Ready in 12 minutes, this is my current go-to chicken breast recipe. AKA Pan-Seared Country Seasoned Chicken Breast with Butter Sauce, it’s fast, simple, not-boring and you can make it anytime with pantry staples!
Another go-to chicken breast recipe
The temptation to only share exciting, flashy recipes is real. Give me all the shiny glazes, creamy sauces and crunchy crumbs! But the truth is, I make simple back-pocket essentials a gazillion times more. We’re talking boiled eggs. Rice. Salad dressing. Poached chicken.
So today, I’m sharing a recipe that probably won’t get you running to the shops with excitement. But that’s the point! It’s a recipe to make with chicken breast right now that uses pantry staples but is not boring (<- this is important!).
We coat the chicken in a simple seasoning that becomes crispy when pan-fried, then while the chicken is resting we make a 1 minute butter sauce in the same pan so it gets flavour from the residual seasoning. It’s incredibly tasty and incredibly quick!
Bonus – skip the seasoning, or skip the sauce!
One of the appealing things about today’s recipe is that both elements are tasty enough to stand on their own, so you can just use one of them and skip the other.
So – just make the seared seasoned chicken with no sauce (picture below), or just sear the chicken with salt and pepper and serve it with the butter sauce. How’s that for flexibility?!🙌🏻
Ingredients in this Go-To Chicken Breast Recipe
Here’s what you need to make this.
FOR THE COUNTRY seasoned CHICKEN
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Chicken breast – Yup, that cut of chicken that ends up in my trolley week after week despite publicly favouring thighs for flavour!
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Pantry spices – The ever reliable combination of paprika, onion, garlic, cumin powder plus salt and pepper. This is a lovely savoury blend with country vibes that gives the chicken a warm reddish tinge from the paprika and layers of flavour. Here are some substitution options:
– Paprika: I use regular, but feel free to use smoky or spicy (if you can handle the heat!).
– Onion and garlic powder: substitute with more of the other.
– Cumin: coriander, thyme or other dried herb (crush between fingers to make a bit powdery). -
Flour (tiny amount) – I know it’s one extra thing, but it’s honestly worth it because it creates an awesome crust on the chicken. We just mix it with the spices then sprinkle on the chicken to coat it. We aren’t dredging separately!
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Butter – My cooking fat of choice. Because it’s tastier than oil, and it is what makes this simple recipe so good. I use it for cooking the chicken and making a quick pan sauce. You could also pan sear in olive oil, if you prefer, but stick with butter for the sauce.
For the butter sauce
The sauce gets flavour from the residual seasoning left in the pan after searing the chicken, then depth of flavour from a splash of wine or chicken stock.
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White wine or stock/broth – For deglazing* to making the pan sauce. Use any dry white wine you’ve got that’s not too sweet or woody, or even flat champagne. My staple is chardonnay because it’s got more flavour than neutral flavoured wines like sauvignon blanc and pinot gris.
Don’t waste your money on expensive wine!
It’s fairly well documented these days by respected food authorities (like New York Times Cooking’s Julia Moskin) that expensive wine doesn’t typically improve a dish. I use discounted end-of-bin bottles ($15 – $20 discounted to $5 – $7, keeps “forever” even once opened).
* Deglazing just means simmering liquid in the pan after cooking something so the golden bits stuck on the base dissolves into the liquid which adds free flavour. Even if you didn’t know what deglazing is, you do it in your day to day cooking all the time without even realising it! 🙂
How to make my Go-To Chicken Breast recipe
And here’s how to make it. The chicken cooking time is 5 minutes, the sauce takes 1 – 1 1/2 minutes, so that leaves you 5 minutes to split the chicken and mix the 5 ingredient seasoning for a 12 minute dinner. You got this!
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Split each chicken breast in half horizontally to form 4 thin steaks in total. To do this, apply pressure by placing your palm down on the breast then cut through the chicken.
There is no need to pound today, we are cooking hard and fast so the inside stays juicy, and you won’t overcook it because the colour of the crust is your built-in timer (golden = perfectly juicy inside, burnt = over cooking!).
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Mix the spices, salt, pepper and flour together.
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Coat the chicken with the seasoned flour mix. There should be just enough to coat both sides of each piece. Just sprinkle it on and spread with your fingers.
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Sear – Melt half the butter in a large non-stick pan over high heat until foamy. Place the chicken in (it’s ok if it’s snug, the chicken shrinks) and cook for 2 1/2 minutes on each side until it’s golden and crisp. Lift and tilt the pan if needed to encourage butter to run underneath each piece.
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Remove the chicken onto a plate to rest for 3 minutes. Don’t skip this, it makes the chicken juicier to eat because as it rests, the meat juices to redistribute into meat fibres so it ends up in your mouth. If you skip resting, when you cut the chicken the juices run out onto the plate. Use this time to make the pan sauce (1 minute!), put the chicken onto serving plates etc.
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Pan sauce – Essentially we’re making a white wine reduction sauce that is enriched with butter. Just pour the wine (or stock) into the pan and simmer rapidly for about a minute, using a rubber spatula to scrape the base of the pan so the seasoning left from the chicken dissolves into the sauce (it’s free flavour!).
The alcohol cooks out, so the sauce doesn’t taste winey – it just leaves behind a depth of flavour you can only get from cooking with alcohol. Then melt the butter in, mix to combine and that’s it! Ready for serving.
Note: There is not tons of sauce. There’s not supposed to be, it’s not the dousing sort because it’s a pan sauce with more intense flavour. You get about 1 tablespoon per serving which is enough. Also, the seasoning on the chicken does a lot of heavy flavour-lifting here!
So there you have it. Aside from foolproof poached chicken, this is probably the recipe I’ve texted to friends the most over the years. Because if you’ve got wine (or even flat champagne) and butter, you’ve got dinner.
Or if you’ve got paprika, onion and garlic powder, you’ve also got dinner. Just a reminder – you don’t need to make both elements! You can do just the seasoned pan-fried chicken, or keep it simple with salt and pepper and let the butter sauce carry the dish.
Pictured in this post with leafy greens tossed in my Everyday Salad Dressing, plus a new quick-and-dirty focaccia recipe I’m working on. Hoping to bring it to you on Friday. Enjoy! – Nagi x
