Ok, here’s a recipe for all of my chicken loving readers out there, and I know there are quite a few of you. You guys have been so patient with my quinoa craziness lately, so I found this recipe just for you, and I guess selfishly for me, because my family and I do love chicken.
This is the perfect weeknight chicken recipe folks. The marinade comes together in a flash and can be made ahead in the morning, so when you get home from work or just from a long busy day, all you have to do is roast up the chicken. Yippee! The chicken takes under 30 minutes to roast up to perfection, but tastes like a chicken that has been cooking for hours.
Bone-in, skin on chicken that’s pan seared in a skillet locks in all the juices and flavor while creating a shatteringly crisp skin on the outside. The chicken is moist and full of flavor from the rosemary and garlic marinade. Oh, and let’s not forget about the amazing sauce, or should I say gravy, because it tastes like gravy everyone. It’s the perfect sauce for dipping a popover in. The sauce is made up of chicken broth, fresh thyme, shallots and garlic, and just adds that extra yummy factor to the chicken. I’ve made this recipe twice in the past week, and I have to tell you that I’ve had some pretty happy campers in the house.
I paired this with some traditional popovers one night and my rosemary and sea salt popovers another night, as well as some broccoli rabe that I sautéed in shallots and a bit of olive oil. This chicken is also great paired with my arugula salad with simple lemon vinaigrette. This chicken dish is definitely ranking up there as one of our favorite weeknight meals. The kids love it because it tastes great, and I love it because it’s easy. Those are two key words that I look for when making dinner, easy and tasty.
rosemary skillet chicken:
Recipe from Zebra’s Bistro and Wine Bar
serves 4
cookware: oven-proof skillet
Note: Chicken will have to marinate ahead anywhere from 1-12 hours
- 2-3 pounds of bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts, thighs or drumsticks – Just get enough chicken for your family here. I usually buy my chicken in pieces rather than by the pound. I typically get 1 breast and 3 thighs.
- 2 tablespoons fresh rosemary, minced
- 4 garlic cloves, minced, divided – You will mince 2 cloves for the marinade in the morning, and the other 2 at night when making the sauce.
- 3 1/2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
- Sea salt and freshly ground pepper
- 1 small shallot (about 2 tablespoons), minced
- 1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves, minced
- 3/4 cup chicken broth
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter or ghee, cut into small cubes
First let’s get the marinade together for the chicken. In a small bowl, combine together the 2 tablespoons minced rosemary, 2 minced garlic cloves and 2 1/2 tablespoons of olive oil.
Pat dry the chicken and rub the marinade on both sides of the chicken. Cover the chicken, or put it all into a ziploc bag, (that’s what I did) and refrigerate the chicken for 1-12 hours. This is a great and easy marinade to make ahead the morning, so when you get home, all you have to do is roast up the chicken.
When you’re home and ready to make dinner, preheat the oven to 400 degrees and place a rack in the lower third of the oven.
Pat the skin side of chicken dry, and season with salt and pepper. Heat remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil in large ovenproof skillet over medium high heat. I used my 12″ cast iron skillet.
Add the chicken, skin side down to the preheated skillet, and cook until golden brown, about 5 minutes.
Flip chicken over and transfer skillet to the oven.
Roast chicken until an instant-read thermometer inserted in the thickest part of the thigh or breast, registers 165 degrees, about 20-25 minutes. The time varies depending on how large your chicken breasts or thighs are. Chicken breasts take longer to cook than thighs, so note that if you’re cooking both together, you will have to remove the thighs earlier in the cooking process.
Transfer the cooked chicken to a warm plate.
While the chicken is cooking, prep ingredients for the sauce. Mince the shallot, 2 garlic cloves, thyme leaves, cut up the 2 tablespoons of butter and measure out the chicken broth.
Take the same skillet that you cooked the chicken in and set it over medium heat. Add to the skillet, the shallot, thyme and garlic.
Stir occasionally until the shallot and garlic are softened, about 1 1/2 to 2 minutes.
Add the chicken broth and cook, scraping up the browned bits, until the broth is reduced by half, about 3 minutes.
Stir in the 2 tablespoons butter until melted.
Turn off the heat and pour the sauce into a serving bowl. Serve up the chicken and top each piece with the sauce.
This sauce is seriously amazing and tastes like gravy. It’s the perfect sauce to dip a rosemary and sea salt popover in, just saying…
This chicken also makes for great leftovers! See, I really use leftovers! Here’s the lunch I’m packing for school today. Leftover rosemary skillet chicken, oven baked brown rice and fall roasted vegetables! Leftovers really do make great lunches!
Here are a few of our other favorite weeknight chicken dishes. Citrus-marinated chicken.
The best oven baked crispy chicken.
Pesto-yogurt roasted chicken drumsticks.
Easy skillet chicken parmesan.
- 2-3 pounds of bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts, thighs or drumsticks - Just get enough chicken for your family here. I usually buy my chicken in pieces rather than by the pound. I typically get 1 breast and 3 thighs.
- 2 tablespoons fresh rosemary, minced
- 4 garlic cloves, minced, divided - You will mince 2 cloves for the marinade in the morning and the other 2 at night when making the sauce.
- 3½ tablespoons olive oil, divided
- Sea salt and freshly ground pepper
- 1 small shallot (about 2 tablespoons), minced
- 1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves, minced
- ¾ cup chicken broth
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter or ghee, cut into small cubes
- First let's get the marinade together for the chicken. In a small bowl, combine together the 2 tablespoons minced rosemary, 2 minced garlic cloves and 2½ tablespoons of olive oil.
- Pat dry chicken and rub the marinade on both sides of the chicken. Cover the chicken, or put it all into a ziploc bag, (that's what I did) and refrigerate the chicken for 1-12 hours. This is a great and easy marinade to make ahead the morning, so when you get home, all you have to do is roast up the chicken.
- When you're home and ready to make dinner, preheat the oven to 400 degrees and place a rack in the lower third of the oven.
- Pat the skin side of chicken dry, and season with salt and pepper.
- Heat remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil in large ovenproof skillet over medium high heat. I used my 12" cast iron skillet.
- Add chicken, skin side down to preheated skillet, and cook until golden brown, about 5 minutes.
- Flip chicken over and transfer skillet to the oven.
- Roast chicken until an instant-read thermometer inserted in the thickest part of the thigh or breast, registers 165 degrees, about 20-25 minutes. The time varies depending on how large your chicken breasts or thighs are. Chicken breasts take longer to cook than thighs, so note that if you're cooking both together, you will have to remove the thighs earlier in the cooking process.
- Transfer the cooked chicken to a warm plate.
- While the chicken is cooking, prep ingredients for the sauce. Mince the shallot, 2 garlic cloves, thyme leaves, cut up the 2 tablespoons of butter and measure out the chicken broth.
- Take the same skillet that you cooked the chicken in and set it over medium heat. Add to the skillet, the shallot, thyme, and garlic.
- Stir occasionally until the shallot and garlic are softened, about 1½ to 2 minutes.
- Add the chicken broth and cook, scraping up the browned bits, until the broth is reduced by half, about 3 minutes.
- Stir in the 2 tablespoons butter until melted.
- Turn off the heat and pour the sauce into a serving bowl.
- Serve up the chicken and top each piece with the sauce. The sauce is seriously amazing and tastes like gravy. It's the perfect sauce to dip a popover in.
My husband wasn’t a fan of chicken…but he is now!
having trouble printing the recipe. It says printer friendly but only prints the ingredients not the directions. I made it, however, and it was delicious.. Please advise how to print the whole recipe
Hi there! So happy you loved the chicken, and so sorry to hear that it didn’t print? If you click on the print icon in the main recipe portion, (right below the save button) it should print the whole thing. I just tried it and it worked. Let me know if you have any other issues.
Best,
Jackie
Wow – Jackie we just tried the Rosemary Skillet Chicken. EVERYONE raved in my family, and I’ve got some really picky eaters. Slam dunk for this family. Tonight, trying the Buffalo Burgers with the Jalapeño Sage pesto. Thanks so much for posting these! Great job Mama!
Hi Grier! I loved seeing your name pop up in my comment thread 🙂 I’m so happy to hear that your crew loved the rosemary skillet chicken! Winner! It’s funny but we ate the buffalo burgers last Thursday night. Zoe was craving burgers! I actually cooked them up in the cast iron skillet and they came out perfectly! Have a great week girl and I hope to see you out and about Marin soon! xoxo, Jacquelyn
Made tonight-big hit! I only had 15 minutes to marinate (so I can only imagine that if I actually had an hour or more how wonderful it would be) and it was so good! Popovers and a kale salad rounded out the meal-oh so Jackie;) I made the Dr Weil salad with the toasted breadcrumbs and almonds (don’t know if you’ve tried that one?) it’s my favorite. Will def make again.
I just found this site. I was looking for an overnight steel cut oatmeal recipes and your photos and easy sounding recipe caught my attention. I just checked out the chicken recipes and I sitting here with my tummy rumbling.
Fantastic job.
I was just thinking about you today. I miss seeing you around regularly. Hope you are doing well!
i love this dish! Like you said so easy and yet so rich and full of flavor. The marinade is the bomb! I hope you are doing fantastic! I miss you- not that you went away but just miss hearing from you more BUT wouldn;t trade you being happier for anything so I’ll take it when I get it! LOL!
Looks delicious ! Going to make this tonight ! I love chicken too, but who doesn’t ? 🙂
Yaay! I hope you like it girl! I’m actually making this again for dinner tonight! 🙂 xoxo, Jackie
Another fantastic looking chicken recipe! Rosemary is so good with chicken, what a great combo and that sauce looks delicious. I could see serving this with quinoa and having that soak up the sauce too. 🙂 Still quinoa crazy with you! Hope you are doing well my friend! So nice to see you. 🙂 xoxo, Sharon
I love the stove top to oven method and that sauce looks absolutely divine! Pinning 🙂
This is absolutely mouth-watering, Jackie. I can’t wait to try it as soon as I can get my hands on some fresh rosemary!
Going to make this for my husband ASAP!! Thanks!!
We love chicken! and we make a similar dish but we bake them in the oven. I haven’t made it in a while, but you just gave me an idea for dinner. Thanks Jackie! Have a great day! xxoo anna and liz
Ok, I love homemade marinades. It makes me cringe thinking of using the ones in the grocery store. Sure they may taste good, however they are always filled with a million ingredients you don’t need! This chicken recipe is simple ingredients with big flavor. Love it. Rosemary reminds me of spring…its coming soon 😀 Thanks for sharing!
I’ve been in need of a new chicken recipe, I keep cycling the same ones week after week and it’s been getting rather dull. I have fresh rosemary in my fridge, so I’ll probably try this recipe out this week. And I really need to invest in a pan for popovers, you’re always serving them up and I keep saying I’m going to get one to make some!
That looks completely yummy. Just bought a bunch of chicken today. Eager to try this. Thanks for sharing!
This looks amazing – can’t wait to try it! Will use boneless skinless chicken breast.