Chicken thighs browned in butter, then simmered with mushrooms, shallots and white wine and finished with cream. A French family dinner from the stovetop, made with 35% whipping cream and a squeeze of lemon in place of crème fraîche.
Chicken in cream with mushrooms is a French dinner from one pan: about an hour and ten minutes, and nothing hard to find.
Cream and mushrooms are a pairing I could eat with anything: rice, pasta, mash, or just bread for the sauce. It is the most polyvalent dinner I know.
A Bresse classic, made on a weeknight
Chicken pieces browned in butter, simmered with white wine and button mushrooms, then finished with thick cream until the sauce coats a spoon. The grand version comes from the Bresse, in eastern France, with its famous chickens and sometimes morels. At home it's everyday food, served with rice or fresh pasta.
Cream, not crème fraîche
French cooks finish the sauce with crème fraîche, which is thick, slightly tangy and doesn't split when it boils. Here it's sold in small tubs, mostly in Quebec, and often out of stock. 35% whipping cream is just as stable, it's in every dairy case, and a squeeze of lemon at the end gives back the tang. Don't use sour cream: it splits in a hot sauce.
Brown the mushrooms hard
Pale mushrooms give a grey, watery sauce. Cook them over high heat and leave them alone until their liquid has gone and they're browned at the edges: that colour is where the flavour of the sauce comes from.
Making it in Canada
The 2 French ingredients, and what to buy for them in Canada.
Crème fraîche épaisse→35% whipping cream plus 1 tsp lemon juice
Whipping cream boils without splitting, and the lemon gives back crème fraîche's tang. Don't use sour cream: at 14% fat it splits in a hot sauce. If you see real crème fraîche, use 200 mL of it and skip the lemon.
🛒 35% whipping cream is in every dairy case (Lactantia at Voilà). Liberté 40% crème fraîche comes in 250 mL tubs on Voilà, and some grocery stores stock it near the sour cream.
Vin blanc sec→An unoaked dry white, such as Muscadet or Sauvignon blanc
Its acidity balances the cream. An oaky Chardonnay or a sweet wine makes the sauce heavy. No wine? Use the same amount of extra broth plus 1 tsp lemon juice.
🛒 Muscadet is cheap and very dry: Le Bourgeais Muscadet Sèvre et Maine Sur Lie at the LCBO. Elsewhere, ask your provincial liquor store for an unoaked dry white.
Good to know: Bone-in, skin-on thighs are the easiest cut to find and the most forgiving: they stay moist in the sauce where breasts dry out. White button mushrooms are the champignons de Paris of French recipes, the same mushroom.
Ready to cook?
Chicken with Mushrooms and Cream
Poulet à la crème et aux champignons
Chicken thighs browned in butter, then simmered with mushrooms, shallots and white wine and finished with cream. A French family dinner from the stovetop, made with 35% whipping cream and a squeeze of lemon in place of crème fraîche.
Prep time
15 min
Cook time
55 min
Total time
1 hr 10 min
Servings
4
Ingredients
Original recipe: 4 servings.
Instructions
Brown the chicken. Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Heat the oil in a large deep frying pan or cocotte over medium-high heat and cook the thighs skin side down for 8–10 minutes, until the skin is deep golden. Turn and cook 2 minutes more, then set aside. Pour off all but 2 tbsp fat.
Brown the mushrooms. Add the butter and mushrooms and cook over high heat for 6–8 minutes, stirring only now and then, until their liquid has evaporated and they are browned. Season with salt.
Add the shallots and wine. Lower the heat to medium, add the shallots and garlic and cook 2 minutes. Pour in the wine and let it bubble until reduced by half, scraping up the brown bits.
Simmer the chicken. Add the broth and thyme, return the chicken skin side up with its juices, cover and simmer gently for 25 minutes. The thighs are most tender at around 80°C (175°F). Health Canada's safe minimum for chicken pieces is 74°C (165°F).
Finish with cream. Take out the chicken. Stir in the cream and simmer uncovered 3–5 minutes, until the sauce coats a spoon. Add the lemon juice (skip it if you used crème fraîche), taste for salt and pepper and remove the thyme.
Serve. Return the chicken to the sauce, scatter over parsley and serve with rice, fresh pasta or mashed potatoes.
Equipment
Staub 5.5 L round cocotte: A wide cocotte browns the thighs well and keeps the simmer gentle once the lid goes on.
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Notes
Keeps 3 days in the fridge. Reheat gently; if the sauce thickens too much, loosen it with a little broth.
With boneless thighs, simmer only 15 minutes before adding the cream.
To make it ahead, stop before the cream. Reheat the chicken gently in its sauce the next day, then add the cream and lemon and simmer until it coats a spoon.
Course: Mains · Cuisine: French · Adapted for Canadian kitchens
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For a quiche or a hot sauce, use 35% whipping cream; for a cold dollop or a dip, 14% sour cream. Liberté's 40% crème fraîche is the real thing when your store has it, and you can make your own overnight.
Buy a modest bottle you'd drink, never the salted cooking wine from the grocery aisle. Pinot Noir or Gamay for coq au vin and bœuf bourguignon, a dry unoaked white for sauces, mussels and fondue, and how much each recipe takes.
