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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’ve never been good at cooking chicken. When you say you used frozen chicken in this recipe, do you mean frozen but thawed chicken, or do you mean straight out of the freezer to the baking pan chicken? I watched the video and the chicken looked like it was either fresh or thawed. I want to make this recipe and have it turn out well. Thanks!
Wow! Amazing! My sister lovvvvvves garlic so thought this would make her happy and it did! She even mentioned trying to bread the chicken to see if it would hold some more flavor when we try this recipe again sometime. Either way, very flavorful and cheesy and just enough garlic to keep everyone happy! Thanks for sharing a great recipe! Definitely one to keep on hand!
I use boneless chicken breasts and cook for the same time and it comes out amazing! I didn’t use rosemary the first time and it was still great. Tonight I am making it with rosemary and added some fresh chopped onions and it smells good. I think you can be flexible with the ingredients a little and still be great like she says. Thank you for sharing this recipe!
Wonderful. This is my second time making it and it is delicious my husband loves it. Ann
That’s great! I am very glad you enjoyed it! Thank YOU! 🙂
I browned some large cubed potatoes, sprinkled with pepper, paprika, and parsley. I then browned the chicken, melted the butter with garlic, then baked it all together. Oh my! Super delish!
Made this last night, but bacon-wrapped the chicken, and instead of rosemary, used oregano and a dash of tarragon. This was FABULOUS. It’s been added to our rotation of foods. We made some steamed broccoli to go with it, and drizzled some of the garlic butter on the broccoli. Our guests are doing the Keto diet and this worked well for what they needed, as well. I added some fresh french bread and it was a WONDERFUL meal. Thanks!!
Can I pound out the thickest part of my chicken breast for this?
Hi!
Yes, absolutely.
Who is ‘Control’? I don’t think Control is coming for dinner! Just starting Keto diet…this sounds right up keto alley! I plan on cutting up whole chicken, that is what I have. I may even try it in my pressure cooker…will let you know results 🙂 When I give the results, I will give stars, can’t do that before actually tasting the chicken! BTW, we just grew a LOT of garlic, so that is how I landed here.
This is the best chicken I’ve ever made! It was so moist and flavorful with just a handful of ingredients. It tasted like restaurant quality. This recipe is definitely going on my two week meal rotation!
This is amazing! Fiancé and I are on the keto diet and we’ve been struggling lately to find interesting, high-fat meals that work for our diet. I’ll definitely be putting this at the top of our list. Added extra garlic and cheese as well! Thank you!
Can frozen chicken breasts be used for this recipe? Cannot wait to try it, looks incredible.
It can! I used frozen because it’s all I had on hand. Husband and son- both accomplished cooks- loved it. 🙂
Did you change the cooktime at all with frozen chicken??
Ashley – I thawed frozen chicken first, then followed the recipe to the letter.
First off… Control is overrated so I’ll be using a bowl to eat this out of and french bread to soak up the garlicky buttery juicy goodness. Also, I’m 47 and didn’t learn to “not be scared” of the kitchen until I was 38 so I was also ecstatic when I found the minced garlic since I’m not that great with knives.