Smoked Paprika Chicken with Creamed Spinach is a comfort food dinner that a whole family will love! Skinless, boneless chicken thighs are seared to perfection in a cast-iron skillet and served with homemade creamed spinach made with Parmesan cheese.
Add heavy cream and minced garlic to a large skillet and bring to a visible boil. Add shredded Parmesan cheese and stir. Reduce to low-medium heat and keep stirring until the cheese melts, for about 2 or 4 minutes.
Add fresh spinach, stir in the sauce on low-medium heat for a couple of minutes, just until the spinach starts to wilt and sinks into the sauce. You can remove from heat and cover to let spinach wilt, too. Season with salt and pepper, if needed.
Top with fresh lemon zest.
How to Make Smoked Paprika Chicken
Generously season the chicken thighs with salt, freshly ground black pepper, and smoked paprika. Prepare a different skillet than what you used to make creamed spinach. It's best to use a cast-iron skillet to make chicken.
Heat an empty cast-iron skillet over medium heat for 3 minutes. This allows the cast-iron skillet to heat through. Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Add chicken thighs. Cook the chicken on medium heat for 5 minutes, without moving it. This allows the chicken to sear.
Flip the chicken thighs over, reduce heat to low-medium, and cook for about 5 more minutes or longer until it's cooked through. The meat thermometer should register 165°F (74°C) in the thickest part of the chicken. Remove from heat.
Add 1 tablespoon of butter to the skillet and stir, off heat, to coat the chicken.
When serving, top the chicken with chopped fresh parsley and serve alongside the creamed spinach.
Notes
Troubleshooting problems when making creamed spinach. If your cheese doesn't melt properly or the creamed spinach gets watery, scroll up above the recipe card towards the top of the post to review the section Important tips for making perfect creamed spinach on how to fix these issues and how to do damage control should something go wrong.
Parmesan cheese. Use an unopened block of Parmesan cheese and shred it yourself. Using a block of cheese that you've opened for another recipe several days ago will dry the cheese out and the cheese might not melt properly in the sauce. Also, make sure the Parmesan cheese that you use has never been frozen - that changes the texture of the cheese.
Lemon zest. Use a vegetable peeler to peel a thin layer of lemon zest from a clean, fresh lemon.