Marry Me Chicken
Marry Me Chicken is an American skillet dish of chicken breasts in a cream sauce with sun-dried tomatoes, garlic and Parmesan, named for the joke that one plate is enough to get a proposal. It went round the world from US food blogs around 2016 and stayed because it needs one pan, twenty minutes of work and no unusual shopping. The breasts are seared to a golden crust, then finished in the oven in the sauce so they stay juicy.
Ingredients
- 4 chicken breasts
- 150 gsun-dried tomatoes in oil
- 240 mlheavy cream
- 120 mlchicken broth
- 60 gparmesan
- 4 garlic cloves
- 1 tspdried oregano
- 1/2 tspchili flakes
- 2 tbspolive oil
- to tastesalt and black pepper
- 1 handfulfresh basil
Method
- Pat the chicken breasts dry with paper towels and season generously with salt and black pepper on both sides. Heat the olive oil in an oven-safe skillet over high heat and sear the chicken for 4–5 minutes per side until deeply golden. The chicken does not need to be cooked through at this stage — the crust is what matters. Transfer to a plate.
- In the same skillet, fry the minced garlic for 30 seconds. Add the sun-dried tomatoes with a spoonful of their oil and cook for 1 minute. Pour in the broth and scrape the bottom of the pan with a spatula to lift all the browned bits — this is the foundation of the sauce's flavor. Add the cream, oregano, and chili flakes. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook for 2–3 minutes until the sauce begins to thicken.
- Stir in the grated Parmesan until fully melted. Return the chicken to the skillet, spooning the sauce over each breast. Transfer to an oven preheated to 190°C and bake for 15–18 minutes until cooked through. Check the thickest breast with a thermometer: it is done at 74°C in the centre.
- Remove from the oven and scatter fresh basil leaves over the top. Serve with pasta, mashed potatoes, or crusty bread.
FAQ
Yes, and thighs are the safer cut if you tend to overcook chicken. Boneless skinless thighs need about 5 minutes longer in the oven and stay juicy even then, because the fat and connective tissue keep working in your favour. The trade-off is a heavier sauce: thighs render more fat into the cream, so skim a little off before serving or cut the cream by 50 ml. Keep the searing step either way, the crust is where the fond for the sauce comes from.
One tablespoon of tomato paste plus a pinch of sugar is the closest everyday swap, stirred in with the garlic so it loses its raw edge. The sauce comes out milder and less chewy, because you lose the concentrated fruit pieces. Cherry tomatoes halved and roasted at 200°C for 20 minutes work better still and add their own sweetness. Whichever you use, remember that oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes are salty, so hold back the salt until you have tasted the finished sauce.
Something that carries sauce. Wide pasta is the usual choice, tagliatelle or pappardelle boiled a minute short and tossed straight in the pan; creamy mashed potatoes work just as well. Crusty bread is the simplest option and the one most people actually reach for. Add a sharp green salad with lemon or a plain green vegetable to cut the cream, and skip anything else rich on the same plate.
It can, with full-fat coconut milk in place of the cream, 200 ml for the same volume. Leave out the Parmesan and add a teaspoon of white miso or a tablespoon of nutritional yeast for the savoury depth the cheese was providing. The sauce turns slightly sweet from the coconut, so balance it with an extra squeeze of lemon at the end. Oat cream is the neutral alternative if you do not want coconut flavour, but it thickens less, so simmer it two or three minutes longer.
Three days in the fridge in a closed container, sauce and chicken together so the meat keeps absorbing moisture. Reheat in a pan over low heat with a splash of broth or water, covered, until the sauce loosens and the chicken is warm through, about 6 to 8 minutes. A microwave works but cooks the breast a second time and the texture suffers; if you use one, go at half power in 30-second bursts. The sauce separates on freezing, so freeze only if you plan to blend it back together.
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Comments (1)
Salt the chicken breasts at least 30 minutes before cooking marry me chicken, or right before — never in between. Salt draws moisture to the surface; given 30+ minutes it reabsorbs. At 10 minutes, it's just sitting there making things wet.