Garlic and Parsley Butter Chicken with Gnocchi – incredible tender chicken cooked in a garlic and butter creamy sauce served over a bed of gnocchi.
Calling all garlic lovers! You know what’s happening here, lots of garlic, butter and parsley, one of my favorite combinations. If you follow my blog, you probably know about my garlic obsession, don’t know why that is, could be because I was born in Transylvania. Maybe it’s just my way of keeping the vampires away. Well it’s working! Haven’t had a vampire visit me in a while, Dracula’s been staying away from me. Ugh, I seriously hope people know when I’m kidding, otherwise they might think I’m a real kook.
I used this combination on shrimp before and it was divine, so I thought why not make a similar dish with chicken instead and a bit of sauce to go with it. Boy, am I ever glad I did. I used 3 chicken breasts which were boneless and skinless, then I cut them in half crosswise because my breasts were a bit too big, no pun intended. OK, I’ll behave. You could also use chicken thighs here, or even drumsticks would be great. I seasoned them with a bit of smoked paprika, salt and pepper. I like to use the smoked paprika for that extra smokey flavor, plus I love the color it gives to dishes. You’ll want to then sear the chicken until it gets brown on both sides, don’t worry if the chicken isn’t cooked through because we’ll finish it off in the oven.
Next you’ll have to make this garlic and parsley butter which is pure perfection. You’ll want some butter, lots of parsley, a bit of lemon juice and season everything with salt and pepper. Pulse it all in a food processor for about 30 seconds. You’ll want to spread this on bread and eat it like that, it’s that good. I did say pure perfection, didn’t I?
Next I added some heavy cream to my skillet, and generously topped each chicken breast with the garlic and parsley butter, and if you have any left over, just dump it in the sauce, you don’t want to be wasting any, trust me. Now in the list of ingredients I tell you 4 garlic cloves, and I tone it down here for you, but in reality I used about 8 garlic cloves, because after all I love garlic, read above, it keeps the vampires away. Seriously!
Place it in the oven and bake it at 425 F degrees for about 20 minutes and voila! As the chicken bakes the butter melts into the chicken making it super tender, and also oozes into the heavy cream, turning it into an incredible garlic and butter cream sauce. Oh let’s not forget the gnocchi. I knew there was going to be some yummy garlicky sauce there, so we needed something to soak up all that yumminess. Gnocchi seemed perfect here, I used a pound bag of gnocchi here, but if you’re making this for more than 4 people I’d use 2 bags. All you have to do is cook the gnocchi according to package instructions which basically means boil some water, add some salt to the water, add gnocchi to the boiling water and wait until they float to the top. It’s not really rocket science. It’s actually called cooking! HA! I’m on a roll today.
All that’s left to do is toss the gnocchi together with your chicken and that yummy sauce, with lots of love, make sure that each gnocchi is given the opportunity to soak up that garlic goodness, then serve and eat.
Care for a bite? We’ve got creamy gnocchi, with melt in your mouth garlicky chicken. If you have leftover sauce in your plate just drink it all. I won’t tell.
Try these recipes if you’re hooked on gnocchi!
- Creamy Sun Dried Tomato Chicken Gnocchi
- One Pot Chicken Florentine Gnocchi
- Chicken and Gnocchi Dumpling Soup
If you try this recipe, please let us know! Leave a comment, rate it and tag a photo #jocooks on Instagram so we can see it. I always love to see what you guys come up with!
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Garlic and Parsley Butter Chicken with Gnocchi
Ingredients
- 3 chicken breasts boneless and skinless, about 1 lb
- 1/2 tsp salt or to taste
- 1/4 tsp pepper or to taste
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 6 tbsp butter unsalted
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1 cup fresh parsley chopped
- 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 3/4 cup heavy cream
- 1 lb gnocchi uncooked
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425 F degrees.
- If your chicken breasts are too thick cut them in half crosswise. Season the chicken breasts with salt, pepper and smoked paprika on both sides.
- Heat the olive oil in a skillet. Add chicken breasts and cook on each side for about 5 minutes or until golden brown. The chicken may not yet be cooked through, but that's OK since we'll finish it off in the oven.
- In the meantime, add the butter, garlic, parsley, lemon juice, salt and pepper to your food processor and pulse for about 30 seconds or until the mixture is all crumbled up and there are no huge pieces of garlic anymore.
- Pour the heavy cream in the skillet with the chicken in it, then top each piece of chicken breast with about 1 to 2 tbsp of the garlic and parsley butter. If there's any garlic and parsley butter left, just add it to the skillet.
- Place the skillet in the preheated oven and bake for 20 minutes.
- In the meantime cook the gnocchi according to package instructions.
- Toss the gnocchi in the skillet with the chicken and serve warm.
This recipe is a keeper! I make it exactly as written and people request it over and over again. You cannot go wrong!
I jokingly started to refer to that recipe as the “Transylvanian chicken”. So do my friends who have been treated to it and are making it on their own as a result. Thank you 🙂
Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god! I love all your recipes – the chicken shawarma with garlic sauce is a regular in my household, but this! Holy crap.
Garlic is my one true love (don’t tell that to my husband, or my cat) and if it wasn’t for the fact that I haven’t found a cast iron skillet that I like, I would be making this right now and drinking that sauce like normal people drink coffee. I cannot, cannot wait to make this!
Do you have a recommendation for a cast iron skillet? All the ones I’ve seen here (I just moved to Vermont) are really small and I don’t want to order one online, only to return it because it isn’t what I wanted.
Sorry this is so rambling, I just can’t stop thinking about that sauce and how soon I can make it!
Hi Kat! Thanks so much, makes me real happy to hear people are enjoying my recipes. As far as cast irons go, I love my lodge cast iron, not only is it cheap but it will last you a lifetime as long as you treat it properly. You can find it here: http://amzn.to/2qIs6lr
The other cast iron that I’ve been using like crazy lately, and you’ve probably seen it in most of my videos is my Le Creuset Braiser, which I’m so in love with because of the size. It’s the perfect size for pasta dishes, stews, anything. You can find that one here: http://amzn.to/2rjsZ6Y
I would love to know what you end up buying. 🙂
Hi,
Thanks so much! I just ordered the Lodge – Le Creuset is on my wishlist until I can start working (I’m waiting on a greencard and permission to work). But I definitely want that entire line in the red colour!
I can’t wait to make this – I’ll let you know when I do! 🙂
That’s great, I’m sure you’ll love the lodge one, just make sure you season it before using it.
I forgot to buy heavy cream today, so I’m using coconut milk instead. Wish me luck! I’ll let you know how it turns out.
I think coconut milk might work actually. 🙂
Oh wow this is a recipe that I know I’m going to love! The combination of the ingredients with the garlic and the butter and parsley and the heavy cream all call out to me. I’ll probably use 8 cloves of garlic like you do cause I just can’t get enough garlic. Can’t wait to make this!
Well then you’ll love it, go garlic!
Wow, this looks so flavorful and delicious! I wish my oven wasn’t broken, because I really want to make this for dinner tonight. You can bet I’ll be trying this as soon as I can. 😉
Don’t you hate it when the oven is broken. I hope you try this, it’s yummy!
Ha! Ha! I was saying exactly the same recently, about the Transylvanian blood and the necessity of keeping vampires away with garlic. 🙂 I love the recipe!
Right? A girl needs to take care of these things. LOL