As much as I *try* to meal prep and be on top of my crap, sometimes it just doesn’t happen. I had a busy week and suddenly it was Friday and I was back to work for a three day stretch of 12 hour overnights… With no food prepared for them. An hour before I was suppose to be at work I opened my fridge to see that there’s barely anything in there. The sad assortment of random veggies made it look like I was going to be taking a super boring salad to work.
Instead of taking the lame salad to work, more than likely deciding I didn’t want it at 1 a.m. and ordering delivery to the hospital, I decided to take chicken out of the freezer and make a quick one pan chicken dinner. I defrosted some chicken and made a sauce for it using the tomato and spinach I had. This way I could make a meal for the next night at work too, saving me time tomorrow figuring out what I’d bring.
I had a tomato that would have gone bad had I not ate it soon, so I used a fresh diced tomato. For this one pan chicken recipe, you could use a can of diced tomatoes if you don’t have a tomato. Make sure to drain them before adding them to the pan. If you’re not strictly Paleo or dairy-free, you can substitute the ghee for regular butter.
If you want to make this for a bigger family or for meal prepping, go ahead and double the recipe!
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One Pan Garlic & Butter Chicken with Tomato and Spinach Sauce
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 25 minutes

Ingredients
- 1 pound chicken breast
- 3 tablespoons avocado oil or olive oil
- A dash of salt and pepper to season chicken
- 1 large tomato, seeded and diced or 1 can drained diced tomatoes
- 1 large handful spinach, sliced in ribbon strands
- 2/3 cup chicken stock
- 1/3 cup ghee
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
Instructions
- Season chicken breasts with salt and pepper
- Add 2 tablespoons to skillet over medium heat
- Add chicken and cook until done and browned on both sides. Remove from heat.
- While the chicken is cooking, seed and dice tomatoes and slice spinach
- After removing chicken from the skillet, add 1 more tablespoon oil and the tomatoes
- Allow tomatoes to reduce down until they’re a sauce like consistency
- Add minced garlic, basil, Italian seasoning and ghee
- Once the ghee has melted, add tomato paste
- When the tomato paste is mixed into the sauce, add in the chicken stock and spinach
- Bring to a simmer and place the chicken back into the skillet
- Cook for a few more minutes, allowing the chicken to absorb the flavors from the sauce
- Remove from heat, serve and enjoy!
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