Chicken with Cherry-Wine Pan Sauce is an elegant yet easy 20 minute dinner recipe that's perfect for date night at home, or entertaining. Simple yet impressive!
As a food content creator, I start planning and prepping for food-centric holidays weeks in advance so that by the time the actual holiday rolls around I’ve pretty much moved on.
Case in point, I saw a Valentine’s Day commercial the other day and wondered why the heck it was still airing. Oh yeah, because Valentine’s Day isn’t until next week!
Watch How to Make It!
Luscious Chicken with Cherry Pan Sauce
What have I been working on for said sweet holiday? Chicken with Cherry-Wine Pan Sauce!
Simply seasoned chicken breasts are seared then smothered in a dreamy, wine-soaked cherry sauce made right in the same skillet.
Between the wine and festive ruby-red cherries, there is no better dish to make and celebrate the holiday at home with.
20 minutes, one skillet, and totally elegant, yet easy enough to make any night of the week.
How to Make this Recipe
Start by searing chicken breasts that have been pounded to an even thickness in a large skillet over medium-high heat.
Brush or mist both sides with extra virgin olive oil and season with salt and pepper, then add to the hot skillet and saute for 3-4 minutes a side, or until cooked through. Remove to a plate then tent with foil to keep warm.
Next melt butter in the same skillet then add chopped shallot and saute until tender, about 2 minutes.
Once the shallots are tender, carefully pour in red wine (I like Cabernet,) chicken broth, and balsamic vinegar.
Let the sauce simmer and reduce by about half, 3-4 minutes.
Next add pitted sweet cherries which add just the right amount of sweetness to the pan sauce.
Feel free to use fresh or frozen pitted sweet cherries. If you’re using frozen, you don’t need to thaw them first.
Once the cherries warm in the hot skillet, press lightly on them with a wooden spoon to help break them up a bit. Next sprinkle in chopped fresh thyme (you could use a pinch of dried thyme…in a pinch!)
Continue to reduce the sauce until thickened but still syrupy, 2-3 minutes, then stir in butter and the fresh lemon juice.
The lemon TOTALLY makes this dish!
Plate the chicken then spoon the luscious, ruby-hued sauce over the top — yum!
Serve simply with a fresh side salad or roasted broccoli as you see pictured here. That’s just fresh broccoli florets tossed with extra virgin olive oil, salt, and pepper then roasted for 10 minutes at 425 minutes. Perfection!
Whether you make this dish to celebrate Valentine’s Day, or simply to make a Tuesday evening feel extra special and elegant, I hope you enjoy every last drop!
Ingredients
- 4 chicken breasts, ~2lbs, pounded to an even thickness
- extra virgin olive oil, for brushing
- salt and pepper
- 2 Tablespoons butter or vegan butter, divided
- 1 shallot, chopped
- 1 cup red wine, Cabernet recommended
- 1/2 cup chicken broth
- 2 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar
- 12 oz fresh or frozen pitted sweet cherries, no need to thaw if frozen
- 1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme
- 1/2 lemon
Directions
- Brush both sides of the chicken with extra virgin olive oil then season with salt and pepper. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat then add the chicken and saute until cooked through, 3-4 minutes a side. Remove chicken to a plate then tent with foil to keep warm.
- Melt 1 Tablespoon butter in same skillet then add shallots and saute until tender, 2 minutes. Add wine, chicken broth, and balsamic vinegar then simmer until the sauce is reduced by nearly half, 3-4 minutes. Add the cherries and fresh thyme then continue to simmer the sauce until slightly thickened, 2-3 minutes, pressing down on cherries gently with the back of a wooden spoon.
- Remove skillet from heat then stir in remaining Tablespoon butter and lemon juice. Spoon over chicken breasts then serve.
Nutrition
Nutritional values are estimates only. Please read our full nutrition information disclaimer.
What are the calories and nutritional value of this would love to make it
I have a dairy allergy. What can I use in place of butter for the sauce?
You can use a vegan butter like Earth Balance.
What is the nutritional information for this (yummy) meal?
This may sound like a silly question, but, I heard that even if you cook the wine, some of the alcohol still remains. Is this true? I’m worried about feeding it to my son.
Not silly at all! Some alcohol (about 5%) will remain even after reducing the sauce so I’d definitely take that into consideration!
I just made this with soft cherries from a cherry-picking trip and it is absolutely fantastic!!
Has anyone tried making this with chicken thighs? My husband jokes that he will divorce me if I ever make boneless skinless breasts again! Or some other protein that would work with this beautiful sauce? Thanks for any feedback.
We used thighs and I left the skin on and browned them first as they hadn’t thawed thoroughly and I felt the fat would make the pan hotter. I then removed as much skin and fat as I could, leaving behind the crisp bits. It was delicious. Of course I cooked them much longer than you would thin breast cutlets.
We had this for dinner last night. It felt like fine dining on a school night! Tasty and super easy! I used dried thyme because I didn’t have fresh and it was fine.
This Iowa girl (from small farming town of Danville) liked your recipe.
This recipe had me intrigued from day one, whipped it up for the family tonight,
Loved all of the fresh combinations, especially the cherries (duh), thyme and lemon juice.
Only thing I’d do differently next time, is not squish the cherries until closer to the end of the cookie process, they were pretty well mashed because I squishes them too early.
Thanks for the inspiration!
We made this recipe last night and since we only had 2 pieces of chicken we saved half of the sauce and used it for our steaks tonight. The sauce was wonderful with the chicken, but it was out of this world with the steak! Thanks for the awesome recipe :)
Thanks for all of your A-M-A-Z-I-N-G recipes that are both tasty and easy to pull off after work with two little ones running around. I made this last night and it was fabulous. My husband and I sprinkled some blue cheese crumbles and toasted pistachios on ours (the toddler had his plain) and it was pretty with some extra texture and taste. Your herb skillet chicken has won “5 stars” from my husband. And I love reading your Friday Favorites while I drink coffee, before everyone else wakes up :D
This chicken looks really Yummy!! I am going to have to try making this for our homeschool family. My mouth is watering.
I made this the other night for my family. We devoured it! SOOO good! Even my 7-year old loved it! Can’t wait to make it again, only next time I think I am going to put it over braised short ribs. DELISH!!