Creamy Mushroom Chicken
Now that the weather is getting colder and the days shorter, I have been switching from fresh summer salads to comforting warm dishes each night for dinner. This Whole30 Creamy Mushroom Chicken could be one of my favourite comfort foods due to the crisp chicken thighs and heavenly creamy mushroom sauce.
Whenever I see the words creamy sauce, I immediately think high calorie and fat overload, but before you write this dish off as a dieters worst nightmare, let me explain. Yes the sauce is thick, creamy, rich and delicious, but it is also completely dairy free. A lot of paleo or dairy free creamy mushroom dishes use coconut cream, which is a great replacement for dairy, but is very high in fat (83g per cup!). To make this dish lighter without skipping on creamy flavour, I used just one quarter of a cup of soaked cashews blended in water to create an amazing creamy sauce with half the fat of a coconut cream based version.
I used chicken thighs because I love the extra flavour they add to recipes, but chicken breasts pounded lightly would also work really well.
This Whole30 Creamy Mushroom Chicken dish can be prepared in just one pan in less than 30 minutes, make it an awesome addition to the weeknight dinner roster. If you want to cut corners then you can cook the chicken ahead of time and throw it in the sauce to heat up before serving.
Here are a few other one pan chicken recipes that you will love:
- Garlic Mushroom & Bacon Chicken Thighs
- Honey Mustard Chicken
- Balsamic Chicken With Figs
- Coq No Vin
- Creamy Sun-Dried Tomato & Basil Chicken
- Crispy Lemon and Herb Chicken Fennel
If you make this recipe let me know in the comment section below, I would love to hear what you think or take a photo and tag me (@everylastbite_) on Instagram, I love seeing your photos!
Creamy Mushroom Chicken
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup cashews soaked for minimum 4 hours
- 1/4 cup water
- 4 boneless skinless chicken thighs
- 1/2 cup almond flour
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp pepper
- 1 tsp olive oil
- 1 onion finely chopped
- 3 cloves garlic crushed
- 4 cups mushrooms quartered
- 1 cup chicken broth
- 1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
Instructions
- Place the cashews and water in a blender and blend until the mixture becomes completely smooth like cream
- Sprinkle the chicken thighs with salt and pepper and dredge in the almond flour to evenly coat.
- Heat the olive oil in a large skillet on medium heat and cook the chicken thighs for 4 to 5 minutes per side until golden in colour. Transfer the chicken thighs to a plate and set aside.
- Cook the onion, garlic and mushrooms in the same skillet until the onions become translucent.
- Pour in the chicken broth and cashew cream stir until combined and then return the chicken thighs to the pan. Cover and allow everything to simmer for approximately 8 minutes until the sauce has thickened and reduced by approximately half.
- Sprinkle with parsley before serving.
Nutrition
This is a fantastic dish! Hard to believe there isn’t any cream in it! I used chicken breast due to family preference and subbed arrowroot powder for the almond flour as I didn’t have any on hand. It was so delicious and will be entering our regular rotation for sure.
Hi! Is there a substitute for the cashews? Have an allergy.
Do you have an allergy to other nuts? Blanched almonds or macadamia nuts could also work well.
I licked my plate. This was so good. I’m just starting SCD to try to chill my Crohn’s out and get stable. Been trying recipes for two weeks and wow, what a difference. Thank you so much for sharing all of this with me, this may be life changing. The recipes are not boring and my husband loves them.
Flavor was good but next time will skip the almond flour which added calories and all came off into the sauce when added back into the pan. It added a gritty texture to the sauce that was a little weird. I’ll definitely try it again with these modifications!
Thanks for the feedback Jess!
Is it possible to make this dish with yogurt instead of cashew cream? Or sour cream? What would be the closest?
Oohh tough one, I think that regular cream would likely work best. Alternatively if you used yogurt I would suggest adding a bit of milk to it to water it down.
If we were to use coconut milk instead, how much would we use? How much water do you soak the cashews in? Thanks!
What perfect comfort food for fall! Love everything about this – thanks so much for sharing!!
Thank you! I am all about the comforting dishes this time of year!