This Brown Butter Chicken tastes like a gourmet meal but takes only 20 minutes to prepare. It’s an easy keto recipe that wows everyone who tries it. Even the kids love it!
Possibly the most frustrating thing about parenting multiple children is that you never know who’s going to eat what. You spend all this time and energy making a nice dinner and there is usually at least one child turning up their nose at it.
But every once in a while, they take you by surprise. You magically hit upon a delicious meal that all three of them love. And it’s not pizza or chicken nuggets or other junkie kid food. To your absolute delight, it’s Brown Butter Chicken!
Best of all, it’s an incredibly easy recipe that comes together in minutes. It’s one of our favorite easy keto dinner recipes.
Why you will love this recipe
This Brown Butter Chicken really does taste like a dish you might have at a fancy restaurant. The chicken is succulent and cooked to perfection, with a luscious sauce drizzled overtop.
And yet it’s deceptively simple. You need only 5 ingredients and 20 minutes to get this amazing meal on the table. And it takes a single pan so clean up is easy too.
Honestly, it might just be the perfect dinner for busy weeknights. And the leftovers, if there are any, make a wonderful lunch the next day.
Ingredients you need
- Chicken thighs: Choose boneless, skinless chicken for this recipe, since you cut it into bite-sized pieces. You can use chicken breasts too.
- Avocado oil: You need oil to sauté the chicken, but it can be olive oil or even coconut oil. I don’t recommend butter for this step, as it will get too brown by the time you make the sauce.
- Butter: I like to use salted butter for this recipe but you can also use unsalted butter.
- Prosciutto: This thinly sliced Italian ham is ideal for this recipe, as it gets crispy quickly in the hot pan. It also has a milder flavor than other ham and bacon.
- Sage: Fresh sage and brown butter are a match made in heaven! But you can use another herb like rosemary or thyme, if you prefer.
Step by step directions
1. Cook the chicken: Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the chicken and sauté until cooked through, then transfer to a bowl.
2. Make the sauce: Add the butter to the hot pan and let it melt. When it’s melted, add the sage and prosciutto. Cook until the butter is a deep amber and the sage and prosciutto are crispy.
3. Toss together: Add the chicken back into the pan and toss to coat in the butter. Serve over cauliflower rice or zucchini noodles.
Expert tips and FAQ
Make sure to watch the butter carefully as it browns. It can go from a lovely amber to burnt in a matter of seconds!
This recipe actually reheats really nicely in a pan or in the microwave. So you can make a bigger batch if you want leftovers for another day. Simply store the leftovers in a covered container in the fridge.
Brown butter is easy to make and can transform your keto recipes. It’s delicious in sweets like Keto Blondies, as it deepens the flavor. It’s also wonderful in savory recipes such as keto mushroom soup or this easy brown butter chicken.
Properly browned butter tastes both little nutty and a little like caramel. The rich, unique flavor comes from the caramelization of the milk solids as you cook the butter.
More delicious brown butter recipes
Brown Butter Chicken Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 3/4 lbs (793.79 g) chicken thighs (boneless, skinless)
- Salt and pepper
- 2 tbsp avocado oil , (or olive oil)
- 1/2 cup (113.5 g) salted butter
- 4 slices prosciutto, chopped
- 2 tbsp chopped fresh sage
Instructions
- Cut the chicken into 1-inch pieces and sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper.
- Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Once hot, add the oil and swirl to coat. Add the chicken and sauté until nicely browned and cooked through, 7 to 10 minutes. Transfer chicken to a bowl.
- Add the butter to the pan and let melt. Once melted, add the prosciutto and sage. Cook until the butter is a deep amber (careful not to burn it), about 4 minutes. Remove from heat and add the chicken back into the pan. Toss to coat in the sauce.
- Serve over cauliflower rice or zucchini noodles.
Video
Nutrition
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just made this for lunch and served it over a spinach salad with ranch dressing, so yummy
So simple and so perfect! Sage and prosciutto are a match made in heaven.
Sage and brown butter are a classic combo. Can’t go wrong with anything in sage and brown butter.
Brown butter is pretty much life!
What an amazing flavor combo!
yay for crispy sage!!!
Can’t wait to try this!
A billion stars! This recipe is absolutely delicious. Thank you so much Carolyn
In the event that every. single. store. has sold out of sage in your area… rosemary instead of sage works well!
The meal was delicious. I’m in love with almost ALL your recipes!
I love rosemary!
Happy to try the recipe, which sounds great, but really appreciated your humour – best thing I read all day!
I don’t usually have the avocado on hand. I do have olive oil. Do you think it would be a good substitute? Thanks!
Meant avocado oil…
Yes, that should be fine!
Hi Carolyn,
what type and brand of devise to you use to turn your zucchini into zoodles? Do you make your cauliflower rice by putting cauliflower in your food processor or do you grate it against a cheese grater? What type of proscuitto do you get? Hope you don’t mind all the questions. Thank you.
Finally got a chance to make this tonight for dinner and it totally lived up to the hype! My husband and I loved it, it was so easy to make and I will definitely be making it again. I served it with xoodles but I’m going to try it with cauliflower rice next time. Yummy!!!
OMG!! I am sitting here now eating this and it is super delish and so easy to make!!! I served with two bags of Trader Joe’s caulirice flavored with sautéed onion and Irish butter-yum?. Thanks for sharing this great recipe!!!
I made a double batch of the chicken last night because my whole family likes it so much. And I ate some leftovers for breakfast this morning with cauli rice!
This looks amazing! Its always hard to dress chicken up differently. Nicely done!
This made me laugh out loud and totally relate. I get a disproportional sense of pride when my 3 year old gobbles up my food since he eats what we eat generally. One night, he gobbled kale sauteed with butten with lemon and parm on top so I went out and bought like 3 pounds of kale. The next time I made it – he said he didn’t like it without even trying it! Frustration!
This meal sounds so yummy and perfect for a busy weeknight for this working mom – thank you for your continued creativity!
Yep, I hate the “love it one moment, hate it the next” thing. That drives me bonkers!
You really crack me up 🙂 Thankfully, I’m down to my last picky child who’s in college and still living at home. Unfortunately, she is “that kid” that doesn’t like half of what I make, and thinks fast, junk food qualifies as a meal. I’m just so frustrated at times. This looks like this will be a winner in my constant battle to feed my family well and make everyone happy.
Thanks again, as always.
I have been using Brown Butter with Sage over the top of my butternut squash for months, I never thought to use it to top chicken…and the added prosciutto – Genius! I can’t wait to cook this up for my husband. Thanks for this one, I know it is going to be a big hit.
This sounds delish! My kids are all grown but my husband has lately turned up his nose at chicken. This however, might make him ask for seconds. I know what you mean about the kids. My favorite was how they always looked at me suspiciously when anything green was on the table as if it was laced with arsenic. Then they’d come home from a friends house all excited about how they ate THE BEST Broccoli on the planet, when in fact they never had it before. I’d hear “Mom, if you cooked it like HER I’d eat it every night.” Now my son irritates his wife by telling her she should call me asking how I cooked his favorite such and such! :•)
Yum!! I have some prosciutto in the refrigerator that I need to use… This is perfectly timed and I can’t wait to try it.
Yay! This really will become a standard in our family.