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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’m definitely trying this tonight, but honestly, the video, ingredients, amounts, etc are very clear… You can add and subtract to your needs and likings… And if you can’t print it, it’s not a complex recipe, WRITE it down… use math for the conversions, they have sites to help… Or just open this back up and scroll if you can’t write or remember it.
Ladies, let us not look so… ummm… clueless. Let the writer post other great recipes instead of asking questions like we’ve never been in a kitchen. Some if the questions embaressed me…. my 13 year old son made it with zero questions and they do not teach home-economic classes anymore…and he’s pretty much only made pre-boxed macc-n-cheese…
C’mon… not to sound rude, but reading some of them were almost embaressing and I think I lost a few brain cells…
Maybe you should use spell check before you make such rude comments.
Good one!
This is a rude comment.. not everyone knows their way around a kitchen, myself included,, I have expertise in other aspects of life,, and this comment, coming from someone that doesn’t know how to spell (embarrassing). I think I just lost a few brain cells myself. People come on recipe sites to learn how to cook. No question is a dumb question, didn’t your teachers ever teach you that?
Great easy recipe! One tip I would add is to poke holes in the chicken with a fork before pouring the garlic butter over. It will get that yummy stuff into the meat so the flavor is all the way thru. I also added some halved fingerling potatoes to the dish. Why waste all of that butter?
I was pleased with this recipe. It was Easy and quick to prepare. I made some minor changes – just personal preference stuff – I added fresh thyme with the rosemary. I did not add the cheese (personal preference). I did surround the chicken with diced yukon potatoes. It smelled wonderful towards the end of cooking, and looked beautiful. Most importantly, yum! A repeat in our house.
Made and is super yummy and so moist!
This was so good and very easy to make. I took someone else’s advice and used a cast iron skillet, melted the butter, added minced garlic (from a jar – 1/2 tsp equals a clove according to the jar) put the chicken in and then turned them over so both sides got the butter/garlic. I am not a fan of rosemary so I figured since it had Italian cheese I would use dried Italian seasoning. Popped it into the oven and cooked it. One pan. This was just so good. As for remaining butter/garlic after eating the chicken – it was hard to throw it away. I think maybe next time I’ll have bread rolls with it and dip them in the butter sauce.
Made this tonight and my husband was already expecting something delicious from the aroma…so after he took a couple bites I asked, how is the chicken? He said, “Phenomenal!”
Made last night…yummy. Super easy. I don’t use fresh garlic anymore but use chunky garlic in a tube. We loved the recipe and will make it again!
Absolutely yummy and easy to make! It’s a household favourite and bi-weekly meal.
Amazing flavor! My chicken was rubbery though 🙁 Supposed to be fancy Whole Foods “air-chilled” breasts. Maybe my oven temp is off?
Great recipe. I added fresh juice from half a lemon which really enhanced the flavors. Also, contrary to popular belief, fat is good for you. Use full fat cheese. Also make sure to use unsalted butter to control the salt level in the dish. You can always add more, you can’t take out.