If you like creamy sauces and bacon (and let’s face it, who doesn’t?), then this Creamy Chicken in White Wine Sauce is for YOU!! Very French-country-chic. 😉 And the sauce…..the sauce is ridiculously good.
This is totally the sort of thing I make for company during the cooler months because it’s one of those meals that’s a crowd pleaser, can be prepped in advance then popped in the oven and left without checking on it. Low risk cooking that tastes fabulous – I like!
Creamy Chicken in White Wine Sauce
If I have a dinner party anytime during June – August (winter here in Sydney), chances are that I’ll make something like this Creamy Chicken in White Wine Sauce.
I know some people like to serve much more refined food for company. Sous vide fish, confit, and other posh food you find at fine dining restaurants. While learning and trying new techniques interests me, it is not the way I cook on a day to day basis.
I could never work in a fine dining restaurant. I simply don’t have the genes for precision and plating up using tweezers. I have much admiration for those who do, and I’m very fortunate to have dined at some of the top restaurants not just here in Sydney, but in the world. And I learn and admire chefs like Thomas Kellar of Per Se and French Laundry, Tetsuya, Matt Moran, Neil Perry, Guillaume – to name a few. “Serious” chefs!
But for me personally? This is more “my type” of food. Hearty. Want to reach through the screen, lick-the-plate type food. 🙂
This Creamy Chicken in White Wine Sauce (with BACON because it makes everything better!!) is a variation of a recipe I shared in this month’s Super Food Ideas magazine, Australia’s top selling food magazine. Honestly, every time I go to the supermarket and see the magazine there, I can’t help grinning like a fool. It’s been almost a year since I started my monthly features in Super Food Ideas, and it still makes me do a little jiggy every time the latest issue appears in my letterbox!
This Creamy Chicken in White Wine Sauce is adapted from a recipe by Nigel Slater, from his cookbook “Real Food”. His sauce is much richer – he uses more than twice as much cream as me and no chicken broth. I made the original then cut back on the cream to adjust to my taste. I honestly find that this sauce is rich enough, and the addition of chicken broth adds even more flavour into this sauce.
White wine is key in this! Wine and alcohol generally adds a wonderful complexity to sauces that cannot be completely replicated by using just broth. But I understand that for religious or other personal choices, some people cannot cook with wine so I have included notes for how to make this without wine.
I served this Creamy Chicken in White Wine Sauce with Stovetop Glazed Carrots because it’s faster than roasting and I forgot to put the carrots into the oven. 🙂 Plus you get better caramelisation on the carrots when they’re made on the stove. And it’s useful for those times when your oven is jam packed with other things (this is a life saver for Thanksgiving and Christmas).
Chicken + Bacon + Creamy Sauce + Creamy mashed potato.
Pretty hard to go wrong with that combination, don’t you think? 🙂 – Nagi x
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Chicken in White Wine Cream Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 2.5 lb / 1.2 kg chicken pieces , bone in thigh & drumsticks are ideal (Note 1)
- 1 tbsp / 15g / 0.5 oz butter
- 3 garlic cloves , crushed
- 1 onion (brown, white, yellow), finely chopped (~1 cup)
- 5 oz / 150 g bacon , diced
- 2 cups / 500 ml dry white wine (Note 2)
- 1 cup / 250 ml chicken broth / stock or water
- 2 tsp fresh thyme leaves (or 1 tsp dried)
- 3/4 cup / 185 ml cream (pouring or heavy cream, but not low fat cream)
Garnish
- Finely chopped parsley
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180C/350F.
- Season chicken with salt and pepper. Heat oil in an ovenproof skillet (with lid) over high heat. Add chicken skin side down and cook until golden brown, then turn and cook the other side for 1 minute. Remove chicken from skillet. Drain excess fat from skillet (do not wipe).
- Reduce heat to medium high. Melt butter then add garlic and onion. Cook for 3 minutes until softened, then add bacon. Cook until golden.
- Add wine. Bring to simmer, scraping the bottom of the skillet to mix the brown bits into the liquid. Simmer for 2 minutes.
- Add chicken broth, thyme and return chicken to the skillet, skin side up. Cover with lid or foil, then transfer to the oven. Bake for 60 minutes, covered, then remove the lid and bake for a further 15 minutes to recrisp the skin. The chicken should be very tender.
- Remove chicken or move to side. Stir cream into sauce and season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Garnish with plenty of parsley. Serve with creamy mashed potatoes. Mine are pictured with Glazed Carrots.
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
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Life Of Dozer
Still out of action and feeling sorry for himself. When I took him to the vet, they asked “Does he rumble? Does he chase rabbits, run on gravel, run over the rocks at the beach?”
Errrm. Yes, yes, yes and yes. He is quite a rough-and-tumble sort. No wonder he gets injured so frequently!!! 😉
YUMMY! This is a must-make this weekend (although I have to sub cashew milk for cream – boohoo!). I cannot believe Dozer is the scrappy type as he looks sooo sweet in all of his photos!
Oddree! I think it will work really great with cashew milk! I’d stir a tablespoon of mustard in to help thicken it because cashew milk is thinner than heavy cream, but other than that, it will taste VERY similar! PS Dozer is so scrappy…..yes is “that dog” that rolls in horse poo and jumps into filthy ponds at gold courses. I am convinced he is going to grow a second head any day now….
Being a classically trained retired chef, cream and butter were used in such large quantities way back when. Now, thank goodness we are cutting some of the rich food and living a lighter healthier style of life. The key is not loosing flavor with the calories. This recipe is going to be used for our family dinner next Thurs. Mushrooms will be added. We have fresh carrots out of the garden as well.
Our dog spent at least two weeks every summer with some sort of injury. For 13 years she never learnt bees sting and to look before you leap.
I had to laugh!!! I couldn’t help it….”she never learnt bees sting and to look before you leap”….OK, so bee stings Dozer has not yet experienced but looking before you leap is my constant fear with Dozer because if there is a bird or rabbit in sight, nothing – and I mean NOTHING – will stop him!!! I think we have the same cooking philosophy, I completely agree. I have the utmost respect for people who like to eat healthier far lower calorie food than me (and there are definitely some gems!!) but as I whole, I have a “line” when it comes to making healthier versions of food without compromising on flavour. 🙂 But honestly….cream and butter….just so good. SO GOOD!!!
What a yummy recipe and Nigel Slater’s recipe are excellent. But I have to admit that I like your lighter version. Like Dorothy, I would add mushrooms. We just like mushrooms plain and simple. I would make mushroom-garlic ice cream if I could. And poor Dozer, he probably can’t understand why he can’t frolic like he wants to. He just needs lots of TLC which I’m sure you’re providing. xoxo
BA HA HA!!! OMG I literally actually laughed out loud at the thought of mushroom-garlic ice cream but I GET YOU!!!! I would make cheese-ice cream I think!!! Cheese and garlic. Hmm. Cheese garlic and champagne and fresh bread ice cream…..I think they are my top three!! N x
Hi Nagi! This dish is right in my comfort zone! I make a similar dish that has mushrooms in it (as well as bacon, of course). Those carrots look so good and go so well with this! I would much rather has a dish like this than a fancy, styled plate of something that is way overpriced! Dozer does not seem too concerned about his injury, he’s having too much fun!
I can just imagine how good your version of this is Dorothy!!!! You’re cooking is incredible. That green chilli was seriously good!! Had a friend over for dinner the night after I made it and he raved about it!!!! He is a bit in love with you I think, told him all about you and he read all your messages on this site, he thinks you’re hilarious and he LOVES your recipes!!
Hi Nagi! I have more chilli recipes any time you want to try another. Red, white, green…meat of your choice. 🙂
I’ll be hitting you up soon, still on a green pork chili bender!!! 🙂