What to Make Next if You Love Creamy Garlic Chicken
Is it any wonder that our legendary Creamy Garlic Chicken recipe has inspired a number of other tasty dishes? A silky, velvety, one-pan wonder, this batch-cookable family favourite has been hugely popular with our Facebook group since 2019.
With tender chicken chunks bathed in an indulgent-tasting garlicky sauce (for only 260 calories per serving!), it’s no surprise that pages 118-119 of our first-ever Pinch of Nom cookbook are some of the most turned-to in our entire recipe catalogue.
Our Creamy Garlic Chicken is one of those meals you can keep coming back to without ever getting bored. Aside from freezing like a dream, it also pairs with a number of different side dishes to keep things feeling fresh – including mashed potatoes, chips, rice, pasta and steamed veggies.
While it’s difficult to top this golden oldie, there are plenty of other recipes that make the most of similar scrummy flavours. With heaps of garlic, cheesiness and all-round creamy deliciousness as our inspiration, we’re betting what you’re having for dinner tonight is on this list…
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Creamy Garlic Prawns
With ‘creamy’ and ‘garlic’ in the name, it feels fitting to kick things off with our Creamy Garlic Prawns recipe. A decadent-tasting medley of king prawns, asparagus, tomatoes and mushrooms, we’ve brought everything together with a homemade garlic-infused white sauce that’s too good to miss.
You won’t find any full-fat cream in our recipe. Instead, you’ll cook the prawns until pink and juicy, and gradually stir in the reduced-fat cream cheese until completely blended.
To get the consistency just right, it’s important to use reduced-fat cream cheese rather than low-fat – this will ensure that your garlicky sauce is irresistibly thick and ready to be mopped up with a crusty wholemeal bread roll!
Creamy Garlic Salmon
Just as Creamy Garlic Chicken stole hearts in our first cookbook, it’s not hard to see how our Creamy Garlic Salmon left our Facebook group smitten. Cookable from pages 192-193 of our fourth book, Pinch of Nom: Comfort Food, this succulent fish dish tastes luxurious for only 350 calories per portion.
Another versatile crowd-pleaser, its mild creaminess complements a variety of tasty accompaniments, including mash, roasties and crunchy oven-roasted vegetables.
To prevent the delicate salmon chunks from flaking apart, take extra care while stirring in the reduced-fat cream cheese.
Creamy Peppered Beef Pasta
When you’ve got a hankering for satisfying, garlicky goodness in a hurry, our Creamy Peppered Beef Pasta will never let you down. Ready in less than half an hour, with a short list of easy-to-find ingredients, you can even add a side of Cheesy Garlic Bread to wipe the bowl clean, if you’re feeling extra hungry.
To cut out the cost and calories of shop-bought pasta sauce, we’ve rustled up our own batch straight in the pan, using onions, mushrooms and beef stock, with a lip-smacking touch of mustard and black pepper.
We love twirling tagliatelle around our fork for this recipe, or you can use alternative pasta shapes, if you’d prefer. Our guide on how to use different types of pasta might help you choose.
Creamy Marmite Chicken
It’s no secret that we love a creamy chicken dinner at Pinch of Nom. Ever since we paved the way with garlic chicken, we’ve had lots of fun thinking up fresh and interesting creamy chicken dishes to share with our amazing Facebook community.
Take our Creamy Marmite Chicken as a punchy example. An intense blend of savoury flavours, we’ve added a helping of tender button mushrooms to make our one-pot recipe extra filling.
If you’re not sure about going all in with Marmite flavours, you can always start by adding in half of the amount. Once your chicken is cooked through, give the sauce a taste and go from there.
For more chicken din-spiration, take a scroll through our roundup of creamy recipes here.
Creamy Balsamic Chicken and Mushrooms
The beauty of our Creamy Balsamic Chicken and Mushrooms is in its simplicity. Just like Creamy Garlic Chicken, it’s all about combining your ingredients in the pan and letting them simmer to perfection.
Ready in under half an hour and mild enough to serve with a selection of sides (fluffy mashed potatoes go down a real treat), you’ll never regret pencilling this one into your midweek routine.
To get our sauce silky smooth without a pot of cream in sight, we’ve used reduced-fat cream cheese. It makes preparing lower-calorie comfort foods so much easier (you can try more creamy recipes that don’t use cream here).
The full recipe is in your copy of our Family Meal Planner, on page 105. If you’ve not got yours yet, you can order one here.
Beef Stroganoff
Our timeless Beef Stroganoff recipe never fails to impress. While restaurant versions typically come laden with butter, oil or cream, we’ve recreated the same rich texture using a clever combination of reduced-fat ingredients.
Rather than using a cheap cut of beef, it’s well worth investing in a steak and slicing it evenly into strips. You can really taste the difference once they’re tenderised to your liking in the punchy mustard-and-brandy-infused sauce (we don’t cook ours for too long, we like them on the pinker side).
This dish is already loaded with savoury flavour, but if you’d like to take things up a notch, add a dusting of paprika on top.
The hardest part about making this devilishly simple dish is deciding what to serve it with. Rice, chips, pasta or potatoes?
Balsamic Mushrooms
The best part about our Balsamic Mushrooms is that they’ll give you a fix of satisfying, savoury goodness, for next to no effort. A cracking alternative to garlic mushrooms, they’ll whet your appetite at the start of an Italian-style meal or make for a delightful side dish next to pasta, chicken and heartier potato dishes.
Combine the ingredients in a durable dish and let your oven do most of the work for you.
Toss halfway through cooking to make sure all of your mushrooms are evenly coated in the sweet yet savoury honey-soy glaze.
Once they’re ready, you’ve got a batch you can snack on throughout the week for only 57 calories per portion. There’s no need to snaffle them all up in one sitting – they’ll keep nicely in the fridge or freezer until you’re ready for them.
Garlic Mushroom Risotto
We love the challenge of taking indulgent restaurant favourites and making them quick, easy and lower in calories, and that’s exactly what we did with our Garlic Mushroom Risotto recipe.
With the help of the nifty Tefal Actifry Express XL, our version takes far less effort than risottos you’ve made before, with stirring kept a minimum.
Your ingredients should have plenty of room to bubble away in the pot without your eye on them, so you’ll need to adjust your recipe measurements if you’re using a smaller model.
After around 45 minutes, your risotto mixture will be fluffed up and ready to garnish with a squeeze of lemon. We like to add peas to the pot for the last few minutes, to get an extra boost of veggie goodness in there.
Cheesy Mushroom Bake
If our Cheesy Mushroom Bake was only for vegetarians, we’d definitely get jealous. An oven-baked masterclass in garlicky, crispy, cheesy goodness, it’s hard to believe this side dish comes in as light as 177 calories per portion.
The real magic is in the golden breadcrumb topping. We’ve used brown bread slices to keep things on the healthier side, and whizzed them together with two different kinds of cheese: Cheddar and Parmesan!
Psst! A food processor makes that part easy-peasy and doesn’t leave a mess behind.
You’ll know your bake is ready when it’s gorgeously browned on top, and you can’t resist any longer…
Have you decided what you’re making next?
While Creamy Garlic Chicken is a tough act to follow, there’s no going wrong with these delicious choices. We can’t wait to see what you’ll be cooking up! Don’t forget to share your photos in our Facebook group, where we have almost 1 million lovely community members waiting to support you on your slimming journey.
You can always take a quick look in our Gallery if you’re on the hunt for even more inspiration. You’ll want to sign up to a free website account to upload and share your photos (it’s really easy, we’ve got a step-by-step guide you can follow here!).
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