Meals
Marry Me chicken
Seared chicken in a sun-dried-tomato parmesan cream sauce — one of the most-cooked dinners on the internet for three years running. Chicken breast carries the satiety; the sauce is measured, not banned, so the plate stays honest about where its calories live.
- Time
- 35 min (10 prep + 25 cook)
- Servings
- 4
- Per serving
- 468 kcal
- Protein
- 47 g
Both directions are legitimate — the score measures fullness per calorie, not virtue. Every version is the same dish, rebalanced.
Ingredients
- 4 breasts chicken breast700 g
- 3/4 tsp salt4 g
- 1/2 tsp black pepper1 g
- 1 tbsp olive oil14 g
Sauce
- 4 cloves garlic, minced12 g
- 1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes, chopped60 g
- 1 cup chicken broth240 g
- 3/4 cup heavy cream180 g
- 1/2 cup grated parmesan40 g
- 1 tsp dried oregano2 g
- 1 tsp dried basil2 g
- 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes1 g
- 2 handfuls baby spinach60 g
Every ingredient links to its food page — same data, same score, same formula.
Steps
- Pat the chicken dry and season with salt and pepper. If the breasts are thick, halve them horizontally so they cook evenly.
- Sear in the olive oil over medium-high heat, 4–5 minutes per side, until golden and just cooked through. Move to a plate.
- In the same pan, cook the garlic 30 seconds, then add the sun-dried tomatoes, broth, cream, parmesan, oregano, basil, and pepper flakes. Simmer 3–4 minutes until it thickens slightly.
- Stir in the spinach until it wilts, return the chicken and its juices to the pan, and spoon the sauce over. Simmer 2 minutes and serve.
Where do the calories live here?
Mostly in the cream and parmesan — about a third of the total from ¾ cup + ½ cup. The score panel shows exactly what they cost; halving the cream is the single biggest lever if you want it lighter.
Why this score
Computed on the finished dish, not an average of the parts: 1872 kcal goes into the pot, 1316 g of ingredients comes out as ~1080 g of food → 173kcal per 100 g. Cooking moves water, and energy density is the score's biggest lever — so we show the math. Full formula here.
The numbers
| Per serving (270 g) | Per 100 g | |
|---|---|---|
| Energy | 468 kcal | 173 kcal |
| Protein | 46.6 g | 17.3 g |
| Fat | 26.5 g | 9.8 g |
| Carbohydrate | 13.7 g | 5.1 g |
| …of which sugars | 7.4 g | 2.7 g |
| Fiber | 2.7 g | 1.0 g |
| Sodium | 943 mg | 349 mg |
Computed from the ingredients' USDA data — nothing typed by hand. Every number is traceable, every score recomputable.
More meals
Photo: AI-generated. Nutrition and score are computed from the ingredients with the published formula — this recipe hasn't been kitchen-tested by us yet.