Creamy Mushroom Chicken

Maybe you want a warming dish for a chilly evening, or you’re nursing a cold and need something comforting. Perhaps you need a last-minute sit-down dinner for unexpected guests. Or, maybe you’re just looking for something quick to put on the table that everyone will enjoy! This creamy mushroom chicken recipe fits many of life’s culinary occasions.

The magic of this creamy chicken and mushroom dish is the simplicity of its ingredients: quick-cooking chicken breasts, mushrooms, and a pan sauce made with butter, flour, milk and Parmesan cheese. As with many chicken breast recipes, this creamy chicken and mushroom dish can be prepped and cooked in 30 minutes. Serve it alongside a big green salad, pasta, fluffy rice, or roasted or mashed potatoes.

Ingredients for Creamy Mushroom Chicken

Jonathan Melendez for Taste of Home

• Chicken breast halves: Use skinless, boneless chicken breasts that are all the same size (around 6 ounces) so they cook evenly.
• Pepper: Black pepper is the backbone of warmth and spice in this recipe, lending slightly woody notes as well. Try other peppercorns for a different spice profile.
• Canola oil and butter: You’ll cook the chicken in the oil and the mushrooms in the butter. Switching to a richer vegetable oil like walnut oil, olive oil or avocado oil will add a variety of flavor undertones to your dish. Have fun experimenting.
• Mushrooms: This creamy chicken mushroom recipe calls for sliced fresh mushrooms, typically button or cremini. For more flavor, try other types of mushrooms, like portobellos or even wild mushrooms.
• All-purpose flour: Flour helps create and thicken the pan sauce. You can use whole wheat flour for a nuttier, earthier flavor, but it may not thicken as well as the all-purpose.
• Milk: Milk meets flour and fat in the skillet to create the pan sauce. We call for 2% in this creamy chicken mushroom recipe, though you could use whole milk for an even richer, creamier sauce.
• Grated Parmesan cheese: In this creamy chicken and mushroom dish, cheese does double duty. It goes in the pan sauce and gets sprinkled on the finished dish for a pop of umami savoriness.
• Fresh parsley: Minced parsley joins Parmesan in the final garnish, adding green color and brightness to the dish. Don’t skip the fresh herbs here; they keep the dish looking vibrant.

Directions

Step 1: Cook the chicken

Jonathan Melendez for Taste of Home

Sprinkle the chicken evenly with pepper. In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the chicken, and cook for 9 to 10 minutes per side until a thermometer inserted into the thickest portion of the meat reads 165°F. Remove from the skillet, and keep warm. (Don’t wipe the skillet clean.)

Editor’s Tip: You can keep the chicken warm in a preheated 200° oven. Place it on a baking sheet or oven-safe plate. Cover the plate with foil, and keep the chicken warm in the oven until ready to use.

Step 2: Cook the mushrooms

Jonathan Melendez for Taste of Home

Add the butter to the same skillet, and melt over medium heat. Add the mushrooms. Cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, four to six minutes.

Step 3: Make the sauce

Jonathan Melendez for Taste of Home

Sprinkle the mushrooms with flour, and stir until coated. Gradually add the milk. Bring the mixture to a boil. Cook, stirring, until the sauce thickens, about two minutes. Stir in 1/2 cup cheese.

Editor’s Tip: In this step, the flour mixes with the fat (i.e., butter) to make a roux, which is the thickening agent of your gorgeous sauce. The milk adds liquid to the roux, working together to make a thick, luscious sauce or gravy.

Step 4: Bring it all together

Serve the sauce over the warm chicken. Sprinkle it evenly with the remaining cheese and the parsley.

Jonathan Melendez for Taste of Home

Creamy Mushroom Chicken Variations

• Add lemon: Along with the parsley, lemon would beautifully lift the flavors in this creamy chicken and mushroom dish. Try squeezing a little fresh lemon juice into the sauce and adding lemon zest to the final garnish.
• Use different herbs: Green herbs are key to bringing everything together in this creamy chicken mushroom recipe, and you don’t need to stick with just parsley. Try other herbs from your kitchen herb garden like basil, rosemary, thyme, sage, marjoram or savory. All will complement the chicken nicely and add different notes of flavor.
• Skip the chicken: For a meatless version of this dish, replace the chicken with tofu slabs or tempeh cutlets. Cook them in place of the chicken in this recipe until browned on both sides.

How to Store Creamy Mushroom Chicken

The chicken will be most tender and the sauce most creamy when you enjoy this dish immediately. However, if you can’t get to it right away, or you have leftovers, you can easily store the creamy chicken and mushroom in the refrigerator or freezer.

How long does creamy mushroom chicken last?

You can store this creamy chicken mushroom recipe in an airtight container in the fridge for up to four days.

Can you freeze creamy mushroom chicken?

You sure can. To freeze this dish, let it cool completely, then store the chicken and sauce separately in freezer containers. Each should keep for up to four months in the freezer. When ready to use, let the chicken and sauce completely thaw in the refrigerator before reheating.

How do you reheat creamy mushroom chicken?

You have several options for reheating chicken: in the oven, on the stovetop, in the air fryer or in the microwave. Reheat your sauce in a pan over low heat, whisking the sauce to make it smooth again. (It’s OK if your sauce has separated while chilling; it will turn smooth again from the heat and whisking.)

Creamy Mushroom Chicken Tips

Jonathan Melendez for Taste of Home

Do I need to pound the chicken for creamy mushroom chicken?

You can pound your chicken to make it thinner, but you don’t need to for this creamy chicken mushroom recipe. Conventional chicken breasts are inherently larger and thicker than organic ones. If using chicken breasts that seem thick, you may benefit from cutting them in half horizontally or gently pounding them before cooking. This will ensure your chicken breasts cook through without the outsides burning.

How can you thicken the creamy mushroom sauce?

There are many ways to thicken a sauce, depending on what type of sauce you’re starting with and what outcome you’re looking for. In this creamy chicken and mushroom dish, flour helps make the roux (which thickens the sauce); you could add more flour if you want the roux starter to be thicker off the bat. Another option is making a cornstarch slurry, adding it to the pan sauce and letting it cook for two to three minutes longer.

What else can you serve with creamy mushroom chicken?

While mushroom chicken is a totally delicious and satisfying meal, it doesn’t have a lot of color, so we recommend serving it with colorful vegetable sides. Vibrant-green broccolini, asparagus or your favorite Brussels sprouts recipe all work. For bright pops of orange, add citrus rainbow carrots, sweet potatoes or winter squash. Served all together, that would make for one solid dinner.