This quick and easy Chicken Tender Sauté combines chicken tenderloins, fresh spinach, peppers, garlic, and onions, plus sour cream for a touch of creaminess.
A Delicious Dinner in Just Thirty Minutes
This Chicken Tender Sauté is a quick, easy, and very delicious one-pan meal! From start to finish, you can have this dish on the table in half an hour.
Super tender strips of chicken are sautéed in a skillet along with red bell pepper, spinach, onions, garlic and scallions. A little bit of sour cream is added at the end for a light touch of creaminess.
Reader Review
Cooking with Chicken Tenderloins
- Most of the time, chicken tenderloins are sold with a tough little membrane running through the meat.
- This membrane looks like a skinny white tube and should be removed from the tenderloin before cooking. (Otherwise, it’s tough and chewy to eat.
- To remove the membrane:
- Make a few small cuts around the end of the white membrane that is sticking out of the meat.
- Grab the end of the membrane with a paper towel so you can get a firm grip.
- With the other hand, pull and run your fingers down the length of the membrane to loosen the meat.
- If the chicken meat tears a bit, that’s ok. You can still cook the chicken for this recipe.
Key Ingredients & Substitutions
- Chicken – Buy boneless, skinless chicken tenderloins for the most tender results. You can buy boneless, skinless chicken breasts, then butterfly and cut into strips – however, the tenderloins will cook quicker and are super tender.
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- Unsalted Butter
- Onion – Use yellow or sweet onion and dice into a half-inch pieces.
- Scallions – Also called green onion, you’ll use both the white and green parts in this recipe.
- Red Bell Pepper
- Fresh Garlic
- Fresh Baby Spinach
- Kosher Salt
- Freshly Ground Black Pepper
- Sour Cream
Special Tools You'll Need
- Cutting Board & Sharp Knife
- Various Measuring Cups & Spoons
- Large Sauté Pan with Cover
- Spatula or Wooden Spoon
- Tongs
This Chicken Tender Sauté also happens to fit into a lower carb diet – but anyone will love this simple, flavorful meal.
How do I make Chicken Tender Saute?
- Sauté onions, scallion whites, red bell pepper, and garlic in a large skillet with olive oil and butter.
- Nestle the chicken tenders into the skillet, making sure the chicken sits on the bottom of the pan.
- Cook chicken until lightly brown, flipping with tongs to brown both sides. (Be careful not to overcook the chicken – it will only take one to two minutes per side to brown.)
- Add spinach, scallion greens, salt, and pepper and stir to combine.
- Cover and cook until the spinach is wilted and the chicken finishes cooking through.
- Remove the skillet from the heat.
- Stir in sour cream to create a light sauce.
- Taste and add more salt and pepper if necessary.
- Serve immediately.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Can I make this Chicken Tender Sauté ahead of time? This is one of those dishes that is best freshly-cooked – and it only takes about 30 minutes to prepare. You can trim the tenders and measure out the other ingredients, but we suggest cooking it just before eating.
- What should I serve with Chicken Tender Sauté? If you want to keep things lower carb, we suggest serving this with some cauliflower rice. (Try our Saffron Cauliflower Rice or our Riced Cauliflower and Tuscan Kale.) If you aren’t counting your carbs, regular white or brown rice would be good, or you can serve it with cooked pasta or egg noodles.
- How do I store leftovers? Refrigerate any leftovers in a covered container for up to three days.
- How do I reheat any leftovers? We suggest microwaving individual portions to warm through. Be careful not to overheat the chicken as it will get rubbery.
This Chicken Tender Sauté recipe originally appeared on A Family Feast in January 2018. We’ve updated the post, but the delicious recipe remains the same.
You might like these other Easy Chicken Recipes
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Chicken Tender Sauté
This quick and easy Chicken Tender Sauté combines chicken tenderloins, fresh spinach, peppers, garlic, and onions, plus sour cream for a touch of creaminess.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 2 servings 1x
- Category: entree
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Diabetic
Ingredients
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
3/4 cup yellow or sweet onion, cut 1/2-inch dice
4 large scallions, whites diced, greens sliced and separated
1 cup red bell pepper, 1/2 inch dice
1 tablespoon garlic, minced
8 chicken tenders, about 1 1/4 pounds
3 cups loosely packed baby spinach, about 2 ounces
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup sour cream
Instructions
- In a large sauté pan, melt butter in oil over medium high heat then add onion, scallion whites, red bell pepper and garlic and sauté for three minutes or until onions are translucent.
- Add chicken and nestle down so the tenders sit on the bottom to brown. Cook 1-2 minutes until lightly seared. Turn each tender and lightly brown the other side.
- Add spinach, scallion tops (green part), salt and pepper and stir to combine. Cover and cook for and additional 1 to 2 minutes until the spinach is wilted and the chicken is cooked through.
- Remove from heat and stir in the sour cream. Add more salt and pepper to taste.
Notes
Note: The most difficult part of this dish is removing the long white membrane that you’ll see running through each chicken tender. (You really do want to remove that before cooking.) You start by making a few small cuts around the end of the white piece sticking out so you have room to grab it then hold that piece with a paper towel while you pull and run your fingers from your other hand down the sides, pulling the membrane out.
Strips of boneless, skinless chicken breast may be substituted for the chicken tenders. However, the texture of the cooked chicken may not be as tender.
This recipe is delicious! Definitely will be a keeper! Followed it to a T, no need to change a thing.
Thanks Tami – we’re glad you enjoyed the recipe!
I’m making this tonight and wondered if I can use plain yogurt instead of sour cream.
Sure Elana – The yogurt has more of a tangy flavor, but you can use it.
We made this tonight and it was so good! We served it on top of spaghetti and it was perfect.
Thanks Ava – so glad you enjoyed the recipe!
I am not a big fan of cooking by reading recipes but this one was different. Just cooked this dish and not just that it looked exactly how it’s shown here, it tasted just so awesome. I did add a pinch of Garam Masala as I love eating spicy food. Thank you so much for this. I am cooking it again very soon!
So glad you enjoyed the recipe Hema! I love your idea of adding a pinch of Garam Masala!
I have made this a few times any It is so good.It takes no time at all and is very healthy.Great for a weeknight supper.
Glad you enjoyed the recipe Susan!
I made this tonight. My chicken was marinating in Goya Mojo marinade and I didn’t know what to do with it. I found your recipe and I had all the ingredients so I said let’s try it. Wow!! it was amazing. I didn’t feel like cutting onions so I used minced onions. What an easy dish to make. Thank you so much for sharing
You are very welcome Tina – so glad you enjoyed the recipe!
I loved this! I put some feta on top to add some more fat for keto. I’m glad I’m the only one home tonight. Plenty of leftovers for lunch tomorrow. Thank you! More keto recipes, please!!
Thanks Andrea! So glad you enjoyed the recipe! (And yes – we will do more keto recipes!) 🙂
Thank you for all your wonderful recipes. I enjoy them very much. I for one love the pictures.
As a “visual” person they (pictures) help me to understand the recipe .
Stay warm Spring will be here soon..LT
Thank you for writing to us today LT! We’re so glad you are enjoying the recipes! (Counting down the days until spring!) 🙂
Made this for my family tonight.. loved it!! It was perfect.
Thanks Julie! So glad you enjoyed the recipe!
Good morning Martha….”Baby it’s cold outside” here in the Mid-south
Just had to tell you, I made the Chicken Tender Saute last night. It may take the place of Grampa’s Firehouse Chicken as my new favorite quick recipe. We love fresh spinach and use it often in recipes and as a side dish cooked with a bit of olive oil and fresh garlic. Actually, I was kidding about Grampa’s chicken…I’ve made a dozen times I’m sure.
Stay warm
Linda
So glad you enjoyed the recipe Linda! And I’ll be sure to tell my father-in-law (Grampa) that his chicken recipe is a favorite too! 🙂 Hope some warmer weather comes your way soon – we’re looking at more snow in the forecast tonight!