Juicy and tender chicken fillets cooked in a light, creamy sauce filled with mushrooms, sundried tomato and spinach. Perfect served over steamed rice or mashed potatoes!
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No one told me that one of the hardest parts of being an adult is having to think of what to cook for dinner every day. Even for someone like me who absolutely loves cooking… some weeks you just run out of ideas. You then end up cooking the same meals over and over again, and get stuck in a bit of dinner rut. That was us for a while.
Recently though, I have felt my spark return. I think it was a combination of moving (a story for another day), leaving a stressful job (more on that later too) and just feeling happier about life in general have all played a big part in this. There was space again in my life for inspiration and creativity. This led me to going out of my dinner comfort zone and changing things up a little bit, one meal at a time.
This was one of those meals that helped me break out of our dinner rut! I felt like something comforting, tasty, creamy, but still light enough that I could enjoy without uncomfortable from too much cream. So I thinned the sauce out with chicken stock, so it still had some creaminess to it but it had more flavour thanks to the stock.
I also wanted pops of flavour from sundried tomatoes to cut through the richness too, and the mushrooms add a nice depth to the overall dish.
Look, this recipe isn’t something revolutionary. It uses simple ingredients that are easy to find and easy to cook. But please don’t let the simplicity fool you into thinking this is not also a very delicious recipe. Because it is absolutely packed with flavour and we’ve made it 3 times over the last two weeks because we can’t get enough of it. I hope you add this into your dinner rotation soon, and enjoy it just as much!
Recipe Notes:
- Chicken breast vs chicken thigh: I usually prefer chicken thighs to breast in most recipes, as thighs are fattier, juicier and more flavoursome. HOWEVER. The way the chicken breast is cooked in this recipe, they stay juicy, tender and they take on the flavour of the sauce well. This is probably the only recipe besides chicken schnitzel where I would recommend chicken breast over thighs! If you do want to replace it with thighs, just sub it for the same amount (approx 400g of chicken thighs) and you can skip the part where you cut the chicken in half as you won’t need to given thighs are much smaller in size.
- Cutting the chicken breast: The recipe requires you to cut the chicken breasts in half through the middle so that you end up with 4 thinner fillets of chicken. The easiest way to do this is lay the chicken down flat, press your hand gently over the top to stop the chicken from sliding, and use a sharp knife to cut through the middle horizontally. Once it’s almost all the way through, open it up like a book and finish slicing through. I do it this way as it’s easier to tell if you’re cutting evenly through the middle, and also reduced the risk of the knife slipping at the end and cutting yourself (please learn from my mistakes!)
- Sundried tomato oil: I use a spoonful of this to cook the onions, garlic and mushrooms in and it adds such a lovely kick to it! If you’re using sundried tomatoes that aren’t in oil, you can substitute for the same amount of olive oil
Delicious Chicken Fillets in Creamy Mushroom and Sundried Tomato Sauce
Ingredients
- 2 large chicken breasts approx 200g each
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- 2 teaspoon paprika
- 1 onion
- 4 cloves garlic
- 200 g mushrooms button or swiss brown
- 1/2 cup sundried tomatoes
- 1 tbsp oil from sundried tomatoes
- 250 ml chicken stock
- 250 ml pouring/cooking cream
- 2 cups of baby spinach leaves
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Cut the chicken breast through the middle horizontally to make them into fillets, to make 4 chicken fillets in total.
- Sprinkle over salt, pepper and paprika over the chicken fillets, rub it in and set aside.
- Dice onion, mince garlic cloves and slice mushrooms.
- If the sundried tomatoes are whole, slice them into smaller strips.
- Heat olive oil in a large sauce pan, and place chicken into the pan.
- Cook for 3 minutes each side and remove from the pan and set aside on a plate. (The chicken will not be cooked all the way through, you will cook it further in the sauce later on).
- Heat the oil from the sundried tomatoes in the same pan.
- Add onion, garlic and mushrooms and cook for 2-3 minutes until everything is golden and fragrant (not burned).
- Move everything aside in the pan so you can fit the chicken fillets back inside the pan.
- Mix the chicken stock and cream together in a measuring jug or bowl, then pour into the saucepan over the chicken.
- As soon as it comes to the boil, turn down to a gentle simmer, and cook covered for 12 minutes.
- Add the spinach in the last minute of cooking and stir through to just wilt it.
- Taste it and see if it needs any extra salt or pepper.
- Serve with your choice of sides – mashed potatoes, rice or pasta.
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