You can make this easy Marry Me Chicken in just 30 minutes!
Marry Me Chicken is a delicious and creamy chicken dish and can be a low calorie meal choice. This recipe can be tailored to your own taste preferences and a super easy dish to serve up for your loved ones.
This recipe is so tasty that it might even prompt a marriage proposal. Marry me chicken is both simple to make and irresistibly delicious.
Super easy, creamy and delicious Marry Me Chicken. Served up with rice and broccoli. You have to give this one a go!
What exactly is Marry Me Chicken?
Now that’s a difficult one to answer but I’ll try here. You might have seen a few recipes for Marry Me Chicken around and they are often quite different to each other.
That’s because this is a chicken dish that you will want to make for that special someone. In my case, I knew I had to add peri peri spice to mine because it’s a favourite in our home.
You can adjust this recipe to your own taste whilst still maintaining its core elements of sun-dried tomatoes, garlic and cheese.
What is the history of Marry Me Chicken?
You will find many variations of Marry Me Chicken and so the history of its origin are a bit unclear. Marry Me Chicken is believed to have originated from passionate home cooks and food bloggers in the United States. As a home cook, you have the opportunity to infuse your own passion and flavour into this dish.
Marry Me Chicken shares some similarities with Italian Tuscan chicken dishes but they are not the same. Both recipes draw inspiration from Italian cuisine but have distinct flavour differences.
What is the best cut of chicken to use in this dish?
Your best chicken option for this Marry Me Chicken recipe is usually boneless and skinless chicken breast as they cook quickly and their mild flavour pairs well with the rich and creamy sauce flavours.
You can also use boneless chicken thighs if you prefer an even more flavourful option. Just feel free to make this recipe your own.
How long can you store this in the fridge?
As long as your chicken is fresh and has a good use by date, this chicken dish will keep in the fridge for at least 3 days. Be sure to cover it tightly.
To reheat your Marry Me Chicken, simply place it in a saucepan over a medium heat and heat it up until hot. You could also place it in your microwave but I prefer the pot method.
Can you freeze the leftovers?
You could but for best results, freeze it before adding dairy products such as cream cheese and cream. It will still taste good if you freeze your Marry Me Chicken with these ingredients in but dairy products don’t tend to freeze well. You will get much better results if you add these to the sauce when you reheat it.
If you decide to freeze this, be sure to freeze in portion sizes that are convenient for you.
Are there variations of the dish?
Yes! Lots of them. I strongly encourage you to have fun and experiment with this recipe to make it your own. As you will see I added peri peri seasoning to my version of this recipe as the flavours work really well together. You can add your own seasoning preferences instead. Let’s say you prefer a more Italian taste, you can add dried Italian seasoning to your dish. Tandoori seasoning also is amazing.
In this version of Marry Me Chicken, I used full fat cream cheese but you can add light cream cheese to make this a low calorie option.
You can use Italian seasoning instead of peri peri in this recipe by simply replacing the peri peri seasoning with an equal amount of Italian seasoning.
You can also swap out the cream cheese in this recipe for Parmesan and add cream if you prefer a more rich flavour. I did this in my Marry Me Chicken Pasta recipe. I strongly encourage you to make this dish your own.
Pro tips
- Customise to your taste: Marry me chicken is a versatile dish. You can experiment with the ingredients such as the changing the herbs, spices and type of cheese you use. In this marry me chicken recipe I used peri peri seasoning and cream cheese. You could use Italian season and parmesan. You can add more or less garlic if you like and even use lighter ingredients such as low fat cream cheese.
- Even portions of chicken: If your chicken breasts are too thick, slice them horizontally into fillets. This will help them to cook evenly and give you even portion sizes. This recipe asks for 500g of chicken breast and will serve 4 if prepared this way.
- Use quality ingredients: make sure to use good quality ingredients for this marry me chicken recipe and especially in the sauce. Fresh herbs, good quality sun-dried tomatoes and good quality cheese. This will elevate your dish and make it irresistible.
Step by step photos
Add your herbs and spices to the chicken. Air fry or oven bake at 180C for 25 minutes.
When cooked, your chicken breasts should look like this.
While the chicken is cooking, you can get on with the rest of the dish. Finely dice your onion and sun-dried tomatoes.
Fry over a medium heat for 5 minutes. Stir in your garlic paste for 1 minute before adding your seasoning.
Add the stock to the pan.
Stir in the tomato purée and cream cheese.
Stir and simmer for a few minutes. You can ad peri peri sauce at this point if you like.
Add the spinach and stir well.
Add your chicken to the pan ready for serving.
Serve up with rice or pasta along with your favourite vegetable(s).
If you like this marry me chicken recipe, you might like to try some of these chicken favourites.
Butter chicken
Grilled Butter Chicken
Chicken Tikka Masala
Chilli Garlic Chicken
Chicken Changezi
Jeera Chicken
Tandoori Chicken Tikka
Air-Fryer Chicken Tikka
Chicken Chettinad
Have you tried this marry me chicken recipe?
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Marry Me Chicken
Ingredients
- FOR THE CHICKEN
- 500g chicken
- 1 tbsp peri peri seasoning (switch for same amount Italian seasoning if preferred)
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp onion powder
- FOR THE SAUCE
- 2 tbsp light olive oil
- 1 large onion
- 80g sun-dried tomatoes
- 1 tbsp garlic paste
- 400 ml chicken stock
- 1 tbsp tomato purée
- 1 tbsp peri peri seasoning (switch for same amount Italian seasoning if preferred)
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 2 tbsp peri peri sauce (optional)
- 90g cream cheese
- Handful of spinach
Instructions
- The chicken can be cooked in the air fryer or oven. Preheat your choice of appliance to 180C.
- Marinate the chicken with the peri peri seasoning (if using), paprika, garlic powder, onion powder and 1 tbsp olive oil.
- Place the chicken in the air fryer or oven bake for 25 minutes or until the internal temperature reaches 74C.164F.
- Finely chop the onion and sun-dried tomatoes. Heat the olive oil over a medium heat, and add the chopped onion and sun-dried tomatoes, stirring regularly for 5 minutes or until the onion is soft and translucent.
- Now add the garlic paste to the pan and continue stirring for a further minute. Stir in the remaining seasoning then add the stock, tomato purée and peri peri sauce (if using). Stir well. Reduce heat and allow to simmer for 8 minutes.
- If you’re planning on freezing this dish, I would recommend you skip step 7 and simply return to this step when you’re ready to serve up.
- Whisk in the cream cheese to the sauce. Add the lemon juice and continue to simmer for a further 2 minutes.
- Place a handful of spinach to the pan and allow for the spinach to reduce.
- Check your chicken is cooked and add to the sauce.
- Serve with rice or pasta along with your favourite vegetable(s). Enjoy!
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Nutrition Information:
Yield:
4Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 361Total Fat: 13gSaturated Fat: 4gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 7gCholesterol: 67mgSodium: 181mgCarbohydrates: 34gFiber: 2gSugar: 2gProtein: 26g