French Chicken Casserole
by Chungah
This post may contain affiliate links. Please see our privacy policy for details.
The coziest, most wholesome meal. With golden brown chicken, tender potatoes, white wine, fresh rosemary + thyme.
Featured Comment
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
Video
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.
Equipment
Did you make this recipe?
Tag @damn_delicious on Instagram and hashtag it #damndelicious!
Do you have nutrition information for this recipe, please?
This dish was amazing! The flavours were so rich. I only had dried herbs and had to make my own heavy cream using butter and milk and it still turned out wonderfully! I will make this again for company for sure. Thanks for the recipe that will become a regular for me.
I can’t wait to try it!! I liked someone’s idea of adding peas to it! Has anyone tried cooking this in the Instant Pot?
Just made this one-pan recipe. I course chopped the shallots and celery. I need to work on my knife skills. But the ingredients and portions were exact. I added sage, rosemary, and thyme and used half and half. this is a pretty inexpensive recipe and I served each serving with a warm mini cornbread loaf with honey butter. And well, the rest of the wine needed to go somewhere:)
I added extra mushrooms and then at the end some peas. So delicious my husband loved it.
This was delicious! I added chunks of carrots with the potatoes and cooked about an hour. This is a keeper!!
Modifications I made for GLUTEN FREE: I used boneless/skinless chicken tenderloins, Corn Starch instead of flour, and GF Fettucini noodles (refrigerated section) instead of potatoes.
Baked for 20 minutes, added noodles for last 5 minutes.
Served with roasted asparagus and garlic cheddar biscuits.
AMAZING flavor!!!
I will do this again!!!!
So damn delicious! Cozy and tender with delicious creaminess!
This was absolutely delicious!! Thank you for this amazing recipe! It was one of my favorite meals I’ve had in a long time. Simple recipe but the flavor was so rich.
This was such a delight!! We have two big hungry teenage boys so I doubled the chicken (boneless, skinless) but only slightly increased the stock, wine etc. I cooked it in the oven for 2 hours and the flavours were delicious and the chicken so tender. We ate this with chunky, sourdough bread. Will definitely be making again. The French flavours were sublime. Phenomenal, thank you for this lovely recipe 😉
You baked the chicken for TWO HOURS!? How was it not bone dry?
This was absolutely outstanding. I will make this again. I only had boneless thighs and breast. Had to use a little more butter and a bit of olive oil since no skin on chicken but it turned out so good. potatoes got done perfectly and only about 1/2 hour since boneless chicken. Did in LeCreuset dutch oven. Left lid on in oven. Added 1/2 and 1/2 as that is what i had and added a few frozen tiny peas last minute to the pot. Big hit! Thank you.
This is a fantastically delicious meal, fun to make and very flavorful. Great with crusty bagette.
I made this and followed instructions and halved the potatoes – but it seems that the cooking time is not enough to get these soft. Would boil for just a bit prior – otherwise you’ll wind up with hard potatos
I had the same issue with the potatoes not being anywhere near soft, but the chicken was done. I see some people are using much longer cooking times..may try that next time.
Fantastic dish! Everyone loved it . I might suggest adding carrots to casserole. The gravy was spectacular!
The combination of flavors in this dish are delicious! Only tweak I would make is to double the sauce . This way have, you have the option of spooning more of the decadent sauce over the chicken and not just the potato.
Omg, that sauce! I made it exactly as written the first time and it was fabulous, but my potatoes didn’t cook through completely. Second time I made it with a couple extra thighs and did mashed potatoes instead. So GOOD. Tonight I am making it again and doing it in my Dutch Oven. So so so yummy
I feel like this is one of those types of recipes that you can use as a perfect base (but yes, halve or quarter the potatoes or just pre-boil them for a few minutes). I have made it twice following the exact instructions and it was absolutely delicious. It’s hearty, French country style flavors. Nothing fussy, nothing that requires lots of prep time, just a great meal that warms your soul. But it’s also great to just use whatever you have in the fridge. Got a 1/2 a lemon from a leftover cocktail? Squeeze it in. Onion but no shallots, totally fine. Sherry but no white wine? Fantastic. No fresh herbs or not the ones called for? Toss in what you have. Like it more soupy or just love the broth? Add a bit more liquid or cut out some flour. Have some mashed potatoes? Leave out the baby potatoes and serve with your mashed. Got some leaks leftover from a roast? Perfect. This recipe is a crowd pleaser on its own but it’s a great one to play around with
I made this and it was delicious. We had something come up so I had to refrigerate everything before putting it in the oven, but it didn’t seem to effect the dish at all. A new favorite.
After reading the reviews, I decided to give this dish a try, following the recipe exactly. I did this because I’ve been a cook since I was a kid (I’m now 71) and I was curious about the sauce because the ingredients didn’t look to me like it would be as heavenly as so many reviewers had mentioned. And, for me, it wasn’t heavenly. It was bland. After eating one serving, I went back to the pan and went to work on the sauce: I added the juice of half a lemon, more salt, about a tsp or more of dried thyme, and none of those did much to deepen the flavors until I added about 1/8 c. dry cooking sherry. The sherry finally kicked the sauce up to a level that satisfied my taste and which I’d be comfortable serving to guests.
As with others, the potatoes didn’t fully cook within the 40-45 minute time frame. I let the dish cook in the oven for an extra 15 minutes and the potatoes were edible but still not entirely done. I regretted not following a comment by another reviewer to fry the chicken longer in the first step to give it a crunch. The sauce was also runny, which made the chicken skin too moist. I don’t mind runny sauces, but since flour is added early on to thicken the sauce, it’s pretty clear that 3 tblsp. isn’t enough for this dish. Next time I’ll add another tblsp. of flour, or swap it with corn starch.
I plan to let it settle in the refrigerator tonight and reheat it on a low oven (170°F) tomorrow to see if I can get the potatoes to a better consistency and to find out how the sauce tastes after it’s rested.
All-in-all, a decent dish, but not a stellar dish as written. Or maybe I missed something. I’m not sure why my effort didn’t turn out as happily for me as this recipe has for others. But it was worth giving it a try.
Seriously delicious!
I only had 4 thighs and worked with what I had (instead of cream, a dash of cashew milk / dry herbs instead of fresh / quartered red potatoes). Next time I might try adding cauliflower and carrot chunks to get the most out of that amazing sauce!
Thanks so much 🙂
This recipe was even tastier than I thought it would be. I used a whole chicken in pieces just because it was what I had on hand. I also had to substitute fresh thyme for dried. Otherwise I followed the recipe step by step and it really came out great. Definitely making this again.