This creamy paleo tuscan chicken is a super-tasty one-skillet meal that’s perfect for weeknights and full of flavor! Boneless, skinless chicken thighs are seared and cooked with a creamy sauce packed with spinach and sun-dried tomatoes. Paleo, dairy-free, Whole30, and Keto friendly!
For more one skillet dinner recipes, see my roundup of 20 High Protein Paleo One Pot Dinners.
For more easy 30 minute meals, check out my roundup of 30 Fast and Easy Paleo Recipes.
And for more family friendly weeknight chicken recipes, check out this roundup!
One-skillet dinners make my ain’t-no-time-momma heart sing. That’s a real thing, of course!
And by “heart singing” I just mean I feel approximately 15% less stressed out by the chaos of life when I know I can make dinner in just one skillet.
And, it will actually take just 30 minutes! I’m sure there’s at least a few of you ladies out there who can relate!
When there’s only one skillet needed to cook dinner from start to finish, it gives me hope that I can, in fact, make it to 9pm without a complete meltdown.
Not anything to take lightly – we need these one-skillet meals!
What Makes This Creamy Tuscan Chicken Paleo & Whole30
Hopefully I’ve sold you on the one-skillet thing but if not, I’m sure I will with everything else about the actual recipe!
It’s a creamy Tuscan chicken that’s totally dairy-free, paleo, gluten-free and packed with veggies!
By replacing the typical heavy cream with coconut milk and seasoning the sauce just right, you get a totally Paleo, dairy free and Whole30 version of a recipe that is usually loaded with dairy.
Can I Make This Tuscan Chicken Keto & Low Carb?
It’s relatively low in carbs as well, with the only carb source really being the sun-dried tomatoes.
If you’d like an even lower-carb keto option, you can always use fewer sun dried tomatoes.
To keep it low in carbs, make sure to serve over cauliflower rice, veggie noodles or your favorite low carb roasted veggies.
Tips for a Rich & Creamy Sauce Without Dairy
Full fat coconut milk from a can is essential for a rich sauce made without dairy. I personally love the 365 brand from Whole Foods, which you can buy on Amazon. This brand has the mildest coconut flavor and the creamiest texture. Make sure to pre-blend the coconut milk before using.
I recommend doing this ahead of time and storing in a mason jar in the refrigerator. An immersion blender does this quickly and easily.
To dull even more of the coconut flavor, I used a little bit of mustard and nutritional yeast in my creamy recipes. It’s not essential, but recommended to enhance the flavor of dairy free creamy paleo sauces.
Best Chicken to Use
For the chicken, I knew from the start I’d have to go with boneless skinless THIGHS, not breasts.
Breasts are great if you’re “breading” your chicken but honestly they are way too dry in my opinion for anything else – even a creamy sauce.
The thighs cook almost as quickly and they have 10x the flavor, crispiness, and juiciness of the breasts.
We’ll season them, sauté, and then remove from the skillet while we make the yummy sauce.
Ingredients for Dairy-Free Creamy Tuscan Chicken
- chicken thighs, boneless and skinless
- coconut oil plus additional if needed
- Sea salt and pepper
- garlic powder
- onion powder
- small onion
- garlic
- tapioca flour, or arrowroot
- chicken bone broth, or chicken broth
- coconut milk, full fat, blended before adding if needed
- brown mustard
- nutritional yeast, optional
- Italian seasoning blend
- sun dried tomatoes, roughly chopped
- baby spinach, roughly chopped
How to Make Creamy Tuscan Chicken
- Season the chicken with sea salt, pepper, garlic, and onion powder. In a large skillet add the coconut oil and cook the chicken thighs on medium-high heat for 5-7 minutes on each side or until browned and no longer pink in center. Remove chicken and set aside on a plate.
- Add additional oil if necessary and cook the onions over medium heat until soft, then stir in the garlic and cook another 45 seconds.
- Whisk in the tapioca or arrowroot, the add the broth and coconut milk. Stir to combine, then stir in the mustard, yeast, Italian seasoning, sea salt and pepper. Cook and stir over medium-high heat until it starts to thicken.
- Add the spinach and sun-dried tomatoes and allow mixture to simmer until spinach is wilted and tomatoes are softened. Add chicken back to the skillet and simmer another 2 minutes.
Tips for the Creamiest Dairy-Free Tuscan Sauce
The sauce itself is similar many creamy sauces I make – a combination of chicken bone broth and coconut milk, with some tapioca to thicken.
I add a little stone ground mustard and nutritional yeast as well, which, in my opinion, cuts the flavor of the coconut milk enough so that you can barely taste it.
I know many of you are sensitive to coconut flavor, so if you really want to cut the taste, you can use a bit more tapioca to thicken, more broth, and less coconut milk.
But, I encourage you to try the recipe as written since the coconut flavor is really quite minimal!
What to Serve with Tuscan Chicken
This creamy tuscan chicken is perfect served over cauliflower rice, zucchini noodles, or roasted veggies to keep it low carb.
If you don’t need your meal to be low carb, you can serve with roasted potatoes or sweet potatoes, or baked potatoes or sweet potatoes.
How to Store, Reheat, and Freeze Tuscan Chicken
For leftovers, simply keep in a sealed container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
To reheat, I recommend the stovetop in a skillet, but in a pinch the microwave will work well.
If you do freeze this tuscan chicken, first thaw in the refrigerator and then reheat either in a skillet or microwave. It will keep well frozen for up to 2 months.
How to Make It Ahead for Meal Prep
Since we’re using chicken thighs, there is no risk of them drying out by cooking ahead of time.
While this creamy tuscan chicken is a quick recipe as written, precooking the chicken will save at least 10 minutes, turning it into a 15 minute meal. This way, you are simply preparing the sauce which is super quick, and then adding the cooked chicken at the end as you would normally.
To save even more time, have all your veggies chopped and ingredients portioned and labeled – ready to go!
I hope you’re ready for a full-of-flavor, one-skillet meal that you’ll want to throw right into your dinner rotation ASAP! Grab your chicken and a nice big skillet because it’s time to cook – let’s go!
Creamy Tuscan Chicken {Paleo, Whole30, Keto}
Ingredients
- 1.5 lbs chicken thighs boneless and skinless
- 1 Tbsp coconut oil plus additional if needed
- Sea salt and pepper
- 1/4 tsp garlic powder
- 1/4 tsp onion powder
- 1 small onion chopped
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 1 Tbsp tapioca flour or arrowroot
- 1 cup chicken bone broth
- 1/2 cup coconut milk full fat, blended before adding if needed
- 1/2 Tbsp stone ground mustard
- 1 1/2 Tbsp nutritional yeast optional
- 1 tsp Italian seasoning blend
- 1/4 tsp sea salt or to taste
- 1/8 tsp black pepper or to taste
- 2/3 cup sun dried tomatoes roughly chopped
- 1 1/2 cups baby spinach roughly chopped
Instructions
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Season the chicken with sea salt, pepper, garlic, and onion powder. In a large skillet add the coconut oil and cook the chicken thighs on medium-high heat for 5-7 minutes on each side or until browned and no longer pink in center. Remove chicken and set aside on a plate.
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Add additional oil if necessary and cook the onions over medium heat until soft, then stir in the garlic and cook another 45 seconds.
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Whisk in the tapioca or arrowroot, the add the broth and coconut milk. Stir to combine, then stir in the mustard, yeast, Italian seasoning, sea salt and pepper. Cook and stir over medium-high heat until it starts to thicken.
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Add the spinach and sun-dried tomatoes and allow mixture to simmer until spinach is wilted and tomatoes are softened. Add chicken back to the skillet and simmer another 2 minutes. Serve over cauli rice, zucchini noodles, or with roasted potatoes. Enjoy!
Recipe Video
Nutrition
Want More One Skillet Paleo Chicken Recipes?! Try One of These!
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This was so delicious. We ate it last night over potatoes. I may have let the sauce thicken up a bit too much before adding in the sun dried tomatoes and spinach but it worked out SO YUMMY! My partner ate 2 servings and that’s rare!
There is so much flavor in this dish it’s amazing. Made mine with chicken breasts over cauli rice and I will definitely be making this again.
This is one of our very favorite recipes! So rich and flavorful. I do add some sliced mushrooms and kalamata olives as well…adds an even greater depth of flavor!
So Michele, every time I print out a recipe of yours part of the 1st word is always blanked out…really weird. It’s not my printer either as it ONLY happens on your recipes…any ideas? I do see a green star over the word “Chicken” for example and that’s the part that doesn’t show up. Not a big deal, but just curious.
This was SO good! I didn’t have any tapioca so used corn starch (I know not paleo friendly) but turned out great. I cooked in my Le Creuset but it wasn’t brown and crispy looking like the pic. Were those skin on chicken thighs? If not how did you do it? So good
This was SO good. I was a little confused about how to add the arrowroot, so I whisked it in with the bone broth and it worked perfectly. Thanks for a great recipe!
Home run! Family loved it! I added artichoke hearts to it and it was delish!
OMG!!! This recipe was better then I could have imagined. I just changed my diet eliminating gluten, wheat and dairy. I have been following you for ideas and this one was fab! I made for the whole family and they loved it! Thank you 😊
Hi! Made this for the first time this evening. I tasted the broth before serving and thought it needed some acid. So I squeezed the juice from 1/2 eminent in and I think it was perfect! No need to Cho the spinach. 😎. Excellent recipe!
I cannot believe I went through a whole30 program without this recipe! It was delicious. My sauce was much darker, so I think I got the pan too hot, but the flavor was amazing anyway. Thank you for this! I will dig into some of your other recipes now.