Garlic Butter Chicken Bites

There are three things I could not do without in my kitchen unless under significant duress. These include garlic, butter, and nachos! Our recipe for Garlic Butter Chicken Bites covers two of the three must-have favorites and brings incredible comfort just from speaking the name out loud. Try it. I love me some garlic and butter!

Something else I love? Easy meals that also taste amazing. Some people think you can only have one (easy) or the other (tasty) but not both. I’m here to tell you both is possible. In fact, that’s why I created the Freezer Meals 101 Club in the first place. It was born out of an intense need to get delicious home-cooked meals on the table as fast as possible so that the majority of my time could be focused on other, more important things.

Try more chicken bites recipes to stock your freezer. Lemon Pepper Chicken Bites is a great choice, as are these Blackened Cajun Chicken Bites. Of course we’ve also got more Greek recipes – be sure to check out our easy and delicious Sheet Pan Greek Chicken.

Garlic Butter Chicken Bites Recipe

Ingredients for the Freezer Bag

• 3 chicken breasts, boneless, skinless raw, cubed
• 2 tsp. olive oil
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1 tsp. Italian seasoning
• 1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes
• 1 tsp. lemon juice
• salt to taste
• pepper to taste

Ingredients for the Day You Cook

• 1/2 cup white wine
• 1 tsp. hot sauce
• 6 cloves garlic, minced

How to Cook Garlic Butter Chicken Bites

Assembly Instructions

1. Put raw cubed chicken in freezer bag with the oil, butter, and seasonings.
2. Shake to combine, remove excess air, seal, and freeze.

Cooking Instructions

1. Thaw overnight in the fridge.
2. Saute chicken bites in skillet over medium-high heat until no longer pink.
3. Remove the chicken.
4. Deglaze the pan with the wine.
5. Add the hot sauce and garlic and add the chicken back in to toss.
6. Serve on mashed potatoes with gravy and sautéed mushrooms.

It’s too spicy for my family. What are my options?

Try leaving out the red pepper flakes and instead use paprika. This will significantly decrease the heat. You can also leave out the hot sauce if you prefer. Other options for balancing the heat in any recipe include adding fat (butter, peanut butter, etc.) or adding sugar to a recipe (honey, brown sugar, etc.). Since butter is already rocking this dish, we recommend trying the addition of honey. Honey and garlic are a beautiful combination!

Pro Tip: Want to bump up the heat instead? Try adding diced jalepeno peppers to the pan when you sauté the chicken. Alternatively, increase the red pepper flakes, use adobo chilis in sauce or a more intense hot sauce, or add ancho chili powder to the recipe.

Deglazing is the process of adding liquid to a hot pan to loosen or remove the fond which is what we call the brown bits stuck to a pan from cooking meat and vegetables. This adds incredible flavor to your final dish.

Garlic Butter Chicken Bites Recipe Ideas

While we love to serve this chicken over mashed potatoes with brown gravy, it can actually be served in a huge variety of ways! From adding it to a salad to adding it a pizza, the chicken is here for it. Any time chicken and garlic are coming together and using a bag of this chicken would make your life easier, go for it! It’s fast to cook, and works in quesadillas, tacos, casseroles, soups, sandwiches, wraps, salads, rice bowls, and so much more.

Missing onions in this dish? If you love to cook with onions, you can dice up a good-sized onion and add it to your freezer bag, or simply add a fresh onion to the skillet on the day of cooking.

To be honest, the first time I saw this recipe, I thought of risotto. Garlic butter chicken is literally crying out for a base of risotto on the plate. If you’ve never made risotto before and you have a pressure cooker, you are in for a treat. First, sauté a small onion in olive oil in the cooker. Then, add 1/4 cup of white wine and deglaze for 1 minute. Add 2 cups of risotto, 4 cups of chicken broth, (serves six) and cook on high pressure for nine minutes. When it starts counting down, toss your garlic butter chicken in a hot skillet and get that going. As the risotto finishes, open the pressure cooker and add half a stick of butter, and 1/3 cup of parmesan. Stir to combine. Serve with or without the brown gravy and enjoy!

How do I store Garlic Butter Chicken Bites

Keep leftover chicken in an airtight container in the refrigerator for two to three days or until you see signs of spoilage, whichever comes first. Heat the chicken up to 165ºF or alternatively, serve it completely cold straight from the fridge.

What to Serve with Garlic Butter Chicken Bites

No matter how you choose to use your chicken, add a fresh green salad or fruit salad on the side, and you are good to go. Of course, most other sides will also work. When we serve the chicken over mashed potatoes as shown, roasted broccoli is a crowd favorite on the side. Brussels sprouts with bacon are always a hit too.