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This is my quick and easy garlic butter chicken made with a stick of butter, garlic, fresh rosemary, and melty Italian cheese. It’s the perfect baked chicken recipe for weeknights!
Homemade garlic butter is a snap to make, and I use it on everything from steak bites to roasted carrots. It positively shines in this garlic butter chicken recipe!
This juicy garlic butter chicken has me falling in love with my homemade garlic butter sauce all over again. I baste juicy chicken breasts with the garlicky sauce and rosemary before baking them in the oven beneath heaps of Italian cheese. It’s hands down some of the best golden-baked chicken I’ve ever sunk my fork into. This is an easy, nearly failproof dinner with just 5 ingredients. Garlic butter is the star!
Things to Love About This Baked Garlic Butter Chicken
- Perfectly juicy. Basting the chicken with garlic butter before baking locks in the flavor and makes this chicken incredibly juicy. As in, did-this-come-from-a-5-star-restaurant juicy. The secret is a hot oven and a meat thermometer to check when the chicken hits its prime.
- Easy. Simply sauté fresh garlic and rosemary in melted butter, pour that over the chicken, and bake. The whole recipe takes a little over 30 minutes from start to finish.
- Versatile. This garlic butter chicken goes with just about any side, so it’s super flexible when it comes to serving. Pair it with a quick side of jasmine rice, or make it the ultimate comfort food with a mountain of mashed potatoes. It’s also a great meal prep recipe. Anything goes!
What You’ll Need
Don’t you just love an ultra-short ingredients list? These are some notes on what you’ll need to make deliciously baked garlic butter chicken, but please scroll to the printable recipe card for the full ingredients list as well as the recipe directions.
- Chicken – I use boneless, skinless chicken breasts. You can also make garlic butter chicken thighs or use bone-in chicken, though it’ll take slightly longer to cook.
- Butter – Either salted or unsalted. You can also make this recipe with olive oil or ghee. The sauce won’t have quite the same richness, but it’ll still taste delicious.
- Garlic – Freshly minced.
- Rosemary – I love fresh rosemary with the garlic butter in this recipe, but you can use any herb you’d like. Thyme, basil, and parsley all go great with chicken.
- Cheese – Choose your favorite shredded cheese. I use an Italian cheese blend. Other good choices are mozzarella, cheddar, parmesan, Swiss, and Gruyère.
How to Make Garlic Butter Chicken
Achieving a perfectly juicy baked chicken breast is simple! The oven does most of the work in this garlic butter chicken recipe, and I’ll walk you through the easy method below.
- Prep the chicken. First, season the chicken breasts and arrange the chicken inside a buttered baking dish.
- Make the garlic butter. Next, melt butter in a skillet, add the garlic, and sauté for 4-5 minutes. Stir often and take care not to burn the garlic, or it’ll taste bitter. Lastly, stir in the rosemary.
- Assemble and bake. Pour the garlic butter over the chicken. Then, bake at 375ºF for about 30 minutes. Right at the end, sprinkle the tops of the chicken with shredded cheese and place it back into the oven for 2-3 minutes, enough to melt.
- Serve. Let the chicken rest for 5 minutes. Afterward, serve with a drizzle of extra garlic sauce!
Tips and Variations
- Season the chicken. The key to flavorful chicken starts with a generous seasoning with salt and pepper. Don’t skip it!
- Don’t burn the garlic. Whatever you do, do NOT let the garlic burn while sautéeing. Keep the heat at medium and stir frequently while it cooks.
- Don’t overcook. You’ll know your chicken is done when the juices run clear and the internal temperature reaches 165ºF on an instant-read thermometer.
- Rest the chicken. Remember to let the baked chicken rest for a few minutes before serving. This allows the juices to redistribute throughout the meat so the chicken stays moist and tender.
- Make it on the stovetop. If you don’t feel like switching on the oven, make this recipe in a skillet instead! Just follow the cooking directions for my garlic butter pan-fried chicken breasts recipe.
Serving Suggestions
I love serving this buttery, cheesy garlic chicken over a bed of pasta or rice (like my garlic butter chicken and rice) for a hearty weeknight dinner. It’s great with a side of salad or a veggie, like asparagus or roasted broccoli to round out the meal. For dessert, these mini chocolate chip cookies are pretty hard to resist. Or, cozy up with a homemade dark hot chocolate!
Storing and Reheating Chicken
- Refrigerate. Store the cooled chicken in an airtight container in the fridge for 3-4 days. Leftover garlic butter chicken tastes amazing chopped up to enjoy in salads or rolled up into a flatbread for a chicken wrap!
- Reheat. Warm this chicken in the oven under foil until it’s hot throughout. You can use the microwave, but I sometimes find that microwaving makes leftover chicken a bit chewy.
More Baked Chicken Recipes
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Garlic Butter Chicken
Ingredients
- 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- ½ cup unsalted butter
- 6 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tablespoon fresh rosemary leaves
- ½ cup shredded Italian cheese blend
Instructions
- Prep. Preheat the oven to 375ºF. Lightly grease a baking dish with a pat of butter.
- Season the chicken. Season the chicken breasts with salt and pepper to taste. Arrange the chicken in a single layer in the prepared baking dish and set aside.
- Make the garlic butter. Add butter to a skillet and melt over medium heat. Stir in the garlic and cook over medium heat for 4 minutes or until lightly browned, stirring very frequently. DO NOT burn the garlic. Stir in the rosemary and remove from heat.
- Dress the chicken. Pour the prepared garlic butter over the chicken breasts.
- Bake. Bake for 30 to 32 minutes or until the chicken's internal temperature registers at 165ºF.
- Add cheese. Sprinkle with cheese and cook for an additional 3 minutes or until the cheese is melted.
- Rest and serve. Remove from oven and let stand for about 5 minutes. Transfer the chicken to serving plates, then spoon garlic butter sauce over the chicken and serve.
Equipment
Notes
- Switch up herbs like thyme or parsley if you’re not a fan of rosemary.
- Choose from cheeses like mozzarella, cheddar, or Parmesan, and consider olive oil or ghee as healthier alternatives to butter.
- You may use chicken thighs instead of breasts but adjust cooking time as they take longer. Check the internal temperature (165˚F) for doneness.
- Be sure to sauté garlic on medium heat, stirring often to avoid a bitter taste.
- Check the chicken’s doneness by ensuring it reaches 165˚F with a meat thermometer to keep it juicy and safe to eat.
- Let the chicken rest after baking for a more flavorful bite.
Nutrition
Nutritional info is an estimate and provided as courtesy. Values may vary according to the ingredients and tools used. Please use your preferred nutritional calculator for more detailed info.
I bet this would go great a top spinach too!
This looks fantastic!
Perfect for dinner tonight!!! I have all these ingredients if I fudge on the cheese 🙂
I think I just found dinner for tonight! This looks fantastic
Oh, girlfriend, I SO wish there was smell-a-vision! This dish is absolutely fantastic and I know my family will love it.
That looks very good, can wait to make.
IMPORTANT SUGGESTION::: The directions tell you to pour some of the prepared garlic butter over the chicken AFTER it cooks. It doesn’t tell you this step until the very end. I poured ALL of the garlic butter on the chicken and now don’t have any spare saved. I guess I’ll cook extra garlic butter now. What an unnecessary and easily avoidable mistake in the directions. This needs to be listed in the beginning.
Hi Miranda! I’m really sorry if you misunderstood my instructions. The garlic butter does go over the chicken before baking – you want to bake the chicken in the butter sauce. My suggestion at the end is to transfer the chicken to a serving plate and optionally spoon a little bit of the garlic butter sauce (the one that they cooked in) over the chicken and serve. Does that make sense? Let me know, if you have a minute. Thank YOU!!
Hi
Just a question about this recipe. It states to use four 16 ounce chicken breasts….should it be four 6 ounce breasts. I don’t believe I have ever seen a 16 ounce breast in any of my stores. Once I get the answer to this question, I intend to try the recipe. It sounds super good. I think it would make a wonderful “company dinner”.
Thanks
Hi!! I meant that to be 16 ounces, as in 4 chicken breasts at 4 ounces each. Does that make sense? I hope. 😀
I can’t wait to try out your recipe! It looks amazing!!
Btw, do you think that I could substitute dried rosemary instead of fresh?
Hi Vanessa! Yes, you can definitely use dried rosemary – you’ll need about 1/2 teaspoon.
I am about to try this recipe out tonight, and was wondering if I could substitute mozzarella cheese instead of using the 4-cheese itlalian? Do you think the flavor will suffer if it’s all just mozzarella? If you can’t tell, I’m a mozzarella addict 🙂
Hi Kimberly!! I say use whatever cheese you love! I am a feta cheese addict and I add it to every.thing. 😀
Do you have to cover with foil once in the oven
Hi!
No foil needed, bake it uncovered.