Chicken in Cream Sauce
An easy, delicious, low carb chicken main course
Servings 3 servings
Ingredients
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 6 bone in, skin on chicken thighs
- 2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 tablespoon shallot, minced small
- 3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced (or grated with a microplane)
- juice of half a lemon
- 10 fresh thyme sprigs, separated
- ½ cup good quality chicken broth
- 1/4-1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes (depending on hot much heat you want)
- ½ cup heavy whipping cream
optional garnish
- 2 tablespoons chopped parsley
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees and place oven rack in center position
- Heat a large skillet, preferably cast iron on medium high heat for two minutes. . While pan heats, place first five ingredients (dried spices) in a small bowl and stir until combined. Rub both sides of chicken thighs with spices. Add olive oil to pan, allow to heat for 30 -60 seconds. Add chicken, skin side down to pan and cook for 6-7 minutes, or until chicken is nice and golden. Turn chicken skin side up and place pan in the oven for 20-25 minutes, until thighs are cooked through (internal temp of 165). While chicken is in the oven, prep shallot, garlic, thyme and measure out broth, cream and lemon juice. If you're making rice, pasta, or broccoli, you'll start that while chicken is cooking.
- When chicken is done, remove pan from oven and place chicken thighs on a plate. Place pan back on cooktop on medium heat. Add butter, shallot, garlic, lemon juice, and four thyme sprigs to pan. Allow to cook for one minute using a spatula to scrape chicken bits from bottom of pan.
- Add chicken broth and cream to pan. Bring to a low simmer for five minutes, this will thicken up the sauce a bit. Turn off heat, add chicken thighs to pan, garnish each thigh with remaining thyme sprigs and serve. Pour sauce over rice, pasta or vegetables. (Garnish with parsley if desired)
Notes
The skin on the chicken is intended to be crispy, so I recommend serving the chicken on top of the sauce. If you want to pour sauce over chicken, like a gravy, that's fine too, just know the skin won't be crispy.