Chicken and Spinach in Creamy Paprika Sauce is a hearty, but easy chicken recipe that the whole family will love! It’s amazing in flavor because of dry white wine and sauteed garlic.
I also love the delicious paprika sauce! It is so creamy and buttery, with just a mild tang from the fresh lemon juice. You can make this chicken and spinach recipe on a weeknight right on your stove top!
Easy chicken recipe
I like to use thin chicken breasts in this easy chicken recipe. Or, if my chicken is too thick, I usually halve them horizontally. I love working with thin chicken fillets. And I made a number of thin chicken breasts recipes, such as this Low Carb Chicken. Try it too!
Make sure to season your chicken very generously. I always use sea salt, pepper and paprika as my spices. Then I sauté my chicken with butter until golden brown. So simple!
Paprika flavored creamy sauce
This version of paprika flavored creamy sauce is my absolute favorite, I have been making it for a couple of years now. Maybe more. I love that it’s a colorful sauce but it’s also really filling, and welcoming on a cold day. My creamy sauce for chicken is incredibly simple to make using heavy cream, wine and stock. I also sautéed garlic and added juice of a fresh lemon and of course paprika. The great thing about this sauce is that you can also use any kind of vegetables, such as spinach if that’s what you have on hand!
I use flour to thicken the sauce a bit, but it can be omitted if you are gluten free. Chicken and spinach go very well together with the paprika flavor here. I love it!
What wine do you use in this paprika chicken recipe?
When I made paprika chicken, I used Pino Grigio. It’s a pretty good wine. However, any dry white wine that you like can be used. When we talk good wines, I also think about Chardonnay or Riesling. All these are great choices. They will produce an excellent flavor for the chicken sauce.
When cooking with wine, you should never use “cooking wine”. Cooking wine is loaded with sodium and is not tasty at all. But cooking with a regular drinking wine will always give you a better tasting dish.
What can I substitute for wine
- White Wine Vinegar. This is an ideal substitute for dry white wine. Made from white wine, it has many of the same flavor characteristics, minus the alcohol. Use ¼ cup vinegar + ¼ cup chicken stock to substitute for wine. This is my favorite substitute!
- Rice Vinegar works too in the same proportion as White Wine Vinegar.
- I do not recommend Apple Cider Vinegar because of its flavor.
- Chicken or vegetable stock. You can substitute stock for white wine entirely if you are sensitive to vinegars.
- Lemon. Because we are already using lemon, adding slightly more would compensate for the loss of flavor from wine. So simple!
What kind of skillet should I use
Make sure to use a good heavy skillet here, such as cast iron. It helps to have a large one too. I used 12 inch Lodge Pro-Logic Seasoned Cast Iron Skillet in this paprika chicken recipe. It’s well designed, has a helper handle and sloped sides. Overall, it’s a very sleek looking for cast iron! With so much room!
I do have other cast iron skillets, but prefer this one due to its size. It’s very large with even more space due to its sloped sides. Besides it never sticks or leaves weird black dots on meat like other cast iron skillets do. And it’s one of my most used kitchen tools!
If you are a lover of easy chicken recipes like we are, be sure to also try Parmesan Crusted Chicken and Pan-Fried Chicken!
Chicken and Spinach in Creamy Paprika Sauce
Ingredients
- 4 Chicken Breasts, (boneless & skinless)
- 1 teaspoon Smoked Paprika, (for seasoning chicken)
- ¼ teaspoon Salt and Pepper, (each for seasoning chicken)
- 2 tablespoon unsalted butter
Creamy Paprika Sauce:
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tablespoon flour (sifted)
- ½ cup dry white wine
- ½ cup chicken broth, (sodium free)
- ½ cup heavy cream
- 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice, (juice of squeezed lemon)
- 2 cups fresh spinach
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon paprika
Instructions
- Cooking Chicken: Season the chicken with salt, pepper and paprika, rubbing it evenly over both sides.
- Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a large skillet (I used cast iron skillet) over medium high heat and cook on the first side for about 3 minutes. Flip, and turn the heat down to medium and cook for another three minutes. Remove and set chicken aside on separate plate.
- Making Creamy Sauce: Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in the now empty skillet. Add garlic and cook stirring frequently about 2 minutes. Add flour using a sifter until well mixed. Add wine next and cook for 1-2 minutes to allow alcohol to evaporate.
- Stir in chicken broth, heavy cream and lemon juice. Add salt and paprika. Mix well. Simmer for 2 minutes. Taste the sauce and adjust seasoning (if necessary) at this point.
- Spinach: Add in the spinach and cook for additional 2 minutes until the spinach has wilted.
- Adding Chicken Back: Return the chicken to the skillet and cook covered for 2-3 minutes if your chicken breasts are thin; or for 5-7 minutes, if they are thick.
- Serve immediately.
Nutritional information is provided as a courtesy only. This information comes from online calculators. Although whatsinthepan.com attempts to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures are only estimates.
You might also like the amazing Chicken Alfredo Pasta.
Joyce says
This was delicious! However I only cooked chicken tenders. Chicken breasts would do better by doubling the sauce. Served with bow tie pasta. Definitely a keeper!
Arlene says
Made this for dinner tonight. Only change was adding mushrooms along with the spinach. Definitely a keeper! Hubby said “make sure you save this recipe.
Olya says
Thank you for letting me know, Arlene! I’m glad both of you enjoyed it.
Toots says
This was delicious. Made with basmati rice (which was amazing with the sauce on it) and roasted asparagus which I sprinkled with a little feta and also some lemon juice to go with the flavor of the lemon in the chicken. The whole thing came together in less than 30 mins and was easy and delicous.
Olga says
I think you are on to something here with feta!
Kristin says
Really lovely flavors! It was a big hit with hubby. Will definitely make this again! 😋
Alexandra says
Will this still turn out good if I omit the white wine?
Olga says
Yes, it will be fine! I omit wine all the time especially nowadays.
Alexandra Caballero says
I’ve made this 2x and we love it! So easy and tasty! I put it over white rice and it’s delicious!
Olga says
That’s what cooking is all about – easy and tasty.
Alyssa says
AMAZING!!!!
Roselle Jones says
So, very, very delicious. Served it with brown rice, baby bok choy and steamed broccoli.My boyfrient loved it! Will definitey make again and again!
Nick says
Hi Olga… I try to enjoy looking through your recipes but, with all due respect, I find the continuous streaming of unrelated videos to be a real distraction especially when the take up half the screen. I’ve tried looking at several of your recipes and it happened with all of them. Not sure you have any control over this but, unfortunately, I won’t be able to enjoy your many great looking recipes.
Kind regards,
Nick
Mary says
I think I love spinach more than chicken in this!
Badriya says
Can’t wait to try this soon! What do you serve the chicken with?
Olga says
I like it with this Bacon and Green Beans recipe.
Meg Wickham says
We made this tonight. It was so amazing! I used white wine vinegar instead of dry white wine (didn’t have any), I also added some sliced baby portobello mushrooms that were leftover from another recipe. Didn’t want them to go bad. Super good!
Olga says
Sounds like you nailed it with the vinegar! So glad it worked and that mushrooms didn’t go to waste;)