Chef Thomas
Anglesey Eggs
Eggs bedded into leek-flecked mash under a blanket of sharp cheese sauce, baked until golden and bubbling. A Welsh supper dish that proves the simplest things are usually the best.
Culinary Explorer
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Chicken in Mushroom and Cream Sauce
Created by Chef Thomas
Chicken thighs browned in butter, then settled into a gentle pan sauce of mushrooms, cream, and white wine. The sort of supper that makes an ordinary Tuesday feel like it was worth getting home for.
Main Dishes
British
Weeknight
Comfort Food
15 min
Active Time
30 min cook•45 min total
Yield4 servings
The kitchen smells of butter and mushrooms and thyme, which is to say it smells like an evening when you have nowhere else to be. This is an autumn supper, the kind you make when the clocks have gone back and the dark comes in early and you want something warm and quiet on the table.
There is nothing clever here. Chicken thighs, browned in butter until the skin goes golden and crisp. Mushrooms, sliced thickly and cooked in the same pan until they give up their moisture and start to colour. A splash of white wine that sizzles and reduces to almost nothing. Then the cream goes in, and the whole thing comes together into something that smells like the sort of evening you'd write down. I did, once: "Chicken. Mushrooms. Cream. Tuesday. Rain on the window." That was enough.
A recipe is a conversation, not a contract. If you've got tarragon instead of thyme, use it. If the mushrooms at the market are field mushrooms rather than chestnut, even better. The method stays the same: brown the chicken, build the sauce in the same pan, let everything simmer together until the sauce is silky and the kitchen smells like somewhere you want to be.
Serve it from the pan with mashed potatoes or rice or just a torn piece of bread. Something that will catch the sauce, because the sauce is the thing. There are few better feelings than putting a warm plate of this in front of someone on a cold evening and watching their shoulders drop half an inch.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
boneless, skin-on chicken thighs
Quantity
4-6
chestnut mushrooms
Quantity
250g
thickly sliced
banana shallot or regular shallots
Quantity
1 large or 2 small
finely sliced
garlic
Quantity
2 cloves
finely sliced
fresh thyme
Quantity
a few sprigs
dry white wine
Quantity
100ml
chicken stock
Quantity
150ml
double cream
Quantity
200ml
unsalted butter
Quantity
30g
olive oil
Quantity
1 tablespoon
fine sea salt
Quantity
to taste
black pepper
Quantity
to taste
flat-leaf parsley (optional)
Quantity
small handful
roughly chopped
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| boneless, skin-on chicken thighs | 4-6 |
| chestnut mushroomsthickly sliced | 250g |
| banana shallot or regular shallotsfinely sliced | 1 large or 2 small |
| garlicfinely sliced | 2 cloves |
| fresh thyme | a few sprigs |
| dry white wine | 100ml |
| chicken stock | 150ml |
| double cream | 200ml |
| unsalted butter | 30g |
| olive oil | 1 tablespoon |
| fine sea salt | to taste |
| black pepper | to taste |
| flat-leaf parsley (optional)roughly chopped | small handful |
Equipment Needed
- •Wide, heavy-bottomed pan or cast iron skillet (at least 25cm)
- •Wooden spoon
- •Tongs
Instructions
- 1
Brown the chicken
Season the chicken thighs generously with salt and pepper. Get a wide, heavy pan properly hot over a medium-high flame, then add the oil and half the butter. When the butter foams and starts to calm, lay the thighs in skin-side down. Don't touch them. Let them sit for five or six minutes until the skin is golden and crisp and lifts away from the pan without resistance. Turn them and give the other side three minutes, just enough to take on some colour. They won't be cooked through yet, and that's fine. Lift them onto a plate.
If the chicken sticks when you try to turn it, it isn't ready. Leave it another minute. It will release when the skin has properly crisped. - 2
Cook the mushrooms
Keep the pan on the heat. There should be buttery, chicken-flavoured fat in there, which is exactly what you want. Add the mushrooms in a single layer. Resist the urge to stir. Let them sit until they've taken on colour on the underside, three or four minutes, then turn them. You want them golden at the edges and slightly shrunken, not pale and steaming. If you crowd the pan, they'll stew rather than brown. Better to do this in two batches than get it wrong in one. When they're done, move them to the plate with the chicken.
Mushrooms need space and heat. A crowded pan drops the temperature and the mushrooms release water instead of browning. Give them room. - 3
Soften the shallots
Turn the heat down to medium. Add the remaining butter to the pan. When it melts, add the sliced shallots and a pinch of salt. Cook gently for two or three minutes until they're soft and translucent. Add the garlic and the thyme sprigs and stir for another minute, just until the garlic smells fragrant and sweet, not sharp. The kitchen will start to smell right about now.
- 4
Deglaze with wine
Pour in the white wine. It will hiss and bubble. Use a wooden spoon to scrape up anything stuck to the bottom of the pan. All that caramelised flavour from the chicken and mushrooms belongs in the sauce, not left behind on the metal. Let the wine reduce by half, which takes a minute or two. When the sharp alcohol smell has gone and what's left smells rounded and gently winey, you're there.
- 5
Build the sauce
Pour in the stock and let it simmer for a couple of minutes. Then add the cream and stir it through. The sauce will turn a pale, golden colour, silky and just thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Taste it. Season again if it needs it. Return the mushrooms to the pan and nestle the chicken thighs back in, skin-side up so the skin stays crisp above the sauce. Let everything simmer gently for eight to ten minutes until the chicken is cooked through and the sauce has reduced slightly. The thighs should feel firm when pressed, with no give in the centre.
Keep the chicken skin above the sauce line. You've done the work to get it crisp and there's no sense drowning it now. - 6
Serve from the pan
Scatter a little parsley over the top if you have it. Serve straight from the pan, spooning the sauce generously over each portion. This wants rice, or mashed potatoes, or a piece of bread torn from a good loaf. Something to catch the sauce. The sauce is the point.
Chef Tips
- •Use thighs, not breasts. Thighs have more flavour, more fat, and they forgive you if the timing isn't exact. A breast overcooked by two minutes turns dry and resentful. A thigh overcooked by two minutes is still generous.
- •The pan matters. You want something wide and heavy that holds its heat: a cast iron skillet or a stainless steel sauté pan. Thin pans give you hot spots and uneven browning, and you're asking this pan to do four jobs: crisp skin, brown mushrooms, build a sauce, and finish the dish.
- •Don't skip the wine. It lifts the sauce from simply rich to bright, cutting through the cream and giving everything a backbone. Any dry white you'd happily drink a glass of will do. If you wouldn't drink it, don't cook with it.
- •This is even better the next day, reheated gently on the hob. The sauce thickens overnight and the flavours settle into each other. Add a splash of stock when you warm it through if the sauce has gone too thick.
Advance Preparation
- •The whole dish can be made a day ahead and refrigerated. Reheat gently on the hob with a splash of stock to loosen the sauce. The flavours deepen overnight.
- •The mushrooms can be sliced and the shallots and garlic prepared a few hours ahead and kept covered in the fridge. A small thing, but it makes the cooking itself feel effortless.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 290g)
Calories
710 calories
Total Fat
61 g
Saturated Fat
27 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
34 g
Cholesterol
280 mg
Sodium
815 mg
Total Carbohydrates
7 g
Dietary Fiber
1 g
Sugars
4 g
Protein
31 g
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