Chicken with Roasted Garlic, Chiles, and Olives

Name: Chicken with Chiles, Olives and Roasted Garlic
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 25 min
Ingredients: 12 large cloves garlic, skin on; 1 tbsp + 1 tsp olive oil; 4 tbsp unsalted butter, divided; 4 small chicken breasts; 3/4 cup rosé wine; 1/3 cup chicken stock; 3 tbsp lemon juice; 6 dried chile de árbol; 1/3 cup manzanilla olives; mashed potatoes (see notes for recipe)

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By: Nicole 6 Comments
Posted: 10/21/19 Updated: 04/13/20

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If you think this Chicken with Roasted Garlic, Chiles, and Olives is another boring, bland chicken dinner, think again. Flavor is the name of the game when simple seasoned chicken breasts are seared and served with a spicy butter wine sauce infused with chile de árbol peppers, briny olives, and tons of roasted garlic.

Chicken with Roasted Garlic, Olives, and Roasted Garlic

If chicken dinners always tasted as good as Chicken with Roasted Garlic, I’d literally eat chicken every single day of the week.

And sometimes I do. Don’t we all??

Here’s the scoop: Juicy, moist chicken breasts are pan-seared in butter. We’re already in a good place, yes?

Rosé wine deglazes the pan. And now we’re in a VERY good place. Because when you cook with rosé wine, you get to drink it. And I did. On a Monday. At 2pm.

Next up, chicken stock and lemon juice. Which may lead you to believe that this is your typical baked lemon chicken (which is always delicious), but rest assured, with one little ingredient, the sauce goes from everyday lemon butter sauce to something completely different.

In the most perfect way.

I so wish I could take credit for Chicken with Roasted Garlic, because the combination of the spicy chiles, lemony sauce, briny olives and sweet garlic is so freaking delicious, but it actually comes from one of my favorite dishes of all time at a local restaurant here in Kansas City.

They serve the most delicious roasted chicken I’ve been meaning to replicate for YEARS, and I finally tackled it on a whim yesterday. I tried to replicate their version as closely as possible, and I think I kind of nailed it right on the head. I’m still kind of shocked I got the flavor profile right on the first try.

Of course there are some minor difference like the fact that they use a bone-in, skin-on chicken breast and thigh for their version. And I also added in some baby spinach at the end for an extra veggie factor. Again, minor changes.

Ingredients in Chicken with Roasted Garlic

Dried chile de árbol. The secret ingredient to this killer spicy butter sauce in chicken with roasted garlic?

These tiny red little jewels are PACKED with flavor, and quite the kick. What I love most about them is to completely transform the sauce, all you have to do is toss a few in, let it simmer and automatically the chile infuses the sauce with the most wonderfully subtle spice.

I’m smitten.

You could technically swap out dried red pepper flakes or another dried chile, but this particular variety has a pretty distinct taste and spice that’s hard to replicate with any other ingredient. Luckily they’re super inexpensive to buy and you can find them in most grocery stores these days. If you can’t, just pop these into your next Amazon package.

Manzanilla olives. If you can’t find this Spanish-style olive, any green olive will work!

Garlic. I like to roast a whole head of garlic to add to this. It’s super easy, but if you want to, you can also pick up a handful of roasted garlic in the bulk olive section at the grocery store.

Chicken. You could use chicken breasts or chicken thighs here. If you do use thighs, plan on two thighs per person.

Wine. Any dry white wine will do, but because I had it, we used a dry rosé.

Lemon. I love the acidic punch a little bit of lemon juice gives pan sauces.

Chicken Stock. Just a little bit of low-sodium chicken stock is all you need to create the perfect pan sauce.

Butter. I always like to finish off my pan sauces with a healthy pat of butter. It adds a velvety finish at the end, that I just love.

Spinach. A little bit of sautéed spinach is at the perfect healthy compliment to soak up all that spicy Chile sauce.

How to make Chicken with Roasted Garlic, Chiles, and Olives.

Roast the garlic. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Toss (skin on) garlic cloves with 1 teaspoon olive oil. Season with salt. Place on a small baking sheet and roast for 20-25 minutes or until soft. Be careful not to burn. Set aside, cool and then peel all the cloves.

Cook the chicken. While the garlic roasts, season chicken breasts on both sides liberally with salt and just a little bit of pepper. Heat a large cast-iron skillet to a medium heat. Once the pan is hot, add the remaining tablespoon of olive oil and 1 tablespoon of butter. When the butter melts, add the chicken. Sear until golden brown, about 2-3 minutes.

Flip and do the same on the other side.

Make the pan sauce. With the heat still on, add the wine. Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer. Simmer until reduce by half. Add lemon juice, chicken stock, chiles, olives and roasted garlic. Cover and simmer until the chicken is cooked through, another 7-8 minutes. Remove chicken, transfer to a plate, and cover with foil. Turn the heat down to low and stir in remaining butter. Once the butter has melted, add spinach. Toss until wilted. Season sauce to taste with salt and pepper.

Serve! I recommend serving the chicken over our favorite mashed potatoes to soak up all of that delicious spicy pan sauce. Spoon the olives, chiles, garlic and sauce on top.

Trust me, when I say this is a chicken dinner you’re going to remember, and if you make it, I promise it will shimmy it’s way into your weekly rotation. It’s quick, easy and so so good.

More easy, flavorful chicken dinners!

This CreamyMushroom Chicken is another favorite, easy dinner made it one pan. It would also be awesome served over our mashed potatoes. This Five Ingredient Chicken Piccata is similar to today’s dish, but a little bit more simpler, obviously since there’ s only five ingredients.

Meet Nicole

Welcome! My lifelong passion for delicious food and cooking has evolved over time into an equal love of showing you an elevated meal can be easy, approachable and most importantly, tasty. Dive in and find something perfect for you and your family!