Easy Pan-Seared Chicken Breasts have a crunchy crust and lots of flavor from Italian seasoning! This easy chicken recipe turns out excellent every single time!
Easy pan-seared chicken breasts is one of my favorite ways to make chicken. You pan fry chicken right in the skillet. So that you can enjoy crunchy crust and lots of flavor! It’s an excellent way to cook boneless and skinless chicken breasts when you are short on time.
How to Make Easy Pan-Seared Chicken Breasts
To make this pan seared chicken, make sure to use thin boneless skinless chicken breasts. You can easily dredge them in the flour mixture. Another selling point is since they are flatter, they retain the coating better. By the way, I also used thin chicken breasts in this Parmesan Crusted Chicken recipe.
Besides, boneless chicken breasts are so easy to find! They are also low in fat and high in protein. So perfect!
To dredge chicken breasts, you will use all purpose unbleached flour. By the way, flour is one of the best coatings for frying or searing chicken. And it always produces nice and smooth coating.
How about whole wheat flour for dredging? Of course, you can use whole wheat flour, too. Whole wheat flour is very flavorful and will taste slightly different.
To Make Pan-Seared Chicken Gluten Free
- Use rice flour to get a beautiful golden crust on your chicken.
- Other mild-flavored flours that also work well include: specialty gluten-free flour mixes, corn flour and potato starch flour.
- Or, if you are able to tolerate nut flours, almond flour works great for coating and pan searing chicken. It also gives it a beautiful color.
I also have instructions on searing thick chicken breasts where I don’t use flour at all. In fact, you can compare and see how different the process is when chicken is thicker: How to sear thick chicken breasts.
How to Coat the Chicken Breasts
First, paper towel dry the chicken. Next, in a large bowl, combine flour, sea salt, black pepper, garlic powder, onion powder and Italian seasoning. Immediately stir well to blend.
Then, using a fork or tongs, coat the chicken breasts in the flour mixture and set aside. The reason why we want to dredge chicken in flour is simple! It’s because we want to make chicken’s surface attain a more attractive brown color. And we also want to get some crisp on the outside.
Additionally, you can also coat the chicken by tossing it with the flour. Use either a plastic bag, a paper bag or a plastic container with a lid.
Or, you can sprinkle the flour onto a plate. Then roll the chicken breasts around in it, while pressing it into the flour.
Searing Chicken Breasts
This easy pan seared chicken recipe produces a lovely crisp coating. It’s not the least bit heavy. What you really taste is the chicken, not the coating. And that’s how it should be. The coating is just barely there to complement the food.
- First things first, you will heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.
- Once the skillet is hot, you will place flour coated chicken breasts in the skillet.
- Next you will sear chicken breasts them for 4 to 5 minutes on each side. They should turn golden brown in color on both sides.
- Finally, I recommend to turn them only once between cooking. And the total cooking time should not exceed 8-10 minutes.
What Kind of Skillet to Use
I recommend using a good quality stainless steel pan, such as this 12 inch pan that comes with a lid. Or, you can also pan sear chicken in a large cast iron skillet, such as this 12 inch cast iron pan.
Both hold heat incredibly well and are easy to cook with. I cooked most of the recipes on this site with one of these two skillets.
Hungry for more chicken recipes?
- Skillet Chicken in Mushroom Sauce
- Herb Roasted Chicken in Creamy White Wine Sauce
- Chicken in Mustard and Wine Sauce
Easy Pan-Seared Chicken Breasts
Ingredients
- 4 chicken breasts, (thin, boneless and skinless)
- ½ cup flour
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
Instructions
- Paper towel dry your thin chicken breasts (if you bought thick ones, make sure to butterfly each one). In a large bowl, combine flour, salt, black pepper, garlic powder, onion powder and Italian Seasoning. Stir well to blend.
- Using a fork or tongs, coat the chicken breasts in the flour mixture and set aside.
- Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Once the skillet is hot, place flour coated chicken breasts in the skillet and cook for 4 to 5 minutes on each side, until golden brown on both sides and cooked through, turning once between cooking, about 8-10 minutes.
- Remove chicken from pan and serve warm with pasta or vegetables.
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.
Our new favorite chicken recipes include this Cajun Chicken and Sausage Penne Pasta dish.
Additionally, we also like this amazing Chicken Spinach and Bacon Alfredo Pasta. In fact both recipes are perfect for midweek dinners!
Bonnie says
How thin is “thin”?
Olga at Whatsinthepan says
If you buy whole chicken breast – it will need to be halved horizontally to make 2 fillets out of each breast. This is the example of chicken that has not been halved. You can easily see how much thicker it is than the one in this recipe. I hope that helps!
Shar says
This was incredibly easy and very tasty. Thank you for the recipe, It really helped me out because I had forgotten to marinate my chicken and everyone was hungry. I had two very thick chicken breasts that I was defrosting while I looked up this recipe, so I literally cut them in thirds and less than 15 minutes later I had dinner on the table with a quick mushroom fettucine as a side dish. Not the healthiest meal, but definitely filled the tummies. I am keeping this recipe as a quick go to and hopefully next time I will have some fresh veggies to offer. Thanks again for sharing with us =)
Olga at Whatsinthepan says
Shar, thank you so much for leaving your kind comment and I am so glad you were able to feed the hungry mouths!
Lisseth says
Once we add the chicken to the pan , do we cover the pan with a lid ? This is always a problem for me because I’m always worried that it’s not cooked through . Which is why I can never perfect a simple recipe such as this one.
Olga at Whatsinthepan says
I do not cover the pan with a lid. I also use a Tri ply stainless steel skillet (they are excellent conductors of heat) which helps cook the chicken fast. And my chicken was also very thin:). If I covered it, the moisture would accumulate on the bottom of the pan and it would not turn out crispy on the outside.
Donna D’Alessandro says
I made this according to recipe. Had to use Teflon pan but no problem. The chicken was tasty and very tender and delicious. Easy too. Easy cleanup as well! Great summer go to. Doesn’t heat up the house! Love it!
Olga at Whatsinthepan says
Thank you for letting me know that it turned out great! I also pan sear everything last couple of weeks to avoid kitchen heat.
Chelsey says
I made it with finely grated Parm. I didn’t use shredded parmesan. It came out really well with grated.
Wendy says
Delish!
Zina says
Easy to make
Kekentia says
THIS WAS SURPRISINGLY GOOD!!! I THOUGHT MAYBE IT WOULD BE A BIT BLAND WITH THE AMOUNTS OF SEASONINGS CALLED FOR SO I JUST UPPED THEM A BIT AND I GOTTA SAY….. YUM!!! THEY COOK UP VERY QUICKLY (I USED MY CAST IRON TO POUND THEM OUT) AND THEY WERE VERY TENDER N JUICY SINCE I DIDNT NEED TO KEEP THEM ON THE HEAT FOR TOO LONG TRYING TO ENSURE THEY COOKED THRU. DEF A KEEPER!!
Glenda says
Place the chicken breasts between 2 pieces of wax paper and use a meat hammer to get the thickness you want. This will reduce cooking time, too.
Olya at Whatsinthepan says
That’s a great tip, Glenda!
Phyllis says
I will try this
Olya at Whatsinthepan says
Let me know how they turn out and make sure to use thin chicken breasts.