French Chicken Casserole
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The coziest, most wholesome meal. With golden brown chicken, tender potatoes, white wine, fresh rosemary + thyme.
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Say hello to the coziest meal of 2020. Perfectly-seared golden brown chicken thighs, tender baby golden potatoes, juicy mushrooms, and a fresh herb-white wine sauce that you can basically guzzle down all day and night. Put it on a shoelace and it will hit just right.
It’s truly perfection on a crisp 55 degree Fall day – or let’s be honest, any day of the week. It’s rustic, it’s cozy, and it’s just so darn good. Easy to whip up on those busy weekdays or those weekends for a fancy night in.
tips and tricks for success
- Use a heavy pot. A heavy bottom pot, such as a Dutch oven, is ideal here for slow cooking and even heat distribution.
- Bone-in is ideal. While boneless, skinless chicken thighs or breasts can be used, bone-in will be juicier and have extra flavor.
- Choose a wine you will drink. A dry white wine (pinot grigio or sauvignon blanc) is great here – it does not have to be anything fancy or overpriced. Just something you don’t mind sipping on since you will have an open bottle.
- Serve with crusty bread. Serve with all the homemade crusty bread for dipping, sopping and dunking!
what to serve with french chicken casserole
Tools For This Recipe
Dutch oven
French Chicken Casserole: Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, chicken breasts can absolutely be used here but chicken thighs have more dark meat and a higher fat content which will yield juicier, more flavorful chicken.
If you prefer white meat, bone-in, skin-on breasts or boneless, skinless breasts can be substituted but cooking times will need to be adjusted.
Mushrooms can be omitted completely if it’s not your thing. Eggplant or zucchini can be substituted, if desired, as it can absorb all the good flavors and mimic the texture of mushrooms.
Additional chicken stock can be used for white wine as a non-alcoholic substitute.
Absolutely! But because dried herbs are often more potent/concentrated than fresh herbs, you need less when using dry. The correct ratio is 1 tablespoon fresh herbs to 1 teaspoon dried herbs.
A lid or cover is not required here. Uncovering allows the chicken to brown and crisp here, and helps reduce the amount of liquid in the finished dish.
Heavy cream (or heavy whipping cream) has one of the highest fat contents with about 36-40% fat. Half and half or whole milk are suitable substitutes, but will yield a lighter result.
French Chicken Casserole
Ingredients
- 6 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 8 ounces cremini mushrooms, halved
- 3 large shallots, diced
- 2 ribs celery, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- ½ cup dry white wine
- 2 cups chicken stock
- 1 pound baby gold potatoes, halved
- 4 sprigs fresh thyme
- 1 sprig fresh rosemary
- 1 bay leaf
- ¼ cup heavy cream
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
- Season chicken thighs with 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper.
- Melt butter in a Dutch oven over medium heat. Working in batches, add chicken, skin-side down, and sear both sides until golden brown, about 2-3 minutes per side; set aside.
- Add mushrooms, shallots and celery, and cook, stirring occasionally, until mushrooms are tender and browned, about 5-7 minutes; season with salt and pepper, to taste.
- Stir in garlic until fragrant, about 1 minute.
- Whisk in flour until lightly browned, about 1 minute.
- Stir in wine, scraping any browned bits from the bottom of the Dutch oven. Stir in chicken stock, potatoes, thyme, rosemary and bay leaf. Return chicken to the Dutch oven.
- Place into oven and bake until potatoes are tender and chicken has completely cooked through, reaching an internal temperature of 175 degrees F, about 40-45 minutes.
- Stir in heavy cream; season with salt and pepper, to taste.
- Serve immediately.
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Do you cover it when you put it in the oven
Made as written. This is a fantastic recipe. Absolutely delicious, wonderful for a cool evening. Even better the next day! Will make this again and again.
Wow!! Made this for family as we were together watching Presidential debate 2024…. everyone raved and gobbled to the last drop.
A keeper for sure!
Absolutely delicious. Easy to follow. Perfect!!
Perfect one-pot comfort food! I used skinless boneless chicken thighs and a mixture of 1 shallot and 1 small yellow onion – because thats what I had. I also read the comments before making and I made a few adjustments to keep it from being “too soupy.” I added an additional tablespoon of flour, bumped up the white wine to 1 cup (I love a winey tasting sauce), reduced the chicken stock to 1 cup, added 2 tablespoons of dijon mustard (for a kick), and didn’t end up adding cream at all – it didn’t need it! I also decided to keep the potatoes out of the mix and made mashed potatoes instead. Because of this, I didn’t put it in the oven and instead let it simmer covered (but with the lid cracked) on the stovetop for 3o min. Yielded a beautiful gravy-like sauce and perfectly tender, juicy chicken thighs. Will be making again!
This looks fabulous. I’m wondering if it would freeze well. Not sure how the potatoes would do
So, so good! I’m sending the recipe link to all my friends.
We absolutely love your French chicken casserole thank you
Can I use bone broth if I don’t have stock?
instead if wine I would probably use chicken broth and instead of heavy cream, cream of mushroom soup would be great!
This dish is even better than advertised!
I’ve already been told that I will be making this again.
I think that I’ll use drumsticks next time.
Made this tonight for the 1st time. I was brave enough to invite friends for dinner, everyone loved it.
I will definitely make this again. I found I needed to bump up the temperature to 350, and cooked for about an hour.
I made it with chicken breasts and they just fell apart.
Beautiful fish. My husband was transported back to France.
Amazing dinner! All my kids loved it. Definitely keeping for my rotation.
This was the bomb in flavor!! Added carrots, too
I loved this! I subbed Bella mushrooms for Creminis b/c I live in a limited mushroom area. This dish was fantastic. Mushed up the potatoes and ladled on the soupy goodness. We baked French bread that we dipped in the flavor soup bomb and delighted in it’s deliciousness. Your recipes never disappoint.
What amount of dried thyme and dried rosemary should I use as a substitute for the fresh sprigs?
Can this be frozen?
This was excellent. I omitted the mushrooms which I don’t care for. I let it go another 15 minutes and the chicken and potatoes were cooked perfectly. The gravy this made was delicious.
Outstanding recipe ! Would be proud to serve for a dinner party!! I added some carrots that I cooked separately and stirred in for color. Also used boneless thighs. They were perfect. Served over biscuits. It was snowing and it just seemed like the right thing to do! LOL. Leftovers were a hit as well – gravy flavors just got better!!