Pan-seared chicken thighs, nestled in a thick, creamy mushroom sauce, and flavoured with aromatic thyme. Chicken in Creamy Mushroom Sauce is sure to be a family favourite!
CHICKEN IN CREAMY MUSHROOM SAUCE
When it comes to chicken, I much prefer the darker meat. Sure, chicken breast is fine from time to time, but the thigh, leg, drumstick and wing result in a more flavourful dish.
I’m sure most home cooks will agree with me when I say the risk of drying out a chicken breast in the cooking process is high. I always have to be extra careful when cooking breast meat, because I have an ingrained fear of under-cooked chicken. You get food poisoning one time, and you’ll know all to well what I’m talking about!
In contrast, dark meat can take a little more heat, longer cooking time, and still come to your table with robust flavour and moistness. And, in addition to that, dark meat chicken pieces are most always less expensive. When you’re feeding a family on a budget, dark meat is the way to go!
CHICKEN THIGHS – LEAVE THE SKIN ON!
Chicken thighs are ideal for this recipe, because like chicken breasts, they tend to be a little on the flat side. This allows for a much better sear before the baking process.
Leaving the skin on locks in the flavour and the moistness of the meat while providing a tasty, crispy addition to a plain thigh. There’s no absolute law stating that you must use thigh meat. This dish would be just a good with a leg or drumstick as well. If you decided to use those, just sear the chicken on all sides to maximize the flavour.
LET’S TALK MUSHROOMS!
A seared chicken thigh with a creamy mushroom sauce like this one, has two main ingredients – chicken and mushrooms. This dish has a whole lot of mushroom flavour!
With a pound of fresh cremini mushrooms and a good splash of heavy cream, you’re going to be in chicken heaven. You could omit the fresh mushrooms completely if you want to make life a little easier and cheaper.
You could just use two cans of the cream of mushroom soup and still end up with a great dinner. But, the fresh sautéed mushrooms adds so much depth to the flavour profile. I tend to find cremini mushrooms on sale quite frequently, so I would just go with it.
My mom used to make a similar chicken dish. And, sometimes, she would use pork chops instead of chicken. Unfortunately, she wasn’t a fan of fresh mushrooms, so she would use canned mushrooms in their place.
You know the canned mushrooms I’m talking about? The stems and pieces? What kind of name is that anyway? Yet, even though those canned mushrooms were a tad bit chewy, my mom could always put a great taste on them. Now that I’m thinking about my mom’s mushroom covered pork chops, I’m craving those too!
And, before my memory bank takes me too far back (someday, I’ll tell you about pork chop Tuesday!) I’ll end this post and let you get to cooking. Oh, for serving suggestions, I’d either carb it up and serve it over egg noodles, or with mashed potato if I were feeling really hungry. Or, serve it with a simple Sautéed Buttered Asparagus. So delicious!
Creamy Mushroom Sauce Baked Chicken
Ingredients
- 6 large chicken thighs, bone in, skin on
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1/2 cup white onions, finely chopped
- 3 cups sliced cremini mushrooms, about one pound
- 2 cloves garlic, finely minced
- 10 ounces canned cream of mushroom soup
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 2 tablespoons water
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Over medium heat, add the olive oil and butter to a heavy-bottom, oven-safe skillet and melt the butter into the oil.
- Lightly salt and pepper both sides of the chicken thighs. Carefully lay the thighs, skin side down, in the skillet and sear for 3-4 minutes. Turn once, sear for another 3-4 minutes and remove from the skillet. Set aside.
- Add the onions and mushrooms to the skillet. Sauté until the mushrooms are browned.
- Add the garlic and cook for one minute.
- Add the canned mushroom soup, heavy cream, two tablespoons of water, and dried thyme. Stir into the mushroom and onion mixture.
- Nestle the chicken thighs into the mushroom sauce and bake for 40 minutes.
- Remove from oven, garnish, and serve immediately.
Nutrition
Julia says
I have to say – this chicken looks insanely delicious! Crispy skin – oh my! Just looks amazing!
Gloria @ Homemade & Yummy says
I love the thighs as well. Chicken and mushrooms go so well together. Love the sauce…and I would smother it over some whipped mashed potatoes.
Uma says
Flavors of mushroom and fresh herbs sounds good 🙂
Marisa Franca @ All Our Way says
WOW!! Those mushrooms! And the color of the thighs is perfect. A nice golden tan along with the mushrooms. Yum! I can never get enough of those fungi — any type. And you are so right — we do eat chicken breast but the other parts have more flavor. What we do like is the bone-in chicken breast with skin. Then we (that’s the royal we — hubby does it) grill it. The flavor is so much better and it doesn’t dry out. Darn!! That mushroom chicken has me hungry. Have a great weekend. 🙂
Stephanie@ApplesforCJ says
I’m loving all the creamy mushroom goodness going on here. I can’t get into the canned mushrooms though. It’s either fresh or just recently I started buying frozen ones and they’ve been really pretty good 🙂
Amy Katz from Veggies Save The Day says
I love mushrooms! I can’t understand how some people don’t. This sauce looks incredible!
traditionallymodernfood says
I love baked recipe. Never used mushroom soup while baking. This s a treat for mushroom lover.
Sara @ Modern Little Victories says
Oh I’m definitely going to have to pass this one along to my mom. I know she will absolutely love this!
Adriana Lopez Martn says
What a lovely recipe, the sear and color or that chicken is perfection. I can imagine tastes as good as it looks. Must try yoru recipe soon =)
Veena Azmanov says
This looks so beautifully done. I’m a big fan of mushrooms so am always looking for a good mushroom variation to my chicken bakes. This looks perfect!
Jeff says
Your pictures are so beautiful, I’m immediately craving these chicken thighs!
byronethomas@gmail.com says
Thank you, Jeff. 🙂
Sandhya Ramakrishnan says
I have seen many recipes that use mushroom soup as a base for the sauce. I have not tried using the mushroom soup, but use the lentil soup to make a quick lentil subzi to go with my rotis. . I will definitely try the mushroom sauce.
ManilaSpoon says
I also prefer the darker meat as I think they taste better and are better suited for longer cooking without risking dryness. Now with that delicious mushroom sauce smothered all over, all I need is a big bowl of rice to go with it! YUM!
soniya Saluja says
Very nice recipe! love Mushrooms :D. When you combine them with cream and chicken, you can’t go wrong. Love it!
Lori Vachon says
What a marvelous baked chicken dish! The sauce looks scrumptious!
Megan Marlowe says
This could not have come at a better time! My husband, who despises mushrooms, is out of town and I just bought a carton of fresh ones. I am totally making this immediately and eating on it all week, in all it’s mushroom-y glory!
Swathi says
Pan seared chicken has crispy skin that part I liked it, you are right, mushroom sauce with fresh mushroom will be best, I don’t like canned ones for they have less flavor.
Ashley - Forking Up says
Yum! This is like a Chicken Marsala, but without the wine! A great idea if you don’t have the wine on hand, or don’t use wine in cooking in general. I’ll have to try this!
Natalie says
Mushrooms and thyme are absolutely delicious combo. Especially with dark chicken meat. Sauce looks amazing. So thick and flavorful. Great recipe. Mushrooms are in season now, so let me just schedule this in my menu planner for next week 😉
Molly Kumar says
This is my all time favorite chicken recipe apart from Indian curries. I love the combination of mushroom sauce with chicken and your recipe looks so easy to make. We do have some extra chicken in freezer and this might end up being our weekend brunch 🙂
Anuka says
This looks delish. I am planning to use this recipe for my friends who’s bringing their little children. Therefore, I have a question. Is it ok if I remove the bones from the thighs before I started cooking on the skillet? How it is gonna affect the taste if I remove the bones from the chicken thighs?
byronethomas@gmail.com says
Hi Anuka,
I don’t think it will affect the taste at all, but you might want to shorten the cooking time to compensate for the removal of the bone. Otherwise, the chicken might be too dry.
Anuka says
Thank you so much for the reply. Yes, I served the dish to the guest, and they absolutely loved it. Thank you.
byronethomas@gmail.com says
Perfect! Thanks for letting me know, Anuka. 🙂
DANIELLE CLARK says
WHAT SIZE CREAM OF MUSHROOM SOUP DO YOU USE? IS IT THE SMALL CAN OR THE FAMILY SIZE
byronethomas@gmail.com says
Hi Danielle, it’s the smaller size. I use the 10 ounce can at all times.
Kristen says
I dont have heavy cream…would homo milk work?
byronethomas@gmail.com says
The taste will be very similar, but the heavy cream will add a richness and a thickness that homo milk would not.
Suparna says
Hi,
I absolutely love the recipe and the colour and the looks of it. Just had a query though….If can’t get hold of canned cream of mushroom soup, what could be the possible way out? Can something be done from scratch to get a similar sauce? Please help
byronethomas@gmail.com says
HI Suparna… you can add any cream soup – chicken, or even cream of celery or potato soup would do just fine. Of course, you could also use a heavy cream – try 35% cream so that it’s thick enough. Good luck!
kazy says
Question: 3 cups of mushrooms? How many ounces or grams is that?
Not sure I have a skillet big enough for 6 bone-in thighs, might have to sear them in rotation and then put them in a casserole dish and pour the mushroom sauce over it and bake it.
kazy says
Hi Byron,
Your ingredients say fresh thyme but your instructions say dry thyme. Which is it?
kazy says
Hi Byron
My error. I didn’t see the dried thyme in the ingredients. Void my initial question.
Aiyana Ramsey says
First time cooking in years and I came across this dish – going to try it out, Unfortunately I don’t have a skillet and I have an electric Hob too so i’m hoping it won’t matter too much.
But I am very excited to see how it turns out! Wish me luck!