Description
Chicken with Creamy Mushroom Sauce is a delicious dish that features tender, juicy chicken breasts cooked to perfection and smothered in a rich, creamy sauce made with sautéed mushrooms, garlic, and herbs.
Ingredients
CRISPY CHICKEN
- 2 chicken breasts, large (boneless skinless, ~600-700g )
- 1/2 tsp salt
- black pepper
- 1/4 cup flour
- 15g / 1 tbsp unsalted butter
MUSHROOM SAUCE
- 30g / 2 tbsp unsalted butter
- 300g / 10 oz white button mushrooms , sliced
- 2 garlic cloves , minced
- 3/4 cup chicken or vegetable stock , low sodium
- 1 cup thickened / heavy cream , full fat
- 1/2 cup parmesan , finely and freshly grated
FOR SERVING
- 2 tbsp chives , finely sliced (optional) – sub parsley, green onions, or omit
Instructions
- Split breast: Cut each breast in half horizontally to form 4 thin steaks in total.
- Dust with flour: Sprinkle each side with salt and pepper, then sprinkle with flour and use your fingers to spread it all over the surface.
- Cook chicken: Melt 15g butter in a large non-stick frying pan over medium high heat. Add chicken and cook each side for 2 1/2 minutes until golden brown and just cooked through. Remove from pan, cover and keep warm.
- Cook mushrooms: In the same frying pan, add remaining butter and increase heat to high. Add mushrooms and cook for 4 minutes, until starting to turn golden brown on the edges.
- Add garlic later: Then add garlic and a pinch of salt and pepper, and continue cooking for another minute until both garlic and mushrooms are golden.
- Deglaze skillet: Add stock – it will bubble and be steamy! Cook for 30 seconds, scraping the bottom of the pan, until stock is mostly evaporated.
- Make creamy sauce: Add chicken stock, cook vigorously for 1 minute so it mostly evaporates. Then add cream, lower heat to medium and simmer for 2 minutes until it reduces and thickens slightly.
- Add parmesan: Stir in parmesan, taste and add more salt and pepper if needed.
- Finish chicken in sauce: Return chicken to sauce for 30 seconds (to warm through slightly.) Garnish with chives and serve as-is in the pan, for people to help themselves (or transfer to serving platter, if you prefer). Alternatively, serve a portion of chicken onto each plate, spoon sauce over and garnish with more chives.
Notes
Chicken – select large chicken breasts, so that each side of breast is enough for two servings.
Breast is best because once sliced in half they make two flat steaks which cook through quickly and evenly with a nice crust. Thigh works too but either butterfly the thick end to make it more even in thickness, or pound out.
Cream – full-fat thickened cream / heavy cream will yield the best results. For a lower fat alternative, use evaporated milk (preferred) or low-fat cream.
Parmesan – you need to grate your own from a block to ensure that it melts into the creamy sauce. Store-bought, pre-grated in any form (sandy, or fine batons) just doesn’t melt properly in sauces.
When measuring, remember that freshly grated is aerated so the volume will look far greater than the weight, so you need to pack the cup down lightly (ie. 50g / 2oz freshly grated parmesan = over 1 cup in naked volume, but 1/2 cup lightly packed).