Creamy Garlic Mushroom Chicken Breast
This is a proper date-night dinner without needing much more than one pan and an oven. Chicken breast stuffed with garlicky mushrooms, bocconcini and parmesan, seared for a good crust, then roasted and finished with a rich garlic cream sauce.
The key is sealing the pocket properly and searing it hard before it goes in the oven — that’s what keeps the filling in and gives you a good crust rather than a pale, steamed piece of chicken. The sauce comes together in the same pan while the chicken rests, using the reserved mushrooms and all those pan juices.
It looks like a restaurant dish but it’s really just a few straightforward steps done in the right order. Serve it with a simple salad and you’ve got a proper meal for two.
Creamy Garlic Mushroom Chicken Breast
CHICKEN · DINNER · MEDIUM
Restaurant-Style Chicken Without the Fuss
Stuffing chicken breast sounds fancy but it's really just a pocket, a filling and a couple of toothpicks. The searing step is what makes it look and taste like something off a restaurant menu.
Nothing goes to waste here — the mushrooms you hold back and the juices from searing the chicken both go straight into the sauce, so you get maximum flavour out of the one pan.
It's rich enough to feel like a proper occasion meal but the whole thing is done in under an hour, most of which is hands-off resting and roasting time.
Creamy Garlic Mushroom & Cheese Stuffed Chicken Breast
Ingredients
Mushrooms
- 42 g Unsalted Butter
- 200 g Swiss Brown (Cremini) Mushrooms Sliced
- 2 Garlic Cloves Minced
- 5 g Flat Leaf Parsley Chopped
- 3 Thyme Sprigs Picked & Chopped
- Salt & Pepper To Taste
Chicken
- 2 Chicken Breast Slit Through The Side
- 2 g Onion Powder
- 3 g Garlic Salt
- 3 Bocconcini Balls Sliced
- Parmesan Cheese Grated
- Salt & Pepper To Taste
Creamy Garlic Sauce
- 28 g Unsalted Butter
- 15 ml Olive Oil
- 4 Garlic Cloves Minced
- 300 ml Thickened Cream
- 5 g Flat Leaf Parsley Chopped
- Salt & Pepper To Taste
Method
- Preheat oven to 190°C (375°F).
- Melt the clarified butter in a large ovenproof pan over medium heat, add the minced garlic, and sauté for 1 minute or until fragrant. Add the mushrooms and seasoning to taste, and continue to sauté for 5-6 minutes or until soft and golden. Add the flat-leaf parsley, mix through, and remove from the heat.
- Season the prepared chicken breasts with onion powder, garlic salt and cracked black pepper, and rub to coat.
- Place the sliced bocconcini into the slit of the breast, and divide the mushroom mix between the two breasts, reserving some mushrooms and the juices for the sauce in a bowl. Grate over parmesan cheese to your taste to cover the slit in the breast, then seal the chicken using toothpicks or skewers.
- Set the pan used to cook the mushrooms back over high heat (make sure the mushrooms have been removed and the pan is empty). Add the olive oil and sear the stuffed breasts for 3 minutes on each side until golden.
- Place the pan into the oven and roast for 13 minutes or until cooked through and reaching an internal temperature of 74°C (165°F). Remove from the oven and allow to rest for 10 minutes.
- In the meantime, place a pan over medium heat. Add the clarified butter and allow it to melt. Add the garlic, reserved mushrooms and juices, and sauté for 1 minute. Pour in the thickened cream, season to taste, and bring to a simmer. Once simmering, continue for 7 minutes or until reduced and thick, stirring frequently.
- Add the roughly chopped flat-leaf parsley, the pan juices from the chicken, and parmesan cheese, and check for seasoning. Stir to combine and melt the cheese, then remove from the stovetop.
- Remove the toothpicks or skewers from the chicken breast, place onto a plate, pour over the mushroom sauce, and serve alongside a salad of your choice. Dig in.
