinking and you can have along side this meal.
- Cornstarch – We need just a bit of cornstarch to coat the chicken so that we get it nice and crispy.
- Spices – You’ll need Italian seasoning, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper. Simple but tasty.
- Garlic – In my opinion, you can’t have chicken scampi without garlic, and lots of it.
- Olive Oil and Butter – You’ll need a combination of both to raise the smoking point and get some nice butter flavor in the dish.
- Parmesan Cheese – You can’t have any pasta dish without freshly grated Parmesan cheese, at least in my opinion.
How To Make Chicken Scampi
- Cook pasta: Cook the the pasta according to package instructions in a large pot of salted boiling water.
- Prep the chicken: Pat dry the chicken pieces then place them in a bowl. Add the cornstarch, Italian seasoning, salt, pepper and toss everything together.
- Fry the chicken: In a large skillet, add 2 tbsp of the olive oil and 2 tbsp of the butter and heat over medium high heat until the butter is melted. Add the chicken pieces to the skillet, in a single layer, and sear until browned all around, about 5 minutes. Transfer the chicken, along with remaining butter to a plate.
- Make the sauce: Add the remaining butter and olive oil to the skillet and cook until the butter has melted. Add the garlic, and red pepper flakes and cook for 30 seconds to 1 minute until the garlic is aromatic. Pour the wine into the garlic butter mixture and cook for 2 minutes until the wine reduces a bit and the alcohol cooks off.
- Finish the dish: Remove from heat and stir in the lemon juice. Return the chicken to the skillet and toss it well with the sauce. Taste for seasoning and adjust with salt and pepper if needed.
- Garnish and serve: You can serve this over the cooked pasta or toss it with the pasta and parsley. Garnish with Parmesan cheese and serve warm.
FAQs & Expert Tips
FAQs
While Scampi generally means a saute of shrimp, it can also be used on other seafood or even poultry, as featured in this chicken scampi recipe. Scampi is a dish that is classically made with garlic, butter and white wine.
Usually when making any kind of sauces for pasta, it’s a good idea to reserve some pasta water, especially if the pasta tends to get dry too soon as it absorbs liquid. However, I found that there’s plenty of sauce in this recipe that I didn’t really need any extra pasta water, but go ahead and reserve some and use it if needed.
I love to serve this dish with some great crusty bread with some homemade garlic butter. You can also serve this along some veggies, such as roasted asparagus or roasted broccoli.
Absolutely! Just substitute the white wine with chicken broth.
Tips
- Make sure to pat the chicken dry to remove any excess moisture and ensure we end up with crispy chicken.
- Choose a good wine, as I mentioned, choose a wine you’re going to drink at dinner with this dish. Choosing a cheap wine or using cooking wine, will ruin the flavor of this chicken scampi.
- If you find your pasta is too dry, reserve a cup of pasta water, and add as much as needed to the sauce or to the pasta when tossing everything together.
- Use the same skillet to make the sauce as you used to fry the chicken in, because you want to deglaze the pan when adding the wine and scrape all those brown bits. This is what’s going to flavor our sauce and give us all that deliciousness.
Leftovers
Store leftover chicken scampi in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. You can also freeze leftovers for up to 3 months.
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Chicken Scampi
Ingredients
- 1 lb linguini or spaghetti or angel hair pasta
- 1½ lbs chicken boneless and skinless, cut into 1 inch cubes
- 2 tbsp cornstarch
- 1 tsp Italian seasoning
- salt and pepper to taste
- ¼ cup olive oil
- ¼ cup butter unsalted
- 6 cloves garlic minced
- ½ tsp red pepper flakes
- 1 cup dry white whine
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- ¼ cup fresh parsley chopped
- ¾ cup Parmesan cheese freshly grated
Instructions
- Cook pasta: Cook the the pasta according to package instructions in a large pot of salted boiling water.
- Prep the chicken: Pat dry the chicken pieces then place them in a bowl. Add the cornstarch, Italian seasoning, salt, pepper and toss everything together.
- Fry the chicken: In a large skillet, add 2 tbsp of the olive oil and 2 tbsp of the butter and heat over medium high heat until the butter is melted. Add the chicken pieces to the skillet, in a single layer, and sear until browned all around, about 5 minutes. Transfer the chicken, along with remaining butter to a plate.
- Make the sauce: Add the remaining butter and olive oil to the skillet and cook until the butter has melted. Add the garlic, and red pepper flakes and cook for 30 seconds to 1 minute until the garlic is aromatic. Pour the wine into the garlic butter mixture and cook for 2 minutes until the wine reduces a bit and the alcohol cooks off.
- Finish the dish: Remove from heat and stir in the lemon juice. Return the chicken to the skillet and toss it well with the sauce. Taste for seasoning and adjust with salt and pepper if needed.
- Garnish and serve: You can serve this over the cooked pasta or toss it with the pasta and parsley. Garnish with Parmesan cheese and serve warm.
Recipe Notes
- Make sure to pat the chicken dry to remove any excess moisture and ensure we end up with crispy chicken.
- Choose a good wine, as I mentioned, choose a wine you’re going to drink at dinner with this dish. Choosing a cheap wine or using cooking wine, will ruin the flavor of this chicken scampi.
- If you find your pasta is too dry, reserve a cup of pasta water, and add as much as needed to the sauce or to the pasta when tossing everything together.
- Use the same skillet to make the sauce as you used to fry the chicken in, because you want to deglaze the pan when adding the wine and scrape all those brown bits. This is what’s going to flavor our sauce and give us all that deliciousness.
- Store leftover chicken scampi in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. You can also freeze leftovers for up to 3 months.
This was delicious!
This Chicken Scampi was so delicious and so easy to make, my whole family loved it. Thanks, Jo for another great recipe!
My pleasure! Glad you guys enjoyed it!
The whole family loved this recipe. We love anything lemon + italian. I tweaked the recipe a bit by adding spinach and some leftover green beans I had. Also added another cup of chicken broth to make it saucier and used the whole lemon juiced + zest. Turned out perfectly. Always trying to pump up a recipe by adding veggies for more vitamins. Thanks for another delicious recipe!
My pleasure!