Copycat Carrabba’s Chicken Bryan

Our copycat Chicken Bryan tastes just like the dish served at Carrabba’s restaurant. Boneless chicken topped with goat cheese, sun dried tomatoes, basil, and a lemon butter sauce.

What is Chicken Bryan?

It’s a popular, signature chicken dish served at Carrabba’s Italian restaurants throughout the United States. Some say the dish is named after Bryan, Texas, where the Carrabba family first settled after immigrating to the United States. Others say the dish is named after Johnny Carrabba’s son, Bryan, who loved the combination of flavors and ingredients.

Regardless of the inspiration, this dish has juicy boneless, skinless chicken breasts topped with goat cheese, sun dried tomatoes, fresh basil, and a lemon butter sauce. It’s served over a bed of pasta.

Chicken Bryan is rich and very flavorful – and with today’s recipe, you won’t need to dine out to enjoy this fabulous dinner!

• This dish is a truly wonderful combination of flavors and textures – rich and creamy goat cheese, intensely-sweet sun dried tomatoes, bright fresh basil, and lemon butter sauce – all on top of a tender, juicy chicken breast.
• It’s a meal that’s special enough for a dinner party, but easy enough to serve for a weeknight family meal. (Just thirty minutes of prep and a quick fifteen minutes of cooking time.)
• You don’t need to travel to a Carrabba’s restaurant to enjoy this delicious chicken dinner. It’s quite easy to make at home!

• Chicken – Choose large boneless skinless chicken breasts for this recipe. You’ll butterfly them to an even thickness before cooking.
• Butter – Lots of it! Butter is used to sauté the chicken, plus you’ll be making a lemon butter sauce for serving. We always cook with unsalted butter so we can season our recipe to suit our tastes.
• Yellow Onion – Choose a sweet yellow for this dish for its mellow flavor. Other onion varieties (particularly white or Spanish onions) will add a sharper, more pronounced taste, so we don’t recommend them for this recipe.
• Sun Dried Tomatoes – Choose oil-packed sun dried tomatoes for the best flavor.
• Fresh Garlic – We will always recommend using fresh garlic in any recipe on our site. Avoid the jarred minced garlic as it has preservatives and a more bitter flavor.
• Lemon Juice – Freshly-squeezed lemon juice is the best. (Bottled lemon juice, while convenient, will also introduce a bitter taste to the sauce in this recipe).
• Fresh Basil
• Seasonings – You’ll use kosher salt, ground black pepper, dried oregano, and ground white pepper.
• Goat Cheese – This is a key flavor and texture component of Chicken Bryan, so we don’t have any substitutions to offer. If you aren’t a fan of goat cheese, you might like this recipe instead.
• White Wine – Used to deglaze the pan, you can also use chicken stock if you prefer.
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Pasta – For serving alongside the Chicken Bryan, the pasta gets tossed in the lemon butter sauce. Spaghetti, linguine, or fettucine are good options – but any pasta shape will work just fine as well.

1. Cook pasta. Drain and keep warm until ready to serve. (You can melt a little butter on the pasta to prevent it from sticking.)
2. Butterfly chicken breasts to an even thickness, but do not pound.
3. Season chicken with salt, black pepper, and dried oregano.
4. Sauté chicken in butter and olive oil on both sides until just underdone, then remove to a foil-lined sheet tray.
5. Cover the tops of each piece of chicken with goat cheese, then place in a warm oven.
6. Sauté onions and garlic in more butter (in the same skillet) then deglaze with wine and lemon juice.
7. Off heat, whisk in cold butter, a little at a time, until a sauce forms.
8. Remove chicken from oven and lay out on a platter. Drizzle with a little of the sauce, then top with chopped sundried tomatoes and chopped basil.
9. Serve additional sauce on the side or toss with pasta.

• Can I make Copycat Carrabba’s Chicken Bryan ahead of time?  This is a dish that should be prepared and served freshly cooked.  You can do much of the prep ahead of time – specifically butterflying the chicken, chopping, and measuring out all the various ingredients.
• How do I store leftovers?   Store covered and refrigerated for up to three days.
• How do I reheat leftovers? Reheat gently in the microwave, just until heated through. Avoid overheating the chicken so it won’t get tough and rubbery.
• Can I freeze?  No. This isn’t a dish that freezes well.

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