Caramelized Onion Cream Sauce with Chicken
Creamy (quick) caramelized onion sauce with spiced chicken breast. A flavor packed and comforting dinner recipe that needs just 35 mins to make, start to finish. You will love the flavors!
Treat yourself to this delicious chicken dinner of creamy quick caramelized onion cream sauce with spiced chicken breast. In this recipe, chicken breast cooks juicy and moist perfection, and cream sauce develops bold flavor as if it is cooked low and slow for hours! Sharing easy tips and pantry staple ingredients to make bold and delicious Chicken Dinner in just 35 minutes. Gluten free. Keto. Low Carb.
Serve with pasta and you have a restaurant quality dinner for 4 or go low carb and serve a salad on the side.
Let's get started!
Caramelized Onion Cream Sauce Chicken
This creamy chicken is our favorite comfy winter night dinner. The recipe is inspired from another family favorite, creamy mushroom sauce with chicken.
I first shared this recipe, on the blog, 8 years ago. (including old picture from the archive) Since then, this recipe and my style of cooking has come a long way. But we still enjoy this comforting chicken dinner during chili winter days.
So I decide to updated instructions, and add more photos to share this recipe with you again.
What Do You Need For Onion Cream Sauce Chicken?
The ingredients to make this recipe are easy to find in pantry-staples. I have also included few substitutes at the end of the post.
Here is what you need:
- Chicken Breast
- White Onion
- Garlic
- Olive Oil
- Chicken Stock
- Cumin
- Paprika
- Oregano
- Cream
- Worcestershire Sauce
- Salt and Pepper
Quick Caramelized Onion
The heart of this chicken dish is cream sauce prepared with quick Caramelized Onion. In this recipe, I have shared how to caramelize onions quickly (in just 8-10 minutes) and are still sweet loaded with flavor.
To quickly caramelize onions,
- I sauté inions in same pan in which I first cook the chicken. This way onions pick a caramelized color and flavor from the flavor bits of chicken release while pan searing it.
- I also use two little ingredients to help caramelize onions better. i.e. sugar, salt, and Worcestershire sauce. You will be surprised, how only a 1/4 of tsp sugar and salt helps onion sweat quickly and caramelize faster.
- I mix in Worcestershire sauce at the end to give onion a depth flavor as if these were slow cooked for an hour where it just takes 8-10 minutes to get caramelized onion perfectly sweet and delicious.
Onion onions are caramelized, heavy cream and chicken stock makes an onion creamy sauce for chicken that is simply irresistible. I only ask to use good quality and low sodium chicken stock. Since sodium in stocks can vary. Please always adjust salt once sauce is ready. Thank you for listing to me.
Marinade for Chicken Breast
For extra boost of flavor, I marinated the chicken in garlic and spices (instead of using just salt and pepper). Marinade will help chicken adsorb a lot of flavor and that really enhances the overall flavor.
While searing chicken, make sure to reserve the juices collected at the bottom of pan. These juices drizzled over cream sauce take dish to whole new level.
Every spoonful of the cream sauce with chicken is a flavor-party in mouth. You can also make onion cream sauce more substantial by adding additional veggies such as mushroom or spinach. I often add button or cremini mushrooms to the sauce. Sauté these after searing chicken, take out in plate with chicken. Add back in the same time when adding the chicken to cook with the sauce.
Picture from archive:
Here is a picture from 8 year old recipe. At that time, I cooked chicken thighs and garnished with chives. You can use chives, any fresh herbs or scallion for garnish.
Make A complete Meal
For a complete meal, serve sauce with chicken over pasta. For a low carb meal, pair with green salad or cauliflower rice.
Substitutes
- For lite sauce, replace heavy cream with half and half.
- Incase of not using chicken stock, use vegetable stock or use half bouillon cube mixed with 1 cup of hot water.
- You can also cook chicken thighs instead of chicken breast. Thighs cook even more moist and juicier.
Tips for Success
- If in hurry, loosely cover chicken breasts in parchment paper and then pound gently with back of a heavy bottom pan or meat pounder until breasts are about 1/4 inch thick. This tenderizes the chicken and also makes it super quick to cook. (just 2-3 minutes per side)
- You don’t need a lot of oil to sear chicken as there is oil in marinade as well. While cooking chicken, make sure not to press chicken with spatula because that will release all good juices and chicken will end up being dry.
- Don't wipe skillet after searing chicken. This is the flavor base for quick caramelized onions.
- Don't worry about the bits of chicken marinade stuck to the bottom of the skillet. These will come off once deglazed with white wine.
Friends, serve something different for the dinner tonight. This cozy delicious cream sauce with chicken is bursting with flavor. You will forget you are dinning-in! I know you will love the flavors as otherwise it wouldn't have been my family's favorite for years.
Happy Cooking! -Savita x
Pairing Ideas:
Caramelized Onion Cream Sauce with Chicken
(12 reviews)
Ingredients
Chicken MarinadeDirections
- 1. Marinate Chicken: In a bowl, and mix all ingredients for Chicken Marinade except chicken to make a marinade. Add chicken breasts to the bowl with marinate. Use tong to coat chicken in marinade. Cover and let marinate for at-least 30 minutes (up-to overnight).
- 2. Sear Chicken: Heat 2 tsp oil in a wide heavy bottom skillet. Once skillet is very hot, place marinated chicken breasts in the skillet in one single layer. Once bottom side is no longer pink and is golden caramelized (in about 2-3 minutes), flip chicken top side down to sear other side. See Note 4.
- 3. Quick Caramelize Onions: Transfer cooked chicken into a plate and set aside. In now empty skillet (heat on, don't clean skillet), add remaining olive oil. Add sliced onions, sugar with a pinch of salt and pepper. Cook stirring 2-3 times until onions are slightly caramelized. (about 8 minutes). Stir in Worcestershire sauce in last one minute.
- 4. Deglaze with White Wine: Once Onion are soft and slightly caramelized, these will pick all chicken flavor from the skillet. Add white wine, stir to loosen bits of chicken marinade attached to the skillet, and cook until liquid is reduced to half. (2-3 minutes)
- 5. Cook Onion Cream Sauce: Add chicken stock, cream. Mix with onions. Return seared chicken along with juices on to the top of the onion-cream mixture. Cover pan with lid and simmer on medium heat for 8-10 minutes or until chicken is fully cooked and sauce has thickened.
- 6. Adjust Seasonings and Serve: Taste and adjust salt or pepper. Serve chicken pieces on the bed of caramelized onions cream sauce. Garnish with fresh herbs. Pasta or a crunch salad works great on side.
Savita's Notes:
- Reheating - Cream sauce tends to thicken-up as it sits in refrigerator. If not serving immediately, add some low-sodium chicken stock while reheating.
- If in hurry, I loosely cover chicken breasts in parchment paper and then pound gently with back of a heavy bottom pan or meat pounder until breasts are about 1/4 inch thick. This tenderizes the chicken and also makes it super quick to cook (just 2-3 minutes per side)
- You will not need a lot of oil to sear chicken as there is oil in marinade as well. While cooking chicken, make sure not to press chicken with spatula because that will release all good juices and chicken will end up being dry.
- Add Mushrooms or Spinach - Make sauce more substantial by adding additional veggies such as mushroom or spinach. I often add button or cremini mushrooms to the sauce. Sauté these after searing chicken, take out in plate with chicken. Add back in the same time when adding the chicken.
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13 Responses
Joe
Didnt the marinade used to contain orange juice and sambal?Than Koa
This looks very delicious. Can’t wait to try.Jessica Stroup
Thank you so much for this! We needed to change up our chicken recipes badly! This was simple to make and crazy delicious!Ana F.
This recipe is bursting with flavors and my hubby loved it! Hes asking for me to make it again lol! Cant wait to have this chicken with caramelized onion sauce!Natalie
Oh yum... what a delicious dinner idea. I never used caramelized onion in a creamy sauce chicken. Have to give this a try.Carrie Robinson
That sauce sounds absolutely amazing! :) Adding this to my weekly dinner plan asap.Maria San Juan
Yummy! I would love to try this! Thanks for sharing!Heather Johnson
this sauce is heavenly!!!!! i want to eat it every day - so delicious!!!!Dannii
We are always looking for new ways to cook chicken and this sauce looks amazing. I love caramelised onions.Savita
Ditto! Caramelized onions are the flavor for this recipe and make a very delicious creamy sauce for chicken. Must try!Gloria
You can never go wrong with a great chicken dinner. This cream sauce looks and sounds delicious. The perfect topping to meat and potatoes.Toni
This is such an amazing meal!! Everyone at my house loves cream sauce for dinner. This will be a hit!Heidy
This caramelized onion sauce with spiced chicken was outstanding. I made it for girls night, and all of us loved it! Great recipe-worth making again! Happy Holidays!