Garlic Butter Chicken Thighs
Juicy tender Boneless skinless chicken thighs in butter garlic sauce are crazy delicious. The sauce has no cream and no flour yet is so creamy. Make this easy dinner on the stovetop in less than 20 minutes.
Garlic butter chicken has a delectable garlic butter sauce and is cooked on the stovetop in less than 20 minutes. The sauce is creamy, and packed with flavor but is not loaded with cream or any other thickening, thanks to the French Beurre monté making technique. Read along to find the trick to make a creamy sauce without any cream.
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Boneless or bone-in, chicken thighs are always stress-free to cook with. It always turns out tender and juicy whether you bake it or cook it on the stovetop.
Garlic Butter Sauce ( Inspired by Beurre monté, The French Butter Sauce)
Creamy but no cream in the sauce? YES!! While I love a creamy sauce with chicken, I love how this butter sauce has turned out. This sauce has a depth of flavor, it’s delicate and indulgent.
Beurre monté is a French term for butter emulsified in water. An emulsion is a stable mixture formed by combining two liquids that ordinarily wouldn’t mix, like oil and vinegar. I don’t want to get into the scientific details, but Mayonnaise is a great example of emulsification. In this case when you slowly add cold butter cubes in hot water and whisk vigorously you will get a creamy emulsion, that’s perfect to pour over chicken, roasted veggies, potatoes etc.
I have taken Beurre monté as the inspiration but have used chicken stock as the base instead of water. Lemon juice acts as a stabilizer for the sauce.
Ingredients
- Skinless boneless chicken thighs – recommend boneless thighs as they cook quickly compared to bone-in.
- White wine – Adds depth of flavor to the sauce.
- Chicken stock – Acts as a flavorful base for the sauce and gives it body.
- Italian seasoning – Use any good brand of seasoning. You can also use a blend of fresh herbs like thyme, rosemary, oregano etc.
- Garlic – The main flavor of the dish and which I love to use most often.
- Oil & Butter – Butter is used to make the sauce creamy. Keep on adding till you get your desired consistency. Oil is used to sear the chicken thighs.
- Lemon juice – Lemon juice cuts down the richness of the butter and also helps to emulsify the sauce.
For seasoning the chicken –
- Garlic powder
- Paprika
- Pepper
- Salt
How to make Garlic Butter Chicken
Season and sear chicken
Season chicken with garlic powder, paprika, salt, and pepper. Sear on a hot skillet top side down for about 5 minutes undisturbed. When it is perfectly crisp and golden, it will leave the pan easily. Flip and cook for another 3-4 minutes.
How to sear the chicken thighs to get a crispy layer on top? Pat dry chicken. The pan needs to be hot, for getting a perfect golden sear on the top. Once you place the boneless chicken on the pan, reduce the heat to medium.
Creamy Garlic Butter Sauce
All the brown bits from roasting the chicken works as the base of the sauce. Then cook garlic until fragrant. Next, add the white wine, and wait for it to reduce to half. Then add the chicken stock. Reduce heat and add cold butter 1-2 cube each time and let the butter melt complety before adding the next batch.
Chef’s Tips
- Make sure chicken thighs are at room temperature for even cooking.
- Cut butter into 1 inch cubes and it has to be cold.
- The heat needs to be low while adding butter else butter will disintegrate to fat and milk solids.
Serve with
Chicken thighs with a golden crispy crust paired with creamy garlic pan juice is one of my go-to recipes.
Garlic butter chicken is really versatile, and pairs well with white or brown rice, some roasted potato potatoes, Roasted Garlic Mashed Potato, Maple Bacon Sweet Potato Hash.
Store
This sauce doesn’t refrigerate well, as the emulsification will break and the sauce will not remain creamy. However, you can cook the chicken thighs beforehand and make the garlic butter sauce just before serving.
More Chicken Thigh Recipes…
Garlic Butter Boneless Chicken Thighs
Ingredients
- 6 boneless skinless chicken thighs
- 1 tablespoon Olive Oil
- 3 tablespoon Cold Butter (ref note 1)
- ¼ cup White Wine
- ½ cup Chicken Stock
- 1 teaspoon Italian Seasoning
- ½ tabelspoon Garlic minced
- ½ tablespoon fresh lemon Juice
Seasoning
- ½ teaspoon Garlic Powder
- ½ teaspoon Paprika
- ½ teaspoon Pepper
- 1 teaspoon Salt (or adjust as per taste) (ref note 2)
Instructions
- Start with mixing all the seasoning ingredients.
- Pat dry chicken with kitchen towel. Sprinkle seasoning on both sides.
- Heat oil in a skillet. When hot, put chicken thighs top side down. Sear it got 5 minutes undisturbed until golden and crispy. Flip and cook for a further 4-5 minutes. Take out the chicken and keep aside covered ( To prevent it from drying).
- In the same skillet to the remaining oil add minced garlic, cook until fragrant for about 20 seconds.
- Stir in the wine and let it reduce to half. Then stir in chicken stock.
- When stock comes to a boil, we will add cold cubes of butter in three parts. (ref note – 3)
- Lower the heat to low. Add one part butter to the stock, keep stirring until all the butter has been incorporated.
- Add second part of butter, keep stirring until the butter fully melts into the sauce. Then add the 3rd and last portion of butter to the sauce. The sauce by now will be looking creamy.
- Mix lemon juice and italian seasoning.
- Add the seared chicken back to the pan along with any pan juice in the plate.
- Let it simmer for another 4-5 minutes until the sauce reduces a little further and chicken thighs are cooked fully. (ref note -4)
- Before serving, whisk the sauce with a fork once again if you see a thin layer of butter
Video
Notes
- Butter needs to be cold for the emulsification to happen.
- There is no salt added to the sauce, as the seasoning has salt and the chicken stock used has salt. I recommend using low sodium stock. Check the seasoning after you add the seared chicken back to the pan and add more salt if required.Â
- Â Don’t add all the butter at once. Add butter in three stages only after the butter in the pan is fully incorporated. Also it is very very important to keep the flame low while adding butter.Â
- Cooking time depends on how big the chicken thighs are. If it is too big then increase the cooking time accordingly.Â
Do you cover the chicken while it simmers
Not required. As we already have seared the chicken beforehand, it will be cooked perfectly.
This was soooooooo good! Definitely will make again.
Comes together quickly. I doubled the seasoning and it was delicious! Family loved it. Thank you.
Made this tonight for a late quick dinner. SO GOOD!!
I tossed some cooked fettuccine in the pan sauce after the chicken was done simmering. Served with petite peas. It was perfection.
This is so delicious!! Can’t wait to make again. The flavor is amazing!!
Made this tonight with bone in skin on thighs and it was delicious, I added sliced onion before the garlic and mushrooms after adding the butter.
Will definitely make again but I’ll leave the salt out as the stock I use was salty enough .
Made this tonight! The depth of flavor was wonderful! Definitely a keeper!
Thank you for sharing Subha!! 🙂
Do you have to use the wine?
What if I don’t have white wine?
You can use chicken stock instead.
Loved this!!! Quick and easy to make and the sauce was fantastic!! My hubby ate 4 of these lol. Recipe is a keeper!!
what about the lemon juice and the Italian seasoning? listed in ingredients but not mentioned in the cooking instructions
Thank you for pointing it out. I have added the steps.