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★ Why You'll Love this Recipe ★
Fancy Yet Easy
A deliciously easy weeknight chicken dinner idea!
This kid-friendly dish will satisfy your craving for something sophisticated and flavorful.
Perfectly seasoned chicken with a bit of crunch.
Panko bread crumbs are seasoned with a bell pepper and garlic spice blend adding lots of flavor in just a few dashes.
Just bread the chicken as you normally would and give it a quick fry in a skillet to really get a crisp outer layer that contrasts so nicely with the creamy sauce.
Flavorful creamy homemade sauce.
The cream sauce is from-scratch yet comes together really easily using leftover tidbits from cooking the chicken and the power of basil, pimento peppers and chicken bullion to really punch up the flavor.
Make it a Meal
Pair this crispy Italian chicken with cream sauce with a Caramelized Apple & Vidalia Onion Salad, homemade dinner rolls, and Strawberry Shortcake Cupcakes for dessert!
★ Ingredients You'll Need ★
You don't need a long list of ingredients for this dish making this dinner as natural go-to for busy weeknights.
Here's everything you'll need:
- Chicken cutlets. You can buy these ready to go or filet your own chicken breasts by simple cutting them in half so they are half as thick.
- Sour cream. This single ingredient covers three bases: tenderizes, adds tangy flavor, and helps breadcrumbs stick to your chicken.
- Garlic and bell pepper seasoning. You can usually find this spice blend at your grocery store but in case you can't you can also find this herb blend on amazon. Note: Some blends do not contain salt, so you will need to add additional salt if this is the case.
- Italian Panko bread crumbs. Panko bread crumbs are larger and provide more crunch. You can use regular breadcrumbs in a pinch, but Panko will give you more texture.
- Butter or cooking oil. A flavored cooking oil like olive or grape seed oil is best.
- Minced garlic. You can use fresh garlic, garlic paste or even garlic powder if that's all you have.
- Half & half. You can substitute with milk or heavy cream. This will affect the richness of the cream sauce but will still work.
- Chicken bouillon. This is key to maximum flavor. A small amount of bullion majorly enhances the flavor of chicken. I use it in almost all my chicken recipes. It's one of my favorite tricks for taking a dish from bland to WOW.
- Pimento peppers. These come in a little jar with juice. Go ahead and add the whole jar, juice included. No need to drain. The juice will add a nice layer of flavor to the cream sauce.
- Italian shredded cheese mix. Any blend of Italian cheeses will do.
- Fresh basil. Fresh is key. You can use basil paste if needed but fresh-picked is best.
- Red pepper flakes. These are totally optional but add a hint of spice if that's your thing.
- Egg noodles or Pappardelle pasta. You can serve this chicken and cream sauce over any type of pasta but these are my favorite options.
★ Tips & FAQs ★
There are a couple easy way to achieve moist, tender bites of chicken.
One way to ensure your chicken is tender is to pound it out. To do this, simply place raw cutlets on a cutting board, cover with plastic wrap and pound flat with a meat tenderizer until the cutlet is a consistent thickness. This helps the chicken evenly cook as well.
You can also marinate your chicken with sour cream or buttermilk.
To marinate, take raw chicken and rub with salt then a thick coating of sour cream or let soak in buttermilk. Place in a large ziplock bag and let sit in the fridge for at least 2 hours or overnight.
Use a meat thermometer to check your chicken (165˚ and you're good to go), and flip sides when cooking as needed to prevent over-browning. Pan frying can be tricky because when you add the chicken, it lowers the oil temperature. Use your meat thermometer to check the temperature of the oil. You want it to be around 350ºF.
My recipe is an adaption of an Herb Crusted Chicken in Basil Cream Sauce I experimented with. I altered it to simplify the ingredient list and also added a little heat and tang! I also upped the amount of sauce so there's enough to cover the chicken and noodles.
Have picky eaters? Serve the chicken and pasta separately and make the cream sauce optional.
You can get jarred fresh basil in the spice aisle, full plants or fresh-picked basil leaves in the refrigerated produce section at most grocery stores.
There is nothing like the smell of fresh basil. And the taste is a billion times more flavorful than dried basil. In this case, fresh is a must.
★ More Creamy Chicken Recipes ★
Browse all my easy chicken dinner recipes for even more meal ideas!
Cripsy Italian Chicken with Basil Cream Sauce
Ingredients
Breaded Chicken
- 4 chicken cutlets pounded flat
- ½ cup Italian Panko bread crumbs
- ½ teaspoon garlic bell pepper seasoning with salt or add salt
- ¼ cup sour cream
- 4 tablespoon butter or cooking oil divided
Sauce
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- 1 pint half & half
- 2 teaspoon chicken bouillon
- ½ cup Italian shredded cheese mix
- 4 oz pimento peppers no need to drain
- ¼ cup fresh basil sliced
Serve with
- 4 cups cooked egg noodles or Pappardelle pasta
Garnish
- red pepper flakes to taste optional
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Instructions
- Bread chicken. In a medium bowl, mix together bread crumbs with garlic bell pepper seasoning. Add sour cream to a separate bowl.Coat each cutlet in sour cream using clean hands or a brush.Move each cutlet to the bread crumb bowl and toss chicken until thoroughly coated on all sides.
- Cook chicken. Preheat a large skillet with 2 tablespoon butter or oil, over medium heat. Add chicken and cook for 5-7 minutes on each side or until golden brown and internal temp is 165˚ (time varies depending on thickness of the chicken.)Transfer cooked chicken to a plate and cover loosely with foil to keep warm.
- Make sauce. Using the same skillet, sauté garlic in remaining butter or oil for 1 minute. Add half & half and chicken bullion, cheese, pimentos, and basil. Bring to a bubble and stir until well blended.Reduce heat and simmer for 4 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Garnish and serve. Serve chicken over cooked, warm noodles, topped with sauce. Sprinkle with red pepper flake if desired.
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