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!
Jennifer says
Can you give me an idea of chicken breast size (weight etc) used for this recipe?
Olya says
I use thinly sliced breasts or regular ones, cut in half horizontally (parallel to the cutting board). The average weight would be 4 oz. per each chicken breast.
Jennifer says
Thank you. Great easy recipe!
Angela says
Made these tonight and oh my, what a recipe. Love, love, love.
Olya says
Yes!!!!
Kristol says
This recipe was not great. It really lacked flavor and I even added extra. This is not a good way to cook chicken, it needs to be seasoned or marinated or you will have bland chicken. This was a big let down.
Youdis Gustme says
Go back to McDonalds you salt-crusted diabetes-addled amerifat.
Diana Sham says
Yes it was a disapointment. Especially my husband coming home after a long day and haven’t to eat it. But somebody has anger issues. This is not the right ad to be responding to.
Sumayah says
Very great recipe. It really helped for quick meals
M says
Burnt chicken in the outside, raw on the inside. Beware.
Olya says
Did you use thin chicken breasts?
Kaitlyn says
So I agree with the other comments that say you need to cook the chicken breast much longer than the recipe states. This is because while you state to use thin chicken breasts in the blog, your actual recipe doesn’t specify. Please change this because this is where most of the downvotes are coming from.
As for the flavour, I did add a bit more salt and garlic powder as they were cooking because most people said it was a bit bland. I’m glad I listened to them, and the end result was pretty tasty but only because the recipe was doctored in some way🤷♀️
Anna says
Used Herbs de Provenc instead of Italian Seasoning and almond flour to bread – amazing!! This is now nearly a weekly staple in our house and probably on my 8th time making this now. Thank you Olya! Perfect for easy, quick, gluten free chicken. I’ve tried versions with arrowroot, egg, rice flour, coconut flour, etc and this is by far the simplest and tastiest.
Olya says
I am so glad you tried it with the almond flour! It would be just as good!
Tanyo says
This was terrible chicken. Very very bland
Sara M says
I thought it was very delicious!! I added some extra garlic and salt and I loved it!!
ElleSaves says
I agree with Kristol on this one. I havent even made this recipe yet and was wondering how the chicken would have any flavor without letting it sit in salt and pepper for a while, at the very least. I will cook this but will season the chicken in steps.