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Short-Order Kitchen

Creamy Mushroom Chicken

By Wes Ellis2 min read
A seared chicken breast over creamy mushroom sauce with a small green salad in a white bowl.
Recipe card
Servings
4
Prep
15 minutes
Cook
25 to 30 minutes
Method
Skillet
Heat
Medium-high heat
Difficulty
Medium
Jump to ingredients & directions ↓

Part 4 of the thread Weeknight dinners

THE SHORT VERSION4 points
  • Pound or slice the chicken thin so it cooks fast and evenly.
  • A light flour coat browns the chicken and later thickens the sauce.
  • Scrape up the browned bits when the broth goes in.
  • Serve with something to catch the sauce: rice, potatoes, pasta or bread.
THE RECIPE · CREAMY MUSHROOM CHICKEN

Ingredients

Chicken

Sauce

You'll need

  • Large skillet
  • Shallow dish
  • Tongs

Directions

Chicken

  1. Slice or pound the chicken thin, pat it dry and season it well.
  2. Put the flour in a shallow dish and get the onion, garlic, mushrooms and parsley prepped.
  3. Dredge the chicken lightly in flour and sear in a hot oiled skillet until golden and cooked through. Set it aside.

Sauce

  1. In the same pan, cook the onion, then add the garlic, thyme, oregano and mushrooms. Cook until the mushrooms are soft and browned.
  2. Pour in the broth and milk and scrape up the browned bits from the bottom. Simmer until slightly thickened.
  3. Return the chicken, spoon the sauce over and warm it through.
  4. Top with parsley and serve.
Notes Keeps up to 3 days in the fridge. Reheat gently with a splash of milk or broth if the sauce has tightened. Roughly 380 calories and 45 g protein per serving, give or take.

wesellis.com/blog/creamy-mushroom-chicken/

If there's one skillet dinner worth having in your back pocket, it's this one. Chicken, mushrooms, a pan sauce. It looks like more effort than it is, and everything happens in one pan.

Thin chicken, fast chicken

A thick chicken breast takes forever in a skillet and dries out at the edges before the middle is done. Slice it in half horizontally or pound it to an even thickness and it cooks through in a few minutes a side. That's what keeps this a weeknight recipe.

Tip

Pat the chicken dry before the flour. Wet chicken makes a gummy coat that steams instead of browning.

The flour does two jobs

That light dusting of flour gives the chicken a golden outside, and some of it stays behind in the pan. When the broth and milk go in, that flour (plus the browned bits stuck to the pan) thickens the sauce without any extra steps. Scrape the bottom well. That brown layer is most of the flavor. Cooking Basics and the Mistakes I Keep Making has more on why that browned layer matters.

Heads up

Keep it at a gentle simmer once the milk is in. A hard boil can make milk sauces split.

If you like this sauce, it's close to the base of Chicken and Broccoli Casserole, which bakes a thicker version with broccoli and cheese.

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