Chicken Scampi using chicken tenderloins with a rich buttery scampi sauce with garlic and lemon served over spaghetti.
Chicken Scampi is one of our family favorites! We love serving it over pasta, but you can also serve it as an appetizer with fresh bread. That’s how we’ve always ordered it at one of our favorite restaurants. The luscious butter sauce soaks up into the crispy fresh bread. It’s so flavorful and delicious!
Chicken Scampi ingredients
- All-Purpose Flour – We love adding breading to a chicken scampi. The restaurant we get it from has a crispy, crunchy exterior, but we do a light batter instead of fried chicken style.
- Cornstarch – Using cornstarch helps keep the coating on the chicken nice and crispy!
- Seasonings – We use parsley, basil, oregano, granulated garlic, salt, and pepper to season the flour that coats the chicken.
- Chicken Tenderloins – We’ll sometimes use chicken breast, but we cut it into bite-size pieces. Chicken tenders are much more tender and juicy!
- Butter – You can’t make a good scampi without butter. Our favorite dairy free butter for this is country crock plant butter, or earth balance soy free as both are safe for our family allergens.
- Olive Oil – You can also use avocado oil as it’s a high smoke point oil. We use avocado oil regularly.
- Garlic – We say 6 cloves, but we often use a whole bulb!
- Spaghetti – We use thin spaghetti, but you can use any pasta or spaghetti you like. The littlest one in our family loves it over elbows or penne.
- White Wine – Scampi uses wine, but if you do not use alcohol, you can use white grape juice or chicken broth.
- Lemon Juice – We use the juice of 2 lemons, about 1/4 cup.
- Parsley – Make sure you’re using fresh parsley!
How to make Chicken Scampi
Prepare the flour coating and dredge the chicken. Pan-fry the chicken for 3-4 minutes per side in 1 tablespoon of oil and 1 tablespoon of butter. Set aside once done in a bowl lightly covered with foil. Make the chicken in batches not to overcrowd the pan.
Prepare the pasta according to package instructions.
Once the chicken is cooked, start the skillet with 1 tablespoon of butter and 1 tablespoon of olive oil with the minced garlic. Heat the garlic until fragrant, 30-60 seconds.
Add the wine or chicken broth to deglaze the pan, and then add the remaining butter. Melt the butter and simmer the sauce for 3-4 minutes to slightly thicken.
Return the chicken to the pan, and then add the lemon juice and parsley. Toss the chicken to coat in the sauce and serve over pasta or as desired.
Recipe tips and variations
- You can also do this with a crispier texture for the flour coating.
- We love serving this with bread to soak up the scampi sauce. If we do that, we do not use it for pasta.
- You can also serve it over rice, potatoes, or other pasta shapes.
- Try it with chicken breast chunks too!
Storage and reheating tips
- Refrigerate: Store any chicken and pasta leftovers in an air-tight container in the refrigerator and enjoy within 3-4 days.
- Freeze: To freeze leftover chicken scampi place it in an airtight freezer-safe container and freeze for 3-4 months. We do not recommend freezing the pasta.
- Reheat: To reheat chicken scampi we use the microwave or air fry the chicken and warm the pasta in a skillet stirring frequently.
How to serve
We love serving chicken scampi with spaghetti and fresh bread. It’s also perfect with our Garlic Bread Recipe.
Frequently asked questions
We do not recommend using anything but fresh garlic. It’s the star of the scampi.
We’re all about fresh is best whenever possible, but if you need to use anything, you can find real lemon juice in the store as well.
Absolutely! We like using broccoli, spinach, or even asparagus.
what to serve with scampi
Chicken Scampi
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Chicken
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/8 cup cornstarch
- 1/2 teaspoon parsley
- 1/2 teaspoon basil
- 1/2 teaspoon oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon granulated garlic
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- 1 1/2 lbs chicken tenderloins
Scampi Sauce
- 8 tablespoons butter 1/2 cup, divided
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 6 cloves garlic minced
- 12 oz thin spaghetti or your preferred spaghetti
- 3/4 cup white wine or chicken broth for non-alcohol
- 1/4 cup lemon juice
- 1/3 cup parsley fresh chopped
Instructions
- In a shallow bowl, combine the all-purpose flour and cornstarch with the seasonings.
- Coat the chicken tenders with the flour mixture.
- In a skillet combine 1 tablespoon of butter with 1 tablespoon of oil.
- Cook the chicken in batches, about 3-4 minutes per side. Do this in two batches, so you don't overcrowd the pan. Once the chicken is cooked, place it in a dish covered with foil to keep it warm. Chicken should be 165 degrees F to be fully cooked.
- Pour water into a saucepan and bring to a boil (for pasta).
- Cook the pasta according to package instructions.
- Add 1 tablespoon of butter and 1 tablespoon of olive oil to the skillet with the garlic. Constantly mix and cook for 30-60 seconds to infuse the butter with the garlic, do not brown the garlic.
- Add the wine or chicken broth to the skillet to deglaze the pan. Add the remaining butter to the skillet and bring to a simmer. Simmer for 3-4 minutes so the sauce can thicken.
- Add the chicken back into the scampi sauce. Add in the fresh lemon juice with parsley and spoon the sauce over the chicken to coat.
- Serve over pasta.
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Nutrition
The nutritional information is automatically calculated and can vary based ingredients and products used. If the nutrition numbers are important for you we recommend calculating them yourself.
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My family loved it! I did use dried parsley this meal was kind of spur of the moment and my family still loved it!
I’ve used dried parsley in a pinch too and it still works really well. 🙂 So glad you guys enjoyed!!