A good pan sauce is so simple to make and squeezes every last drop of flavor out of your meat. This week I made a creamy garlic pan sauce for some chicken thighs that I had stashed in the freezer, and added mushrooms to bulk out the meal a bit. You can serve this Creamy Garlic Mushroom Chicken over pasta or rice, or if you’re trying to curb the carbs, make a big ol’ beautiful salad to compliment these creamy flavors. Keep dinner simple, keep dinner delicious!
Goes great with: Focaccia Rolls, Homemade Garlic Bread, Summer Vegetable Tian, Oven Roasted (frozen) Broccoli
Creamy Garlic Mushroom Chicken
Servings 4Ingredients
- 8 oz mushrooms ($1.99)
- 4 cloves garlic ($0.32)
- 4 boneless, skinless chicken thighs ($3.94)
- Salt and pepper to taste ($0.05)
- 1 Tbsp cooking oil ($0.04)
- 1/2 cup chicken broth* ($0.07)
- 1 cup half and half ($0.85)
- 1/4 cup grated Parmesan ($0.41)
- Parsley for garnish (optional) ($0.10)
Instructions
- Wash and slice the mushrooms. Mince the garlic. Season both sides of the chicken thighs with salt and pepper.
- Heat a large skillet over medium, then add a tablespoon of cooking oil. Swirl the oil to coat the bottom of the skillet. Add the chicken thighs to the skillet and cook until golden brown on each side and cooked through (about 5 minutes per side). Remove the chicken to a plate and cover with foil to keep warm.
- Add the minced garlic to the skillet and sauté for one minute, or just until the garlic softens. Add the mushrooms and sauté for about 5-7 minutes more, or until the mushrooms have wilted. Add the chicken broth to the skillet and stir to dissolve all the browned bits off the bottom.
- Add the half and half to the skillet and bring it up to a simmer. Turn the heat down to medium-low and simmer the liquid, stirring often, for about five minutes. Stir in the Parmesan until it has melted in.
- Taste the sauce and season with salt and pepper if needed. Add the chicken back to the skillet, drench with sauce, and heat over low until warmed through. Top with fresh parsley for garnish, if desired.
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Notes
Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe?Mention @budgetbytes or tag #budgetbytes on Instagram!That creamy sauce, though! 🤤
I am using a 10″ Lodge Cast Iron Skillet (affiliate link).
How to Make Creamy Garlic Mushroom Chicken – Step by Step Photos
Begin by washing and slicing 8oz. mushrooms and mincing four cloves of garlic.
Season both sides of four boneless, skinless chicken thighs with salt and pepper.
Heat a skillet over medium, then add a tablespoon of cooking oil, swirling to coat the bottom of the skillet. Add the chicken thighs and cook until golden brown on each side and cooked through (about 5 minutes on each side). Remove the chicken thighs to a plate and cover with foil to keep warm.
Add the minced garlic and sauté for one minute, then add the sliced mushrooms and continue to sauté until they have softened.
Add 1/2 cup chicken broth to the skillet and stir to dissolve the browned bits off the bottom, then pour in 1 cup half and half. Bring the liquid up to a simmer, then turn down to medium-low and let simmer, stirring often, for about five minutes.
Add 1/4 cup grated Parmesan and stir in until melted into the sauce. Taste the sauce and season with salt and freshly cracked pepper to your liking.
Add the chicken thighs back to the skillet, spoon the sauce over top, and allow to heat through (just a few minutes).
Garnish with chopped parsley, if desired! (It sure does make it look pretty, huh?)
Tender, creamy, and delicious!
Yummy! I used light evaporated milk instead of half & half. Also added an onion and a handful of baby spinach. Thanks 😊
This was awesome! I served it on a bed of fresh spinach. Yum!!!
Made this earlier this week and it was SO good! Even my very picky boyfriend liked it! Added to my recipe list :)
Made this tonight – it was delicious! I didn’t have any parmesan cheese, so I was going to use some mozzarella instead, but what I had was a little past its prime. I added a little cornstarch to thicken it since I didn’t have the cheese to do that, but it didn’t do much, so I decided to use some greek yogurt and it worked like a charm. This is so similar to stroganoff anyway, I figured that would work pretty well, plus it’s a very mild flavor so it wouldn’t compete with the others. Awesome dish, will definitely make again!
Awesome, simple recipe. I added about 1/2 of parmesan cheese. It turned out great! For sure adding this recipe to my recipe box. Thanks!
Just got done making this. It was delicious. I was going to use cilantro instead of parsley cause that’s what we had, but I forgot. I also forgot to make rice. But we decided this needs to be made again, so I just printed the recipe. Thanks for your wonderful and tasty recipes.
This was outstanding!
A few small changes: subbed whole milk for half and half (it’s what I had), doubled the parmesan cheese, added just a bit of corn starch for thickening at the end, and garnished with scallions in addition to fresh parsley. Lastly, the thighs I had varied considerably in size so I cubed them after cooking rather than leaving them whole.
Served over rice for dinner last night but would be great with pasta or any other starchy base (I would definitely consider trying veggie noodles some time).
We both loved it – I plan on putting this in regular rotation!
Wonderfully thick sauce without flour.
What is half and half – used in your creamy garlic mushroom chicken?
It’s cream with 10-12% fat. What is Half and Half?
I made this last night for dinner and it was delicious! I doubled the recipe to make sure we’d have lots of leftovers and I’m glad I did. My sauce didn’t thicken up as much as I wanted it to, so I stirred in a little cornstarch slurry before adding the chicken back to the pan. I served it over egg noodles.
Great and simple recipe! Only problem I had was thickening the sauce. It was too liquidy when I was done with it
The family loves this meal, we do double the sauce and served over veggie noodles! We love your recipes but may I suggest that you change the part about “washing” mushrooms, as you know that will stop the mushrooms from browning up quickly but that would be my only suggestion!
Could this be adapted to be cooked in a slow cooker?
I don’t think the sauce will work in a slow cooker, unfortunately.
instead of salt and pepper at the end, my boss gave me a gift of a grinder with a french spice blend from a vacation she took to Nice. It worked so amazingly in this recipe! It was my first chance to use it so I was extremely happy for it! I had to use the salt at the beginning though since my chicken broth base doesn’t have any salt in it. Between that and the cheese though, I had plenty of salt to help properly flavor the dish.
I have seen recipes that dredge the chicken in seasoned flour before browning. This helps thicken the sauce later and the flour can ‘protect’ other spices that you apply directly to the chicken like paprika.
Try putting another smaller cast-iron skillet on top of the chicken while browning. (wrap the bottom of the second skillet with foil) Pressing the meat into the pan with a weight causes great browning. But you need to rotate the meat after 2 minutes because cast-iron does not distribute heat very well. (Leave 1 thigh un-rotated to see what I mean).
I was told Garlic gets bitter when over cooked. So try doing the mushrooms first, then make a doughnut by pushing the mushrooms to the side and cook the garlic in the middle for 1 minute, then the broth to deglaze.
I think the next time I make this, I will cook the mushrooms first. Especially since I use pre-minced garlic. I travel a lot for my work so I find pre-minced works best for me instead of constantly having to throw out cloves because they have gone bad while I was gone or not in a cooking mood.