Think Marry Me Chicken is amazing but maybe a little too beefed up on the calories? Or maybe the time you need to make it just isn’t in your favor? Give our lightened up Instant Pot Marry Me Chicken (or we like to call it “Third Date Chicken” since it’s a bit less serious) a try and let us know what you think!
I guess we’re all wanting a bit of that luscious, saucy, legendary “Marry Me Chicken” dish to warm our hearts and make any man or woman we make it for to fall down on one knee and say:
“This is the one.”
“The chicken dish that makes me want to marry you.”
“Will you marry me, Karen?!”
Seems like “Marry Me ChickenIf you’ve seen or read about the latest “food trends” for this month, I’m sure you will have seen “Marry Me Chicken” splashed across the top of those lists. This dish has been around for a hot minute and there’s a damn good reason it’s still trending. It’s probably not because of the amount of proposals that have come from this dish (not too long ago, I may have thought about giving this method a whirl). It’s simply delicious.
Big-fat carats aside, Marry Me Chicken is the king of comfort food this year.
Raising Up Rentfros tried the most popular of these recipes off of Pinterest and I have to say, I licked my plate. It was so good, at first, I wanted nothing to do with “lightening it up”.
First of all, the original recipe isn’t terribly unhealthy for you, at around 481 calories per serving. You might only get to eat one thigh with no sides, but not terrible with some self-control. Still delicious, but definitely missing that certain something to mop up all of the sauce.
Lighten Up!
Consequently, we decided we still wanted to revamp. After a bit of trial and error, we created a dish with LESS calories without sacrificing that BIG taste. Ours clocked in at 378 calories, about 400 if you have it with spaghetti squash*! SCORE! And just in case you don’t have AAAAALLLL day planning your own perfect proposal meal, we put our Instant Pot to use.
Marry Me Chicken Printable Recipe
Marry Me Chicken
Equipment
- Pressure Cooker
- Pyrex Liquid Measuring Cup
Ingredients
- Pam
- 2 Chicken Breasts
- Salt to taste
- Pepper to taste
- Garlic Powder to taste
- 2 cloves Garlic, minced
- 1 tbsp Thyme, fresh
- 1 tsp Crushed Red Pepper Flakes
- 1 cup water
- 1 tsp Better Than Bouillon, chicken (or sub 1 cup water+ BTB for 1 cup chicken broth…BTB is awesome though…)
- 1 cup Whole Milk (can sub for lower fat milk for even less calories but you'll sacrifice some creaminess)
- 1 tbsp flour
- .5 cup sun-dried tomatoes, chopped (can sub fresh tomatoes for less calories here)
- .5 cup grated mozzarella
- Fresh Basil for garnish
Instructions
- Turn Instant Pot to Saute – Hot; Spray twice with Pam; Add chicken breasts; Sear for 2 minutes on each side; Remove; Spray with Pam; Saute Garlic for 30 seconds
- Add Water, Better than Bouillon, garlic powder, salt, pepper, sun-dried tomatoes, crushed red pepper flakes, basil, thyme, and stir until simmer. Add Chicken back to broth mix
- Cover the Instant Pot and secure. Set valve to seal. Set cooker to Manual/Pressure Cook – 9 minutes. When timer is up, set to Natural Pressure Release – 10 minutes. Remove Chicken. Set to saute.
- Warm milk in Pyrex in microwave for 30-45 seconds to not shock the broth. Whisk in flour. Pour in broth and stir. Bring to simmer. Add grated mozzarella, stir until melted. Simmer until desired thickness. Add chicken back to sauce.
- Serve by itself or we love it over spaghetti squash noodles!
Notes
- If you use skim milk instead, the dish is only 323 calories and still tasty!
Here’s what we used:
What’s Next?
One of our next goals is to figure out where in the world to install a home gym. The garage? Our guest bedroom? Free floating rings in the living room? What are your ideas or what have you done for a home gym? Check out the link below for some ideas we’re looking into!
Designing A Professional Home Gym
More From Raising Up Rentfros:
If you liked this recipe, check out our other recipes that have nothing to do with slashing calories!
Snickerdoodled Maple Peach Cobbler
(it’s seriously the s**t though…)
Have you tried increasing the serving amount? I have a 6 qt pot and need to serve 6 ladies for dinner.
Hey Judy! I have increased it to 6 and it came out just fine! I’d increase the cook time about 2-5 minutes per 2 servings though. Sounds like a lucky group!
Thanks for your response.