Chicken with Creamy Sun Dried Tomato Sauce – an 80’s throwback! I like to pack in a lot of sun dried tomato flavour here by using the oil from the jar to cook the chicken. Why throw away free flavour??
Creamy Sun Dried Tomato Sauce for Chicken
Sun dried tomatoes don’t feature as much anymore as they should. Back in the 80’s they were ALL THE RAGE!
But they never went out of fashion in my world. Throw a small amount into almost any meal and you get a wonderful burst of extra flavour. I use them to make a super quick 12 Minutes Sun Dried Tomato Couscous Salad, in creamy chicken pasta, I stuff ’em inside chicken breast and Chicken Meatloaf and I use then for pasta salads.
The added bonus is the oil that the sun dried tomatoes are marinated in. Free flavour! Using the oil from the jar to cook the chicken really drives home the sun dried tomato flavour in the overall dish.
I never toss out the oil that olives and other antipasto things come in. I recycle them – either cook with it, or I use it to marinate cubes of feta or char grilled vegetables. Have to you ever tried that? Super thrifty – and extra flavour!
Creamy Sun Dried Tomato Sauce ingredients
Here’s what you need for the creamy sun dried tomato sauce. I’ve used chicken thighs here, but it’s just as great made with chicken breast.
Quick dinner – 15 Minutes!
If you have a skillet large enough to cook all the chicken in one batch, then you’ll get this on the table in around 15 minutes. Chicken thighs should take around 6 -7 minutes to cook, and the creamy sun dried tomato sauce takes about 5 minutes.
I usually prep the sauce ingredients which the chicken is browning, so there’s really not much extra prep time.
Serve this with mashed potato OR, to make this a sensational low carb meal, with Creamy Mashed Cauliflower. It’s also great with pasta, or even just some crusty bread, dinner rolls or even focaccia to mop up the sauce! – Nagi x
Watch how to make it
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Chicken with Creamy Sun Dried Tomato Sauce
Ingredients
- 750g / 1.5lb chicken thighs OR chicken breast , skinless and boneless
- 1/2 tsp salt
- Black pepper
- 1/2 cup sun dried tomatoes , strips, drained of oil (Note 1)
- 2 tbsp oil from sun dried tomatoes jar (Note 1)
- 2 garlic cloves , minced
- 1/2 cup (125 ml) white wine (sub chicken broth)
- 3/4 cup (185 ml) chicken broth/stock , low sodium
- 3/4 cup (185 ml) thickened / heavy cream
- 1/3 cup (30g) parmesan, very finely shredded (Note 2)
- 2 tsp Dijon mustard (Note 3)
- 1 cup basil leaves , packed (optional)
Instructions
- Breast: Cut chicken in half horiztonally to form 2 thin steaks.
- Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper. Heat oil from sun dried tomat jar in a large skillet over high heat.
- Add the chicken and cook until golden brown on both sides – 6 minutes total for thigh or 4 minutes for breast. Remove onto a plate, keep warm.
- Add the garlic and cook for 15 seconds until light golden.
- Add wine. Bring to simmer and scrape the bottom of the skillet to mix all the brown bits into the wine.
- Let the wine simmer for 1 minute or so until the smell of alcohol is gone which means it has evaporated.
- Mix in mustard, then add the chicken broth, cream, parmesan and sun dried tomatoes.
- Bring to simmer, then reduce heat to medium and simmer for 2 to 3 minutes until thickened. Stir regularly to dissolve parmesan cheese.
- Taste sauce and add more salt and pepper if needed.
- Stir through basil leaves, then return chicken into pan. Spoon sauce over and simmer 1 minute.
- Serve immediately! Great served over mashed potato, Creamy Mashed Cauliflower or pasta. Or serve with bread on the side to mop up sauce!
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Originally published July 2015, updated July 2019 with new photos, new video, new process photos, new writing. And the recipe has been spruced up a wee bit too!
Life of Dozer
I went to the loo, came back and he’d made himself at home on MY cashmere blanket!
Yay for 80s throwback and double yay for sundried tomatoes! I LUV sundried tomatoes, I’m always trying to sneak then in dishes or dips, because the Hubs hates them (he’s nuts). I am loooooving your creamy dreamy sundried tomato sauced chicken, Nagi! I know I will be licking the plate clean with this one! I have no shame! ♡ Pinned! Cheers, gilrfriend!!
Revival of the 80’s! Yay! 🙂
Hi Nagi! As you know I prefer dark meat also, but this recipe is perfect for white meat! We bought a large dehydrator a few years back to deal with garden “overflow” (plus it’s a lot less work than canning, which we do alot of). I also use it to make jerky for our dogs. I also save oil from olives, etc. – I cook with it, use it in salads and for bread dipping. You pay for it, so way waste it! 🙂 I e-mailed you that “story” yesterday.
DIY jerky for DOGS? SO JEALOUS! If I thought you were cool before, you’ve now been catapulted into another universe! 🙂
Hi Nagi! You have a very over inflated opinion of me! I’m really quite a simple person. I do what feels right and makes me happy and if I make others feel the same that makes me even happier! 🙂
I am a huuuuge fan of sundried tomatoes – YES – I have used the oil to cook with but NO – I’ve never marinated “cubes of feta or char grilled vegetables” in it! What a fantastic idea that is! But before I get too carried away – I gotta say – Nagi – this chicken looks glorious! This is so full of flavor!
Aw, thanks Shashi! quite a compliment coming from you! 🙂 N x
Can I just say I welcome the flashback, looks delish! Both you and Karina must be on the same sun dried tomato wavelength. 🙂
I know right? We need to do an 80’s revival series! Ha ha!! 🙂
I LOVE sun dried tomatoes and this looks like my kind of dinner!! That sauce looks so amazing, definitely adding this to our dinner rota!
Thank you so much Annie! You’re so sweet! 🙂
Your dish looks delicious Nagi and FANG (one of my food nicknames) would probably licked the plate! 🙂
Great use of the sun dried tomatoes…I bought a very simple and easy to use dehydrator recently and make my own, saving money! I wish I could come through the screen and try some of this today! Pinned
Oh my gosh, I am SO JEALOU! I want a dehydrator!
Last time I made sun dried tomato sauce, it was amazing, so I can’t wait to try out your version, too! Oh, and anything with Dijon is right up my alley 😉 Thanks for sharing, Nagi! 😀
Sun Dried tomatoes is like bacon – can make (almost) anything BETTER! Right? 😉 N x
Know what you mean about sun-dried tomatoes – used some a while back and wondered why I didn’t use them more often – then haven’t used them since – no doubt there are some languishing somewhere in the back of the fridge:-)
I found these ones in the dark corners of my fridge and it’s what inspired me to make this! Ha ha!
I love sun dried tomatoes, but don’t cook with them hardly enough. This dish looks so wonderful! And for only 340 calories? I don’t think it gets much better than that 😉
I know! I always seem to have a jar in the dark depths of the fridge but I always forget! 🙂
Wow. This looks amazing! I am definitely adding this to the menu for next week.
I’ve long been a fan of the sun-dried tomato oil. I can still remember the looks of horror from my friends when I used it for the first time (back in the early 90s) to toss through a pasta salad of spiral pasta, sweet corn kernels, red kidney beans, finely diced celery and sun-dried tomatoes. My friends wanted mayonnaise as the dressing, but we were completely out, and the salad really needed a wet ingredient, so I used the oil. Would you believe that I didn’t end up getting more a mouthful of the salad?! That was my “signature” salad to bring to BBQs for a few years – we thought we were so posh!
See, why does it not surprise me that you were so ahead of the trend Gloria!! 🙂
Nagi, this looks and sounds equally delicious! Wonderful post. Thanks for sharing. pining to try later.
Thanks Savita, you’re so sweet!
This is the second recipe for chicken in sun-dried tomato sauce I’ve seen today. Popular idea! I think I like yours, better, Nagi. Plus you’ve given me a reason to use tomatoes packed in oil. Actually, I just dried some tomatoes with my dehydrator, so I think I’ll put some of them into olive oil. I like the idea of re-using the oil. (Just took a break and put some of the tomatoes in olive oil – it took most of my expensive bottle to do it, even for a small jar. Yikes! I’ll definitely be reusing that oil!)
I know what you mean! I was marinating some feta the other day and used my good olive oil and was horrified how much I used! I wasn’t thinking – I actually have ordinary olive oil I buy in large cans for cooking and I reserve the expensive stuff for dipping and salad dressings. 🙂
Definitely reuse it! Salads, for cooking, dipping bread – everything, don’t waste it! And just imaging how lovely the extra flavour will be from your homemade dried tomatoes (love that you have a dehydrator, a friend has one and I am itching to get my hands on it!)
Nagi, dehydrators are wonderful things. I have dried mango, apple slices (sprinkled with cinnamon) and the tomatoes. One thing it will be really useful for in my house is drying mesquite pods (I make a wonderful flour from them). You are supposed to dry them at 120º for 6 hours, and my oven doesn’t go that low, so it will be much easier to go through that process now. Plus I got a nine-tray dehydrator, which means I can dry a large batch of pods at one time. If you are not familiar, mesquite is a tree that grows in the desert, which has edible pods. We have two honey mesquite trees (the best kind for flour), which produce a lot of pods. The flour is a little sweet, and is wonderful added to tortillas and corn bread. Most people are familiar with mesquite only as a wood to use in smoking food. At least for me, the dehydrator is turning out to be a good investment. Hope you enjoy it when you try it.
I’ve eaten plenty of dehydrated food – even entire meals (for when I went on long camping trips). Delicious! 🙂 Looking forward to making my own!
Don’t know much about sun-dried tomatoes, but I do have not just one, but TWO cans that has been sitting in in my pantry , rotting away. Please don’t ask how long …impulse shopping . This Chicken, thyme , cream and cheese together? (oh, okay…and vegetables…) – Yes, please.
Ha ha! You crack me up – it’s a bit like me! I have these random condiments in my pantry too, things I have no idea what I’m going to do with! Sun dried tomatoes is easy, especially YOU will be able to come up with something AMAZING I bet! N x
I remember sun dried tomatoes being all the rage in the 90’s . I guess it took a little longer to get over to the States 😉 I love sun dried tomatoes and thank you for bringing them back – and in a BIG way! Added to the cream and parm, and this is one flavor packed dish! And I can’t get over the calorie count, such a big plus!
Well now that’s interesting cause normally Australia is years behind the states!!! N x
This dish looks beautiful! Love sun dried tomatoes! And low calorie – I’m in of course! Pinning!
You could probably even throw some quinoa in there!! Te he! 😉
This looks wonderful – and I love the low calories, too!
Thanks Barb! I was quite pleasantly surprised too. 🙂 I think slicing the chicken makes it seem like there is more than there is and I don’t go to town with the cream, instead using some parmesan to help with the thickening! 🙂
Yeah, a little cream goes a long way! :^)
This sounds amazing! Pinning it now!!!
I love sundried tomatoes. I save the oil too! It is an instant ‘sauce’ for my late night pasta cravings! (Please don’t judge my carb loving antics)
This creamy chicken would be amazing served with some sundried tomato pasta 🙂
And it will make Stew happy as he loves the breast meat.
Let’s start an Australian sundried tomato revival 🙂
Oh PLEASE Claire. Me, judge about carb cravings? Ha! You’re talking to the Carb Queen here!! N x
PS Ms El Presidente of Australian Sun Dried Tomatoes United?
Nagi… This is beautiful and oh so luscious… I didn’t think sun dried tomatoes were 80’s but you could be right ;). I love them in pasta sauces!!!!
I love them in pasta sauces too! I bet you make your own 🙂 I’m not that nifty!!
This is GORGEOUS and the flavors sound like perfection! I can’t wait to try this. Beautiful as always!
Thanks Becky! (PS Good weekend with stretchy nachos stuffed baguettes? 😉 )
I prefer dark meat as well, but in an attempt to be “healthy” we actually buy organic chicken breast in bulk once in two weeks for quick dinner and lunches that we take to work, I think I am already in a routine and don’t give it much thought when I cooked them, but there are so many delicious options, and your is so good. I love dried tomatoes, yesterday I stuffed 4 chicken breast with dried tomatoes and topped them with feta, so simple but so good, and that sauce is to die for, I am definitely trying it, thanks Nagi!
Ha! We’re totally in sync – sun dried tomato week! 😉 N x