Chicken and Spinach in Creamy Paprika Sauce is a hearty, but easy chicken recipe that the whole family will love! It’s amazing in flavor because of dry white wine and sauteed garlic.
I also love the delicious paprika sauce! It is so creamy and buttery, with just a mild tang from the fresh lemon juice. You can make this chicken and spinach recipe on a weeknight right on your stove top!
Why I love this recipe
- Minimal clean-up. After I eat dinner, I like to get up and go, so it’s super important to now have a big mess to clean up afterward. This easy chicken recipe ticks that box.
- Easy to customize. I like to use whatever protein type I have in the fridge. For example, use chicken thighs, chicken breasts or turkey tenderloins.
- Pairs with oven baked french fries, garlic butter spaghetti and creamy garlic potatoes.
Tips on how to use chicken
- How to cut the chicken. I like to use thin chicken breasts in this easy chicken recipe. Or, if my chicken is too thick, I usually halve them horizontally. I love working with thin chicken fillets. And I made a number of thin chicken breasts recipes, such as this Low Carb Chicken. Try it too!
- How to season the chicken. Make sure to season your chicken very generously. I always use sea salt, pepper and paprika as my spices. Then I sauté my chicken with butter until golden brown. So simple!
How to make paprika flavored creamy sauce
- Use cream. This version of paprika flavored creamy sauce is my absolute favorite, I have been making it for a couple of years now. Maybe more. I love that it’s a colorful sauce but it’s also really filling, and welcoming on a cold day. My creamy sauce for chicken is incredibly simple to make using heavy cream, wine and stock.
- Garlic and fresh lemon is a must! I also sautéed garlic and added juice of a fresh lemon and of course paprika. The great thing about this sauce is that you can also use any kind of vegetables, such as spinach if that’s what you have on hand!
- Thicken the sauce with flour. I use flour to thicken the sauce a bit, but it can be omitted if you are gluten free. Chicken and spinach go very well together with the paprika flavor here. I love it!
What kind of wine to use?
- Dry white wine. When I made paprika chicken, I used Pinot Grigio. It’s a pretty good wine. However, any dry white wine that you like can be used. When we talk good wines, I also think about Chardonnay or Riesling. All these are great choices. They will produce an excellent flavor for the chicken sauce.
- Do not use cooking wine. When cooking with wine, you should never use “cooking wine”. Cooking wine is loaded with sodium and is not tasty at all. But cooking with a regular drinking wine will always give you a better tasting dish.
What can I substitute for wine
- Lime Juice. This is an ideal substitute for dry white wine. Made from white wine, it has many of the same flavor characteristics, minus the alcohol. Use fresh lime or ¼ cup lime juice. This is my favorite substitute!
- Chicken or vegetable stock. You can substitute stock for white wine entirely if you are sensitive to alcohol.
- Lemon. Because we are already using lemon, adding slightly more would compensate for the loss of flavor from wine. So simple!
What kind of skillet should I use
Make sure to use a good heavy skillet here, such as cast iron. It helps to have a large one too. I used 12 inch Lodge Pro-Logic Seasoned Cast Iron Skillet in this paprika chicken recipe. It’s well designed, has a helper handle and sloped sides. Overall, it’s a very sleek looking for cast iron! With so much room!
I do have other cast iron skillets, but prefer this one due to its size. It’s very large with even more space due to its sloped sides. Besides it never sticks or leaves weird black dots on meat like other cast iron skillets do. And it’s one of my most used kitchen tools!
More easy chicken recipes
If you are a lover of easy chicken recipes like we are, be sure to also try Parmesan Crusted Chicken and Pan-Fried Chicken!
Chicken and Spinach in Creamy Paprika Sauce
Ingredients
- 4 Chicken Breasts, (boneless & skinless)
- 1 teaspoon Smoked Paprika, (for seasoning chicken)
- ¼ teaspoon Salt and Pepper, (each for seasoning chicken)
- 2 tablespoon unsalted butter
Creamy Paprika Sauce:
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tablespoon flour (sifted)
- ½ cup dry white wine
- ½ cup chicken broth, (sodium free)
- ½ cup heavy cream
- 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice, (juice of squeezed lemon)
- 2 cups fresh spinach
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon paprika
Instructions
- Cooking Chicken: Season the chicken with salt, pepper and paprika, rubbing it evenly over both sides.
- Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a large skillet (I used cast iron skillet) over medium high heat and cook on the first side for about 3 minutes. Flip, and turn the heat down to medium and cook for another three minutes. Remove and set chicken aside on separate plate.
- Making Creamy Sauce: Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in the now empty skillet. Add garlic and cook stirring frequently about 2 minutes. Add flour using a sifter until well mixed. Add wine next and cook for 1-2 minutes to allow alcohol to evaporate.
- Stir in chicken broth, heavy cream and lemon juice. Add salt and paprika. Mix well. Simmer for 2 minutes. Taste the sauce and adjust seasoning (if necessary) at this point.
- Spinach: Add in the spinach and cook for additional 2 minutes until the spinach has wilted.
- Adding Chicken Back: Return the chicken to the skillet and cook covered for 2-3 minutes if your chicken breasts are thin; or for 5-7 minutes, if they are thick.
- Serve immediately.
Nutritional information is provided as a courtesy only. This information comes from online calculators. Although whatsinthepan.com attempts to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures are only estimates.
You might also like the amazing Chicken Alfredo Pasta.
It was delicious. I didn’t have white wine so used red. I added 2 onions, cut into wedges, to the chicken in the beginning which also added extra flavour. Served with rice, maybe needed more sauce but very tasty.
So glad you tried it with red wine. Always wondered how it would come out with a red.
Excellent recipe. Served it with brown rice and asparagus. Used Pinot Noir wine, even though the recipe calls for white wine.
I have cooked this recipe and I found it too acidic. Hardly any taste to it.
Be careful with the salt. White wine and lemon juice are strong in taste.
Served it with boiled rice without salt. I had to add a teaspoon of sugar to counteract the acid in the sauce.
This was wonderful easy and quick. I will definitely make it again.
I added red wine because I didn’t have white.It was very good.
Thank you Barb. Red wine is great!