Chicken Florentine with Wine and Lemon Cream
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Wine reduces in the pan, the cream goes in, and people start drifting into the kitchen to ask how long. Golden chicken, spinach and a squeeze of lemon, all from one skillet in thirty minutes.
The short version
Dust chicken cutlets with flour and sear them. Cook shallot and garlic in the same pan, reduce white wine, melt in cream cheese and cream, then wilt spinach and finish with lemon. Thirty minutes, one skillet.
What makes ours better
the tricks Nonna pretends she never taught me
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Reduce white wine before the cream goes in. Wine lifts the browned bits off the pan and adds acidity that keeps a cream sauce from tasting flat. Cooking it down first gets rid of the raw alcohol taste.
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Whisk in a little cream cheese. It thickens the sauce without flour, keeps it smooth, and adds a faint tang that makes it taste richer than cream alone.
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Finish with lemon juice and a pinch of nutmeg. Lemon brightens the cream, and nutmeg is the classic partner for spinach. Both are small enough that nobody can name them, and everybody notices them.
What you need
the cast, in order of appearance
- Boneless skinless chicken breasts1½ pounds
- All-purpose flour2 tablespoons
- Shallot1 large
- Dry white wine½ cup
- Cream cheese4 ounces
- Heavy cream½ cup
- Baby spinach6 ounces
- Finely grated Parmesan¼ cup
read it twice. buy it once.
Steps
nobody opens the oven door. looking at you, Dad.
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Season and flour the chicken
Pat the cutlets dry. Season both sides with the salt and pepper, then dust lightly with the flour and shake off the extra.
Cutlets that are thicker than ½ inch cook unevenly. Pound any thick ones to an even thickness.
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Sear the chicken
Heat the oil and butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat until the foam subsides. Add the cutlets and cook 4 to 5 minutes per side, until deep golden and 165°F in the thickest part. Move them to a plate.
About 9 min. Cook mode has a timer for this step.
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Cook shallot and garlic
Lower the heat to medium. Add the shallot to the pan and cook 2 minutes, scraping up the browned bits, until soft. Add the garlic and cook 30 seconds.
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Reduce the wine
Pour in the wine and let it bubble for 2 to 3 minutes, until it has reduced by about half and no longer smells sharp. Add the broth and simmer 2 more minutes.
About 5 min. Cook mode has a timer for this step.
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Melt in the cream cheese
Lower the heat to medium-low. Add the cream cheese and whisk until it melts into the liquid. Pour in the cream and simmer gently 2 to 3 minutes, until the sauce coats a spoon.
Whisk the cream cheese in over gentle heat. High heat can make the sauce grainy.
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Wilt the spinach
Add the spinach in handfuls, stirring until each addition wilts, about 2 minutes total. Stir in the Parmesan, lemon juice and nutmeg. Taste for salt.
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Finish and serve
Return the chicken and any juices to the pan and spoon sauce over the top. Simmer 1 to 2 minutes, until hot. Serve right away.
Good to know
things I learned the hard way, so you can skip that part
- Serve over pasta, rice or mashed potatoes, with plenty of sauce spooned over. Boil 8 ounces of pasta while the chicken sears.
- For a mushroom version, brown 8 ounces sliced mushrooms in the pan after the chicken, before the shallot.
- If you skip the wine, use all broth and add an extra teaspoon of lemon juice at the end.
- Storage. Fridge, 3 days. Reheat gently over low heat with a splash of broth or milk to loosen the sauce. Not recommended for the freezer, since the sauce can separate.
Questions, answered
the questions my cousins text me
What makes it "Florentine"?
Spinach. Florentine means "in the style of Florence" on menus, and it nearly always signals spinach and a cream sauce.
What is the difference between chicken Florentine and Tuscan chicken?
Florentine is built on spinach, often with wine and a lemony cream sauce. Tuscan chicken adds sun-dried tomatoes and usually skips the wine. See creamy tuscan chicken with sun-dried tomatoes.
Can I make chicken Florentine without wine?
Yes. Use chicken broth in its place and add a teaspoon of lemon juice at the end for the acidity the wine would have added.
Can I use frozen spinach?
Yes. Thaw 10 ounces, squeeze it very dry in a towel, and stir it in with the Parmesan. Fresh wilts into the sauce more gently, but frozen is fine.
Why is my cream sauce grainy?
The heat was too high when the cream cheese or cream went in. Keep the pan at medium-low and whisk until smooth before it simmers.
From the table
Made it? Tell me how it went, and who went back for seconds when they thought nobody was looking.
Made it?
be honest. I can take it. probably.
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Published October 29, 2026.