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This spicy, sweet and creamy Chicken Diablo is a super easy dinner, that will satisfy the family. Ramp the heat up, or dial it down to your liking!
Words/phrases around my table whenever I make this: “Spicy”, “sweet”, “creamy”, “delicious”, “is there any more?”
It’s a family favorite, but I also love to make it for company. The deep, rich color from the marinade looks so good, and this is an easy recipe to double, triple or quadruple.
I’ve been known to come home from the store, and put some of the fresh chicken I just bought into zip top bags, and add this marinade and freeze it. When I want to cook, I just pull it from the freezer the night before, and as it thaws it marinates. Almost zero effort, and a great way to get a tasty dinner on the table during the week.
How to make Chicken Diablo:
(Full printable recipe below)
- Whisk together the marinade, pour half over the chicken and marinate for 30 mins or overnight (reserve half for later).
- Heat the oil over a medium heat and the garlic for 30 seconds, the add the chicken and cook until done.
- Heat the remaining marinade in a sauce pan until it warms through.
- Remove chicken from skillet, and plate. Pour warmed sauce over the chicken and garnish with scallions
- Devour.
If you’re into chicken – check out my Maple Sage Glazed Chicken, or my Italian Style Chicken Mozzarella Skillet!
What I love about Chicken Diablo:
Um. Everything? Just kidding, but it’s easy to adjust to your spice taste, marinating ahead means LOTS of flavor, very little effort AND you can switch out the sauce flavors, for a different flavor profile.
I’ve made this with different flavors of hot sauce – buffalo, chipotle and plain hot sauce are all great options for this.
Marinate this ahead the night before (or morning before) and really let the flavors mesh, but if you don’t have that kind of time, you’ll still get a great result. The flavors in this are out of this world!
Love Chicken Diablo? Tweet it!
Ingredients in Chicken Diablo:
- HOT SAUCE – Use your favorite! I like to mix it up between a buffalo style, a tabasco and a chipotle
- SOUR CREAM – full fat or reduced fat, either works great!
- KETCHUP – Use your favorite kind
- HONEY – This is going to tone down the heat and balance the flavors
- SMOKED PAPRIKA – This will add a smoky flavor to the sauce
- GROUND CUMIN – Rich and earthy, and perfect for deepening the flavor
- CHICKEN BREAST – For this recipe, you can buy chicken cut into thin cutlets and pound them out to be thinner. Otherwise just use a sharp knife and slice some chicken breasts lengthways into cutlets
- VEGETABLE OIL – Gonna need this to get us started! Canola, vegetable or any other oil will work just fine
- GARLIC – Don’t skimp on garlic.
- SCALLIONS – Because green stuff is pretty
What to serve with Chicken Diablo:
I’m a huge fan of plain white rice with this, but mashed potatoes, cilantro lime rice, or mashed sweet potatoes would go really well too.
Top Tips for Chicken Diablo
- Cook the chicken at medium heat. If you cook the chicken at too high of a heat, the honey will cause your chicken to burn – you may alternately brown the chicken, and then place in a baking dish and cook until the chicken reaches 165°F
- Marinate a day ahead and let the flavors really deepen.
- Discard the marinade you used on the chicken, we will make a sauce out of the reserved marinade that HASN’T touched raw chicken.
- Ramp up the hot sauce if you like it spicy, dial it back if you prefer flavor over heat.
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This spicy, sweet and creamy Chicken Diablo is a super easy dinner, that will satisfy the family. Ramp the heat up, or dial it down to your liking!
- 1/2 cup hot sauce
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1/2 cup ketchup
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1.5 tsp smoked paprika
- 2 tsp ground cumin
- 4 chicken breast cutlets thinly pounded
- 2 Tbs vegetable oil
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 2 scallions chopped finely
- In a bowl, combine the hot sauce, sour cream, ketchup, honey, paprika and cumin and whisk together.
Pour half the mixture over the chicken breasts in a shallow dish. Set the rest aside for later.
Cover the chicken dish and allow to marinate in the fridge for as long as you have - overnight is good, but 30 mins will work just fine too.
- Heat the oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add the garlic, cook for 30 seconds.
Add the chicken and cook until browned on both sides and cooked through, 10-15 minutes.
Heat the remaining marinade in a small saucepan until warmed through.
Serve chicken and drizzle sauce over top
Sprinkle with green onions, if using.
Devour!
Top Tips for Chicken Diablo
- Cook the chicken at medium heat. If you cook the chicken at too high of a heat, the honey will cause your chicken to burn - you may alternately brown the chicken, and then place in a baking dish and cook until the chicken reaches 165°F
- Marinate a day ahead and let the flavors really deepen.
- Discard the marinade you used on the chicken, we will make a sauce out of the reserved marinade that HASN'T touched raw chicken.
- Ramp up the hot sauce if you like it spicy, dial it back if you prefer flavor over heat.
UPDATE: This post was originally published on August 29, 2017 and has been updated to improve reader experience. There have been no changes to the recipe.
Kate
I would definitely have to dial this waaaaay down for my boys.
Jaida Langston
I love Diablo Chicken! Spicy at it’s best!
Jeffrey
The Hot Sweet Mango Sauce sounds the best to me, it would make some nice chicken kabobs!
Melissa
I’d love to try the Hot n Sweet Mango sauce!
lori clark
hot and sweet mango sauce sounds really good
Joan Kubes
I think I’d like the Chipotle Pepper Sauce best.
Geoff
I’d like to try the Chipotle Pepper Sauce
Terra Heck
I’d most like to try the Sweet Chili Sauce. Thanks.
partymix25(at)hotmail(dot)com
Austin H.
The hot and sweet guava sounds great for some chicken wings. They all sound tasty.
Austin H.
The hot and sweet guava would be great for some chicken wings. They all sound tasty.
Tracey
Didn’t have the sauce you mentioned, so i groud up a small can of chipotle in adobo sauce in it’s place . Totally delicious. Can’t keep the fam out of the sauce. Thanks for the killer recipe.
Judy Bradley
I love most things mango, so Sweet Mango sauce sounds yummy!
Ashlee
Could you sub plain Greek yogurt for the sour cream?
Kylee
Absolutely!
Allison
I am making this on Friday night. Sounds scrumptious! Thank you for the recipe
Kristen A.
Loved this recipe!! I seasoned the chicken in the pan with salt, pepper, and chili powder to taste.