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Skillet Chicken Thighs with Creamy Tomato Basil Spinach Sauce - great idea for a quick weeknight meal! Boneless skinless chicken thighs are seared to perfection and served in a creamy tomato basil sauce with spinach, sprinkled with grated Parmesan cheese. Easy dinner that a whole family will love!
As I've been shopping at my local grocery store, I realized that I hardly have any recipes with boneless skinless chicken thighs. Instead, I do have lots of recipes with bone-in skin-on chicken thighs. I decided to fix that small problem immediately, so I bought them right away and made these delicious skillet chicken thighs the next day. So glad I did! It's such a great cut of chicken meat and it cooks so quickly, this chicken dish took me only 30 minutes to make. Everything is cooked in a skillet on the stove top - no extra pans, just one skillet. So easy to make, minimal clean-up!
Creamy tomato basil sauce with fresh spinach is perfect for these skillet chicken thighs. So much flavor in one dish!
Ingredients you need to make these easy skillet chicken thighs:
olive oil
1.5 lb boneless skinless chicken thighs
1 can tomato sauce
½ cup heavy cream
garlic
fresh spinach
fresh basil
grated Parmesan cheese, for serving
How long does it take to cook boneless skinless chicken thighs?
They cook easy and fast. First, I seared the chicken thighs for 5 minutes on one side in the skillet on medium heat. Then, I flipped them and seared for 5 more minutes on the other side on medium heat. Next, I cooked them in the creamy tomato basil sauce for about 5 or 10 more minutes and they were done! Make sure the chicken is completely cooked through.
How to make skillet chicken thighs (step-by-step photos):
Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large skillet, and cook boneless skinless chicken thighs (seasoned with salt and pepper) on one side for 5 minutes:
Flip the chicken thighs to the other side and cook for 5 more minutes:
Remove the chicken, add tomato sauce, minced garlic, and heavy cream. Stir to combine. Add spinach and basil.
Cook the sauce until the spinach wilts. Taste the sauce and add salt and pepper, if needed.
Add the cooked boneless skinless chicken thighs back to the skillet, reheat the sauce with the chicken in it. Make sure the chicken is completely cooked through and no longer pink in the center.
Spoon the sauce over the cooked chicken.
What is a good side dish for chicken thighs?
These will go great over simple pasta. Or, serve with roasted potatoes, or creamy mashed potatoes. Other great side dish ideas are steamed asparagus, cooked spinach, or cooked Swiss chard.
If you enjoyed this skillet chicken thighs, you might like these recipes:
Chicken Thighs with Creamy Bacon Mushroom Thyme Sauce
Bacon Chicken with Sun-Dried Tomato Cream Sauce
Skillet Chicken Thighs with Creamy Tomato Basil Spinach Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1.5 lb chicken thighs , boneless skinless
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
- 8 oz tomato sauce
- 2 garlic cloves , minced
- ½ cup heavy cream
- 4 oz fresh spinach
- 4 leaves fresh basil (or use ¼ teaspoon dried basil)
For serving:
- ¼ cup Parmesan cheese , grated
Instructions
How to cook boneless skinless chicken thighs in a skillet:
- In a large skillet heat olive oil on medium heat. Season boneless skinless chicken thighs with salt and pepper. Add them top side down to the hot skillet. Cook for 5 minutes on medium heat, until the top side is nicely seared.
- Flip over to the other side and sear for 5 more minutes on medium heat.
- Remove the chicken from the skillet to a plate.
How to make creamy tomato basil sauce:
- To the same, now empty skillet, add tomato sauce, minced garlic, heavy cream. Bring to boil and stir.
- Reduce heat to low simmer. Add fresh spinach and fresh basil. Stir until spinach wilts and reduces in volume.
- Taste the sauce and add more salt and pepper, if needed.
- Add back cooked boneless skinless chicken thighs, increase heat to medium. Reheat the chicken thighs in the skillet with the sauce and cook until the chicken is completely cooked through and no longer pink in the center.
- To serve, spoon the sauce over the boneless skinless chicken thighs and top with grated Parmesan cheese.
Nutrition
Nutrition Disclaimer:
The nutritional information on this website is only an estimate and is provided for convenience and as a courtesy only. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed. It should not be used as a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
This has become a meal that we regularly make. One of my wife's favorites and I enjoy making it for her. I refer to it as Chicken Rosa and she knows what I'm cooking. I follow the recipe and it turns out perfect every time. I find that after putting the chicken back into the pan with the sauce that it's done the same amount of time it takes for the pasta to cook (10-12 minutes). So simple to make and with ingredients that we usually have. Thanks for a great recipe!
Can I omit the spinach?
Super delicious! Just happened to have all the ingredients so had a great dinner ready in minutes. Used pesto instead of the fresh basil.
GREAT RECIPE! SO EASY TO DO AND SIMPLE AND TONS OF FLAVOR. I USED DRY BASIL AND ADDED MUSHROOMS THAT I HAD ADN ADDED TO DISH, WAS AWSOME EVEN WITH DRY BASIL. THIS IS A KEEPER AND MY WIFE LOVED IT .
REGARDS,
RENE SARASOTA, FLORIDA , USA
Super easy and so very yummy! This one is surely a keeper!
Would this recipe be considered a Keto friendly recipe? I am just starting Keto and I think this recipe is Keto friendly however it doesn't say anywhere in the recipe. The only ingredient I am unsure if it's keto friendly is the tomato sauce.
Devoured !! Omg so easy and delicious. I did add a little onion powder.. when finished I placed the chicken and sauce over rigatoni. Will definitely make this again. Thank you
I made this tonight. It was tomato/spinach alfredo essentially. I used half a jar of pasta sauce and chicken breasts because that's all I had. Halved them browned and removed them. Got up the brown bits from the chicken with a little white wine and a little chicken stock. Added the red sauce and a very small amount of cream. Added sliced kalamata olives basil and spinach and fresh parmesan after returning chicken to the pan to finish. It was terrific!
we LOVED it,
I made some subs and additions: put leek and garlic in after braising the chicken, then added the can of chopped tomatoes and cream then gradually added things like basil, parsley, cayenne pepper (we like a mild kick) and smoked paprika. After that was nice and hot we followed the rest of the steps and let the chicken simmer in it before serving it over fresh spaghetti. the SO scraped the plate clean! definitely a keeper recipe for autumn! ty!
When you say 'tomato sauce', do you mean crushed tomatoes? Or a marinara sauce?
This was so easy to make and it was delicious!! I love it even though I normally don’t like chicken. Thank you for sharing!
This recipe is so so delicious and simple to make!
Hi. I made this last night for my picky boyfriend and he gave it a 20 on a scale of ten! I did double the sauce cause I had almost 2 lbs chicken and only had frozen spinach. Will definitely make this again!!
I started with 4 stars but realized that the substitutions I had to make are what negatively affected the score, so lets go back to 5 stars!
Given the shortages of ingredients at the supermarkets thanks to Carona, I made due with what cut of meat was available, bone in, skin on leg quarters. Sure it took a bit longer to cook, but it was fine. Everyone loved the recipe but I did tweek it just a tad. Sautéed the garlic a in a bit more EVOO before adding the tomato sauce and had to ad salt because my tomato sauce was salt free. I didn't have fresh basil so I used dry. Im sure fresh wild have made a HUGE difference.
how much tomato sauce?