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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!

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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 Jalapeno Popper Chicken, 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!

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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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