This simple dinner recipe gives you some delicious smothered chicken in a thick, vegetable-laden gravy. It is the perfect weeknight meal to serve over rice or pasta!
Why not make your own Homemade Poultry Seasoning for this recipe? Or go back to basics and learn how to cook a Whole Chicken instead?
Smothered Chicken
Smothered chicken is one of those dishes that sounds like it should be super complicated but is actually nothing more than making some really tasty and tender chicken by cooking it in a flavorful sauce.
You cook the chicken beautifully, browning it nicely and getting it all crusty, and then cook it in some gravy that is packed with vegetables and flavor until the whole thing is practically a stew of deliciousness.
The best part of making this dish is how almost impossible it is to over cook it – the sauce helps to keep everything moist and tender and allows you to enjoy it no matter how long you leave it on the stove.
Smothered Chicken Ingredients
Make sure you look at the recipe card at the very bottom for the exact amounts so that you know exactly what to buy for this recipe.
Chicken Coating
• Chicken breasts, boneless and skinless
• Butter
Chicken Flouring Mixture
• All-purpose flour
• Salt
• Pepper
Gravy Mixture
• Onion, peeled and minced
• Celery
• Carrots
• Mushrooms
• Garlic
• Chicken broth
• All-purpose flour
• Poultry seasoning
• salt
• Pepper
How To Make Smothered Chicken
• Melt the butter over medium-high heat
• Place the flour, salt & pepper into a medium bowl, mixing until thoroughly combined
• Dredge the chicken in the mixture and place into the skillet
• Cook the chicken, turning over repeatedly to brown all sides evenly, stopping once it is a deep brown
• Remove from the skillet and set aside
• Empty the skillet, leaving about a tablespoon of the butter drippings remaining in the pan
• Heat the skillet to medium-low, and then add in the onions, celery, carrots, and the mushrooms
• Saute for 15 minutes, or until the veggies are tender
• Add in the flour, stirring to coat the vegetables and cook for an additional 5 minutes, and then add in the chicken broth
• Stir in your poultry seasoning, and then add salt and pepper to taste
• If desired, add more seasoning as you prefer
• Bring to a low simmer, and then reduce the heat to low
• Place the chicken back into the skillet, cover with a lid and cook for about 30 minutes, or until the chicken reaches a temp of 165 Fahrenheit and the gravy has thickened
• Stir the sauce occasionally, turning the chicken now and again, until done
• Spoon over rice or pasta and serve
What Is The Best Thing To Serve With Your Smothered Chicken?
Seeing as this recipe is packed with tasty sauce and tender meat, it only makes sense to serve it with a starch that is great for holding onto the sauce.
The two best options are some rice or pasta, but you have a lot of options within those two categories to really customize your meal.
For pasta, you have all sorts of different shapes and sizes to choose from; try and pick a pasta shape that holds onto sauce really well. Something like penne is great because the sauce can get stuck in the holes, making every bite a sauce explosion.
For the rice, stick to regular long grained rice so as to remain as uncomplicated as possible. The sauce has so much flavor that you don’t want to overwhelm your palate by using something like jasmine rice.
White or brown rice is up to you, but you really just want something to help soak up all the sauce; a small bit of bread on the side wouldn’t go amiss either!
How To Avoid Over Cooking Your Smothered Chicken?
Chicken is one of the most susceptible meats to over cooking, but the good news is that, with this recipe, you really don’t need to worry so much about over cooking it! The plentiful amount of delicious sauce should help to cover any unwanted chalkiness from overcooking, and the longer cooking time actually allows all of the flavors to sort of meld together.
If you find that it is somehow still overcooking no matter what you do, consider swapping the chicken breasts for chicken thighs instead. Though they take longer to cook, they are almost impervious to over cooking, as they instead start to fall apart like barbeque with longer cooking times.
Just make sure you have the extra time needed to cook chicken thighs instead of breasts – they can take a lot longer than you expect!
Looking for more delicious Chicken recipes? Try these out:
• Bisquick™ Chicken and Dumplings
• Mushroom Soup Chicken & Rice Casserole
Happy Cooking!
Love,
Karlynn.
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Smothered Chicken
Ingredients
Chicken Coating
- 4 large chicken breasts boneless skinless
- ½ cup butter
Chicken Flouring Mixture
- ¾ cup all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
Gravy mixture
- 1 large yellow onion peeled and minced
- 1 cup chopped celery
- 2 cups chopped carrots
- 1 cup sliced mushrooms
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- 3 cups chicken broth
- 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon poultry seasoning
- 2 teaspoons salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
Instructions
- In a large skillet, melt 1/2 cup of butter over medium-high heat. Place the flour, salt and pepper into a medium bowl and mix until combined. Dredge the chicken in the mixture and then place in the skillet.
- Cook the chicken, turning over as needed, until it is brown on all sides.
- Remove from skillet and set aside.
- Empty the skillet, leaving about 1 tbsp of butter drippings remaining.
- Heat the skillet to medium-low, then add in onions, celery, carrots, and mushrooms.
- Saute for 15 minutes or until the vegetables are tender.
- Add in the flour, stirring to coat the vegetables and cook for 5 additional minutes, then add in the chicken broth.
- Stir in the poultry seasoning, and add salt and pepper to taste. If desired, add more poultry seasoning to taste.
- Bring to a low simmer and reduce the heat to low.
- Place chicken back in the skillet, cover with a lid and continue cooking for 20-30 minutes or until chicken reaches a temperature of 165 °F and the gravy has thickened. Stir the sauce occasionally and turn the chicken once while cooking.,
- Spoon over rice or pasta and serve.
Irla says
What size skillet did you use & how deep is it?
Joyce Cosh says
I have a 12 in Jamie Oliver by TFal non-stick frying pan that I just LOVE!! It is stainless steel so quite heavy which works well. I threaten my hubby with mayhem if he uses metal utensils on it!! BTW, Karlynn, I love your site. Congrats from a fellow Canadian Prairie woman!
Thomas says
Hi Karlynn:
Can I substitute chicken 🐔 😋 thighs for chicken 🐔 breast? Thank you 😊!
Tom
Joyce Cosh says
I certainly would. I use boned (or already boneless) chicken thighs instead of breasts which I never buy. . So much more flavor.