Skillet Chicken Thighs in Creamy Mushroom Pan Sauce are amazing in flavor and taste thanks to dry white wine and the juice of a fresh lemon. Creamy gourmet style pan sauce is silky smooth and yes, everything is made from scratch. Serve these chicken thighs over pasta, rice or pour the sauce over mashed potatoes!
Why use skinless & boneless chicken thighs
I used skinless and boneless chicken thighs in this chicken skillet recipe because they are the most flavorful part of the chicken. A boneless chicken thigh gives you the same ease of cooking as a boneless chicken breast and less of a chance of drying out.
Besides, chicken thighs are very juicy and tender and I personally prefer the darker color of a chicken thigh flesh for this recipe.
Recipe basics
- VERSATILE RECIPE. Every part of this recipe for perfect pan seared boneless skinless chicken thighs with pan sauce is versatile; you can always add pasta, mashed potatoes or swap out ingredients in the pan sauce!
- BASIC, YET ELEGANT. What I love about this chicken thighs skillet recipe is that it’s basic enough to work into a weekly meal plan, but elegant and exciting enough to serve to company or to keep you from getting bored.
- TENDER CHICKEN. Using boneless and skinless chicken thigh produces the most tender result.
- FRESH HERBS. The combination of fresh herbs, white wine, chicken stock, and butter makes for a gourmet pan sauce that’s surprisingly easy.
Chicken thighs cooking TIPS
- REMOVE ANY EXCESS FAT from chicken thighs. You can trim it off with a knife.
- For best result, THINLY SLICE the mushrooms.
- Use BEEF BROTH as it will make the sauce have that RICH DARK COLOR.
- CHICKEN THIGH LEFTOVERS are wonderful to use in different recipes that require cooked chicken, such as in this Ultimate Green Bean Chicken Casserole in a Skillet.
Mushroom sauce basics
A lot of times mushroom sauces can be quite bland, but the white wine, lemon and beef broth combination makes this one so delicious! This is one of the most amazing gourmet style sauces you will ever make. It is also one of the easiest ones!
This creamy mushroom sauce is made completely from scratch, using:
- FRESH MUSHROOMS. You won’t find any canned cream of mushroom soup in this chicken thighs recipe or anywhere else on this site.
- DRY WHITE WINE. I used Pinot Grigio to make the mushroom sauce and I do not recommend using cooking wine. Real wine only.
- BEEF BROTH will give the sauce this nice dark color. I always use sodium free broths so that I can control amount of sodium used. If you bought a broth that is not sodium free, make sure to adjust salt.
- LEMON JUICE. I used fresh lemon for the lemon juice here. I just squeezed the juice out of it straight into the pan. The sauce was just slightly lemony, which is what I liked. However, if you want a more lemony taste, squeeze a bit more lemon and don’t forget to adjust the seasoning! Lemon does change the taste to the point where more seasoning might be necessary.
- DRIED HERBS. You can use many other dried herbs here – or a combination of them, such as Italian seasoning.
To make the sauce gluten free
Since flour is used to thicken the sauce, if you are gluten-free, substitute wheat flour with either RICE or CORN FLOUR.
ALMOND FLOUR or COCONUT FLOUR are two other excellent choices.
What skillet to use
CAST IRON SKILLET. Make sure to use a large heavy skillet here to make these creamy chicken thighs, such as cast iron. I used 12 inch Lodge Pro-Logic Seasoned Cast Iron Skillet – it’s well designed, has a helper handle and sloped sides – very sleek looking for cast iron!
TIPS on making the sauce clump free
- SMOOTH SAUCE BASICS. To prevent clumping, you need to separate the granules before adding them to the sauce so that they can slowly disperse and expand to create the desired smoothness. That’s when that sifter comes in very handy!
- HAVE SOME FATS IN THE PAN before adding flour — either pan drippings or butter. This way flour is slowly cooked on its own in fat before it is added to the sauce. The fat helps the starch to expand and separate so it can be smoothly incorporated into the liquid. This also eliminates eliminates the unpleasant raw-flour taste. You don’t want that taste with your chicken thighs.
- USE SMALL SIFTER OR STRAINER when adding flour to the pan. I always use a small sifter or this stainless steel strainer to prevent clumps. As I mentioned above, make sure that the pan has some type of fat in it, such as oil or butter. And ONLY THEN proceed to sift the flour into the pan very slowly and at the same time stir the flour in the the fat with a wooden spoon.
- CLUMP FREE SAUCE. I only once had a problem with flour clumping and it was when I added it all at once and without sifting. If the sauce appears to be too thin, I bring my sifter back in and add about half a tablespoon of flour to thicken it up again. Always works!
- REDUCE THE HEAT. It also helps to reduce heat when adding any thickening agent. What happens is that starch around each lump of flour expands rapidly when it comes into contact with hot liquid and it forms a waterproof gel that prevents the granules from separating properly.
To summarize, to make silky smooth MUSHROOM SAUCE you will need to reduce the heat, make sure there are fats in the pan, use a sifter or a strainer.
What can I use instead of chicken thighs?
BONE-IN SKIN ON CHICKEN THIGHS. If you can’t find boneless and skinless chicken thighs, you can definitely substitute them with bone-in chicken thighs. But because of the bone the cooking time will be longer and I do recommend baking them for 25-30 minutes at 375 F to make sure they cook through.
How about CHICKEN BREASTS? I don’t think chicken breasts will be an equivalent substitute for boneless chicken thighs because they are MUCH LEANER and have different texture than thighs. However, CHICKEN TENDERS might be a great option.
If you enjoy making delicious sauces, you might also like
Pork Chops in Creamy Garlic and Herb Sauce
Chicken and Potatoes in Creamy Dijon Mustard Sauce
Chicken in Mustard and Wine Sauce
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Our new favorite pan seared chicken recipe is this Pan Seared Parmesan Crusted Chicken! It’s so unbelievably easy to make that I cannot recommend it enough:
Skillet Chicken Thighs in Creamy Mushroom Pan Sauce
Ingredients
Chicken:
- 6 chicken thighs, skinless and boneless
- salt and pepper
Mushroom Sauce:
- 4 tablespoon butter, (divided)
- 10 oz mushrooms, sliced
- 2 tablespoon flour, (wheat or rice)
- ½ cup dry white wine
- 1 cup beef broth, sodium free
- 2 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ⅛ teaspoon black pepper, to taste
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme , (can also use Italian seasoning)
- fresh thyme leaves, for garnish
Instructions
Cooking Chicken:
- Season both sides of chicken thighs with salt and pepper.
- Add 2 tablespoons of butter to hot skillet and melt over medium high heat. Add seasoned chicken thighs and cook on medium high heat for 4 minutes. Slightly reduce the heat and flip them over and cook for additional 4-5 minutes, for a total of 8-10 minutes. Remove from skillet.
Mushroom Sauce:
- To the now empty skillet add 2 more tablespoons butter, sliced mushrooms and cook on medium heat until lightly browned, 4-5 minutes. Remove mushrooms from skillet onto the same plate with chicken.
- Reduce the heat. To the once again empty skillet, slowly sift in 2 tablespoons flour and mix it with the fats in the pan with a whisk or fork. Cook flour for 1-2 minutes.
- Next slowly pour ½ cup of wine. Make sure flour and wine are well incorporated and simmered for about 2 minutes to eliminate raw-flour taste and concentrate wine flavor.
- Increase the heat and add beef broth (beef broth will make sauce dark) and lemon juice (I squeezed the juice straight into the pan). Whisk or mix everything in together.
- Reduce the heat and add salt, pepper and onion & garlic powders. Sauce should be bubbling. Taste to see if more seasoning is required.
Putting it all together:
- Add chicken and mushrooms back to the pan, spreading some mushrooms on top of the chicken. Cover with lid and simmer for 2-3 minutes to reheat the chicken and mushrooms.
To Serve:
- Serve with vegetables, rice or over pasta.
Nutritional information is provided as a courtesy only. This information comes from online calculators. Although whatsinthepan.com attempts to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures are only estimates.
what do you think about chopped scallions greens in the sauce right before plating?
I think positively about chopped green tops of scallions.
I had the ingredients other than I use red wine for the white wine, On a scale I would give it a solid 7 however next time I make it I will not use Thyme but basil or oregano. The Thyme is one seasoning I use very little of as I do not like the flavor of it. I am not a fan of certain herbs in general. I also would be using fresh garlic and not powdered the next time I make it.
Thank you Marie for your excellent detailed review! I prefer fresh garlic as well.
OH MY! So good! I used a Savingnon Blanc for the wine and it was definitely a delicious meal! Thank you so much for the recipe!
Thank you Karla- your comment made my day!
I used Sauv Blanc too! So good!!
This is a delicious recipe for chicken thighs and easy to prepare I had an admirable dinner ready to serve within an hour! Not bad for a Tuesday night! Served over mashed potatoes and fresh green beans.
Sounds like a solid dinner combination!
This is an easy, good tasty recipe. I followed it exactly except went for the gluten free option of corn starch. I did cook the chicken thighs a bit more once put back in the pan with the mushrooms.
Delicious – we added half a cup of heavy cream with the beef stock for a creamy delicious sauce! Thanks so much!
May I add sliced carrots and peas to the pan with the mushrooms? Will it affect anything negatively? Thanks!
Are you talking about canned carrots and peas? If that’s so, then it will be really good in this.
Can you use something besides wine?
You can use chicken stock only, and/or add a couple of teaspoons of vinegar.
How is there 40g of fat per serving in this recipe? That doesn’t feel right as the only fat is from the butter and chicken, but it wouldn’t be that much. Either way, excited to make this tonight!
Why do you think 40 g of fat per serving is too much? It’s about 50% of our daily requirement and this is a sizable dinner portion. Are you thinking that it’s 40 g of saturated fat? If you look at the next number, only 15 g. of it is saturated, not the entire 40 g. You should only be concerned with eating 40 g of saturated fat per meal, which is not the case here. I hope that helps alleviate your concerns!