Garlic Butter Baked Chicken Breast is a simple and delicious way to make juicy, flavorful chicken every time. These oven-baked chicken breasts are covered in a tasty garlic butter sauce. This sauce keeps them tender and moist, with a golden and slightly crispy edge. Perfect for a quick weeknight dinner or easy meal prep!
Best Chicken Breast Recipe You’ll EVER Make!
If you love juicy chicken breast recipes, I’m sure you’ll love this one. My husband also loves it, especially because I cook it in garlic butter sauce. Who doesn’t love a buttery flavoured sauce?
This sauce gives more flavor to this recipe and helps the chicken breast to be tender, moist and juicy too. This sauce is so good that you don’t need to even use a chicken marinade.
I also love how quick and easy this recipe is. No complicated steps, wrapping, or brining required. You don’t need to pound the chicken breasts with a rolling pin or meat mallet. Also, there’s no need for parchment paper or plastic wrap either.
I absolutely love easy and quick baked chicken breast recipes for dinner. If you’re like me, try these delicious family chicken breast recipes too: Creamy Parmesan Chicken Breast and Stuffed Chicken Breast recipe. Want even more chicken breast recipes? Try these 50 Best Chicken Breast Recipes, Instant Pot Chicken Breast and this Air Fryer Chicken Breast Recipe.
Chicken Breast – I use boneless, skinless chicken breasts for a lean, quick-cooking protein. After making this recipe many times, I found that this cut is the best. It has a great balance of tenderness and juiciness, especially when baked with garlic butter. But feel free to replace chicken breast for chicken thighs if it’s what you have.
Butter – I always opt for unsalted butter in recipes like this to give me full control over the salt levels. I’ve found that unsalted butter allows the garlic and other seasonings to shine without the risk of the dish being too salty.
Garlic – Freshly minced garlic is a must for its vibrant, aromatic flavor. I’ve tried pre-minced or jarred garlic, but nothing beats the flavor and freshness of fresh garlic in the butter sauce.
1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Season all the sides of chicken breast with salt, pepper and smoked paprika. If you prefer you can also use your favorite spices like garlic powder, dried oregano and chili powder too.
2. In a cast iron skillet, heat olive oil over medium heat. Once the skillet is hot, add the chicken breast. Sear for 1-2 minutes on each side, or until golden brown.
2. In a small bowl mix together the butter, Italian seasoning, parsley, and garlic. Then, pour the garlic butter mixture over the chicken breasts.
3. Place the skillet in the oven. There’s no need to flip them when baking.
4. Bake chicken breast for 20-30 minutes or until the chicken reaches an internal temperature of 165°F.
4. Remove the cooked chicken breasts from the oven. Using a spoon, drizzle some of the butter sauce from the skillet over the juicy, tender chicken breasts before serving.
Olivia's Recipe Tips:
- After removing the chicken breast from the fridge, pat dry the chicken with paper towels.
- Let the chicken rest for 5 minutes before serving.
- You can use a regular skillet to sear your chicken if you don’t have a cast iron skillet. Then, transfer them to a casserole, or an oven-safe baking dish.
- If you want a more buttery sauce, add two extra tablespoons of butter.
The cooking time will depend on the size of your chicken breast and also on the power of your oven. Some ovens have slight heat differences.
But according to USDA, a 4-oz. chicken breast should be bake at 350°F (177˚C) for 25 minutes or 30 minutes to be fully cooked. If it’s smaller than 4oz, bake it for about 20 minutes.
However, to bake a 5 to 6 ounce chicken breast at 400F, it will take around 20 to 25 minutes.
It’s important that you use an instant read thermometer when cooking chicken breast to check that the internal temperature.
How do you keep chicken breast from drying out in the Oven?
Be sure to not over bake the chicken breasts to avoid them getting dried out when baked. We also put the garlic butter overtop the breasts so that there’s extra added moisture to it. This is how I make delicious baked chicken breast that retain all of their natural juices.
Serve this Recipe with:
This baked chicken breast recipe is amazing served fresh out of the oven with some veggie sides. But you can also slice, shred, or dice them to use in other dishes, like chicken noodle soup, chicken salad, or chicken chili.
I usually love to serve it with salads, rice, mashed potatoes, roasted asparagus, broccoli salad and sweet potato fries.
You can also serve with a delicious quinoa salad and yummy air fryer baked sweet potato.
More Chicken Breast Recipes To Try:
Chicken Mushroom Recipe
30 mins
Baked Chicken Breast Recipe
35 mins
Lemon Rosemary Chicken
40 mins
Mediterranean Chicken Recipe
35 mins
Garlic Butter Baked Chicken Breast
Video
Equipment
Ingredients
- 3 boneless skinless chicken breasts
- salt and black pepper
- 1/2 + 1/4 teaspoon paprika
- 4 tbsp butter (melted)
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- 1 tablespoon fresh parsley chopped
- 2 cloves of garlic minced
- 1 tbsp. olive oil extra virgin
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°F. Season chicken breast with salt, pepper, 1/2 teaspoon of paprika and set aside.
- In a small bowl mix 1/4 teaspoon of paprika, butter, Italian seasoning, parsley, and garlic. Set aside.
- In a cast iron skillet, heat olive oil over medium heat. When the skillet is hot add chicken breast. Sear until golden. It’s about 1-2 minutes each side.
- Pour garlic butter mixture over the chicken breast. Place skillet in the oven and cook until cooked through. It’s about 20 minutes or until chicken breasts gets to an internal temperature of 165F.
- Remove from the oven. Using a spoon, pour some of the butter sauce left in the skillet onto the chicken breast. Also, if you prefer, top with fresh herbs before serving.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Instead of transferring the pan to the oven, can I just place a lid on the skillet and continue to cook on the stove? Thank you
Yes you can on low heat.
Do you have to sear the chicken?
Yes for just few minutes.
Seriously best chicken recipe ever!! I ended up using boneless chicken thighs (I thought they were breasts until defrosted and too late) and followed recipe exactly. Added lots of Italian spices. This will become one of my regular rotations. Thank you!
Awesome! I’m so thrilled to hear that! Thanks for your feedback 😉
This meal is very tasty! But, my chicken breasts dry out as well. I would like to try this recipe with boneless chicken thighs. Do you think I can season and cook in the skillet on the stove or would baking in oven work best?
Do you have a suggestion for time in oven for 400 degrees?
Thank you!! Tina
I’ve never made this recipe with boneless chicken thighs, but I think it probably will work. You can sear the chicken tights in the skillet and then bake in the oven. Check your chicken after 20 minutes and every 5 minutes after that. It’ll be ready when it gets at 165F (internal temperature).
I also think that your chicken breast was dry because probably you baked it for longer than it should. That’s why I suggested that it should be baked for 20 to 30 minutes depending on the thickness of the chicken breast.
I added baby bella mushrooms and some halved cherry tomatoes. Turned out AMAZING! Would love to add some baby spinach to it too. Definitely saving this recipe!
It sounds amazing! Mushrooms and cherry tomatoes work great in there 😉
This whole article needs to be edited. It’s so hard to read because of all the errors.
Thanks for pointing it out. This post was just reviewed by a professional editor to better serve the readers.
Made it for dinner last night and my hubby loves it. Had great taste and smelled so good.
So awesome!
Can I just sear it in the pan and then put it in the oven in a Pyrex dish.
Yes I think it works.
Tasty and juicy. I browned mine a bit later ne’er and then only had to bake for about 10 minutes. This is now on my list. I love not having to pound out the chicken.
Awesome! Thanks for your feedback and for stopping by 😉
This was such an easy, quick and delicious recipe, My boyfriend and I enjoyed the chicken very much and will definitely make this again soon.
Aw thank you so much!
Excellent way to prepare boring chicken breasts! I made it to spec, following the recipe exactly, except that I threw some baby potatoes (the multicolored kind) into the pan to bake with the chicken. Turned out fabulous! It was a busy day, and this was a quick, easy prep. Will make again.
That’s amazing. Thanks for your lovely comment 😉
I was recruited to make dinner when my elderly mother felt too weak to cook the chicken breasts she had thawed. So, a quick internet search using “delicious” and “chicken breasts” brought up your recipe. I’m a huge fan of garlic (and my mother not so much). This really was easy and delicious, moist and flavorful, rather than dry and bland like so many breast recipes are. Even my mother was impressed. I will definitely make this again.
I had a new jar of dried parsley on hand so I used that. I rehydrated the dry spices first since even the garlic I had was freeze dried granules. I have an English thyme plant, so naturally I had to use some. For the Italian spices, I used Penzey’s Blend. I seared in a smidge of bacon grease, and sprayed the chicken with coconut oil for the high heat. I saved the olive oil part for basting after cooking, adding it to what was left of the spices and melted Irish butter. The paprika is a really nice addition.
Mm… Sounds delicious! Thanks for stopping by 😉
My nephew and I made this tonight for dinner and we were out of paprika so awe substituted with old bay and it was delicious. Also we cook for 9-12 people and every single one of them couldn’t stop telling us how delicious it was.
That’s absolutely awesome! Happy to hear that 😉
Just got done making this dish, turned out great.. pounded out chicken breast so it was the same thickness and added a touch of crushed red pepper. ( Wife and Kids like a little heat) Definitely a winner , Thankyou …
Awesome. Happy to hear that!
Hi I would like to use chicken thighs ,bone in skin on, following the recipe, how long will this take to bake in the the thighs in the oven
It’s about 40 mins.
If I could rate 10 stars I would! This is the best chicken I have ever made. Thank you for this recipie it impressed my husband and I was surprised I made something so good!
The chicken was so moist and flavorful. I didn’t have a Dutch oven so I ended up using a skillet first and moving to a baking dish but things still turned out great.
Wow thank you sooooo much for this lovely feedback 😉
This sounds delicious! Have you made this in an air fryer?
Unfortunately no, but if you try it please let me know how it turned out 😉
I am so excited to try this!! Our oven is currently broken, do you think transferring the cast iron skillet to our grill at the right temp would work too? I’ll share my results once I do it!
Yes I believe it would work. If you try it please let me know how it worked out for you.
Hello, can I use a regular skillet and then transfer it to a pan ?
yes you can.
Delicious! I added a can of mushrooms and loved it! Will definitely be making this again!
Yahoo!!
Excellent! They come out perfect every time! Thank you!
Awesome! Thanks for leaving this review 😉
Our new favorite chicken breast recipe. Absolutely delicious. Thank you for sharing this recipe.
So happy to hear that! Thanks for stopping by 😉
OMG, best chicken ever! I’ve been trying to be close to whole 30/keto though I do have some cheat meals. This is by far the most Delicious chicken recipe I have found. Reminds me of those frozen chicken Kiev’s. So, so good! Thank you for sharing!!!
Wow your comment made my day. Happy to hear that you love this recipe 😉