My take on marry me chicken

I am not in the habit of bringing viral TikTok recipes here. It is a safe space, away from digestive biscuits submerged in yoghurt masquerading as cheesecake, baked oats, or sugary instant coffee whipped up like foam (if you don’t know what I’m talking about, ignorance is bliss). No, here we are in the realm of tried-and-tested vintage recipes.

So why am I letting marry me chicken into this sacred place? For the uninitiated, it first popped up a decade ago on an American food website called Delish, but it became the most-searched recipe on the New York Times in 2023. It’s a simple concept: chicken cooked in a creamy, tomatoey sauce that is so delicious that the person to whom you serve it will get down on one knee. Alternative versions sprang up like weeds: marry me pasta, marry me shrimp, gnocchi, chickpeas, meatballs, salmon… Gluten-free versions, vegan versions, crockpot, one pot, air fryer.

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I was initially unconvinced that chicken in tomato sauce held much promise, and certainly not enough to make someone want to spend the next 20 Christmases with someone else’s Uncle Jim and his questionable views. When it comes to cookery, I can be a bit of a neophobe – but I quickly learnt that there is nothing new here, and that’s what makes marry me chicken so charming.

What I discovered was that it is, at its heart, a very old-fashioned recipe. Of course it is: chicken in a creamy sauce is textbook old-school cooking. And anything using sun-dried tomatoes is inherently kitsch.

In one sense, there’s nothing special going on here: it’s just a chicken casserole. But it’s bringing together all the best flavour elements – shallots, garlic, white wine, tomato, cream, parmesan, basil. How could it not work? The first mouthful made me nostalgic for a type of cooking that pre-dates my childhood. If you too find it has a peculiarly familiar feel even if it’s new to you, that makes sense. Add paprika and you basically have chicken paprikash. Change the basil for garam masala and it starts to taste like murgh makhani. Switch the sun-dried tomatoes for tarragon and you have tarragon chicken. Marry me chicken contains all the building blocks of our most loved dishes. It was intended as a comforting chicken dish, typical of old-school Italian-American home cooking; it’s just been given a whizzy name to trick those Gen Z-ers into making something their grandmothers might have served up in the 1970s at a dinner party.

The first version was baked in an oven, but subsequent recipes tend to prefer a simpler stove-top cook, which I favour here: it feels more in-keeping with the gentle domesticity of the dish to let it bubble away on the hob, and it gives you a little more control over the sauce. I’ve added shallots and a good dollop of tomato paste – which is cooked off in the pan before other elements are added, giving depth – to push the flavours forward. White wine and (if possible, but I know life gets in the way) homemade chicken stock bring the whole dish to life.

There is one sticking point. As lovely as the original recipe is, I didn’t think I would be interested in marrying anyone who chose to serve me chicken breasts rather than… well, anything else. It’s never the exciting choice, is it? It certainly doesn’t scream ‘life partner’ to me. So let’s make it more interesting: the recipe I give below is the classic chicken breast version, but using chicken thighs is an immediate upgrade – they have more flavour and a better texture. Actually any lean protein will work: pork fillet, chicken livers, rabbit, even halloumi, dredged in flour and fried in fat until golden. The meat (or cheese) is less the main character here, and more of a vehicle for that beautiful velvety sauce.

Will it result in wedding bells? I’m making no promises. But at the end of the day, it’s a delicious casserole that you can have on the table in half an hour, and that’s as good as a marriage proposal any day of the week.

Serves: 2
Hands-on time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes

• 2 chicken breasts (or 400g of meat/protein of your choice) 
• 50g plain flour
• 20g butter
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 3 large shallots, peeled and thinly sliced
• 3 large garlic cloves, finely chopped 
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• ½ tsp dried oregano
• ½ tsp dried chilli pepper flakes
• 100ml white wine
• 200ml chicken stock
• 120ml double cream
• 3 tbsp sundried tomatoes, chopped
• 50g parmesan
• Handful of fresh basil

1. First slice the chicken breasts in half horizontally to create four thinner chicken fillets. Slice each of these in half on the diagonal. If you’re using other protein, dice it into small pieces, about 1.5 inches across.
2. Season the flour with ½ tsp fine salt, then dredge each piece of chicken.
3. Melt the butter and 1 tbsp of oil in a casserole dish over a medium-high heat. When the butter begins to foam, add the chicken pieces and cook until golden brown – about four minutes on each side. Set the browned chicken to one side.
4. Reduce the heat to low, and add the shallots to the casserole dish. Cook for three to four minutes, till softened, then add the garlic, and cook for one more minute.
5. Add the tomato paste. Stir through the oregano and chilli flakes, and then deglaze the pan with the white wine. Add the stock, bring to a simmer and cook for five minutes.
6. Add the cream, parmesan and sun-dried tomatoes, and return the chicken to the pan. Bring back to a simmer and cook for five to ten minutes; the chicken should be cooked through (74°C on a temperature probe), and the sauce should coat the back of a spoon. Scatter fresh basil over the dish and serve.