Blog, chicken

Creamy Garlic and Herb Chicken with Mushrooms

Wondering what to cook in this rainy weather?

Chicken...yes but what?

If you have mushrooms...

look no further, take this as a sign on what your next meal should be lol

I sound like a weird infomercial lol

This quick hearty meal is perfect for lunch or supper,

and it's super easy to make.

If you know me, you know I'm actually not a mushroom fan,

but I sliced the mushrooms up big so when I dished out,

I could just pick them out of my plate,

and I put them on my dad's plate lol

If you make this meal and wonder why your sauce is not deep in colour like mine,

please do not panic!

I had a few issues the day I made it, which turned the sauce richer in colour.

I used a darker chicken stock than I usually use,

accidently added way more paprika (don't worry the correct amount is listed below)

and the lighting was not on my side when I was taking pictures that day...

So a combination of all 3 seems to have made my sauce deeper in colour.

I did start to panic because I wasn't sure if my mishaps really affected the taste.

I had my sister test out the recipe but I also made this meal again since,

and the 2nd time around the colour of the sauce was lighter,

but the dish tasted the same as the first time I made it.

*sigh of relief*

I just didn't have time to reshoot the pictures...

*Sigh* food blogger problems...

I did however make a tiktok cooking this meal yesterday,

which you can check it out here.

If you don't have tiktok check out my instagram

because I share my quick cooking videos there too.

So anyway long story short;

it's okay if your sauce comes out lighter in colour,

do not panic lol!

I know in this recipe I used chicken breasts,

you could use a disjointed chicken if you want to,

I did that yesterday which you'll see in the video.

If you end up making a bit more sauce, no need to waste any of it,

you could use the leftovers as a quick pasta sauce.

- PLEASE NOTE -

If the chicken breasts you have are quite large, you can slice the chicken breasts length wise (leaving you with 2 chicken breast pieces from 1). In this particular recipe I didn't do this because the chicken breasts I used were quite small in size.
Try to use fresh herbs, which are hard to really measure so you can freehand if you do. But you can substitute by using dry herbs, which is the quantity I shared in the ingredient list.

- INGREDIENTS -

- CHICKEN MARINADE -

4 - 5 Chicken Breasts
1/4 tsp Salt
1 tsp Ground Black Pepper
1 - 2 Tbsp Red Chili Paste (adjust depending on your heat/spice preference)
2 tsp Chicken Spice
1 tsp Paprika
2 tsp Lemon Juice
1 tsp Freshly Crushed Garlic

125ml (1/2 Cup) Chicken Stock

- MUSHROOM SAUCE -

1 Medium Onion
1 - 2 Tbsp Oil
1 tsp Freshly Crushed Garlic

500g Button Mushrooms
2 tsp Dry Parsley
1 1/2 tsp Thyme
1 1/2 tsp Rosemary
1/4 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Ground Black Pepper
1 1/2 tsp Garlic Powder
1 Tbsp Butter

250ml (1 Cup) Fresh Cream

1/4 Cup Mozzarella Cheese

- GARNISH -

Rosemary
Parsley

- METHOD -

As I mentioned in my notes above, if the chicken breasts are quite large, you can slice them in half, length wise and continue to flatten them. If they're of normal size or small, just continue without slicing and lightly flatten your chicken breasts with a meat tenderizer or rolling pin, this will help the meat cook faster.
Once you've done this, place your chicken breasts in a bowl and add in the salt, pepper, garlic, red chili paste, lemon juice, chicken spice and paprika.
Next, prep your button mushrooms by slicing them and keeping them aside, also prep your onion by finely slicing it and also keeping aside.
In a large (wide) pot on a medium heat add in your oil, when the oil starts to heat up add in the sliced onions and garlic, and braise till the onions start to soften up.
Once the onions become soft, just before they start caramelizing (fancy way of saying turning golden) add in your mushrooms, salt, pepper, parsley, thyme, rosemary, garlic powder and butter. Mix it all together with the onions and cover the pot with the lid.
Sauté the mushrooms for 5 - 10 minutes before removing them from the pot into a bowl.
In the same pot, add in your marinated chicken and brown on each side for a few seconds, before adding the chicken stock and 1/2 cup of water.
Leave the chicken to simmer on a medium heat for 15 - 20 minutes. Keep checking in between, flipping the chicken over and make sure there is still some sauce in the pot - it should not dry out (you can add a bit more water if necessary). Remember if you had sliced your chicken length wise, it would cook much faster so approximately 10 - 15 minutes.
Once your chicken is cooked, remove just the chicken from pot into a bowl or plate and leave just the sauce in the pot (to save yourself more dishes to clean up just reuse the bowl you had initially used to marinate the chicken) .
Pour into the sauce that's still in the pot the fresh cream and turn the heat up high, till it begins to bubble.
Once the sauce starts bubbling, turn the heat back down to medium, add in the mozzarella cheese and leave to simmer till the cheese melts.
Once the cheese melts, add back in the mushrooms, mix them into the sauce and leave to simmer for a minute or 2 on a low temperature till the sauce thickens up.
When the sauce has thickened and in the chicken mix it all together and leave to simmer away for another 5 minutes on a low to medium heat, just till all the flavours fuse together.
Finally, garnish with some rosemary and parsley before serving.