This low-carb Creamy Parmesan Garlic Mushroom Chicken dish features chicken in a creamy sauce loaded with mushrooms, garlic, spinach, and sundried tomatoes.
This Creamy Parmesan Garlic Mushroom Chicken is as comforting as a hug, and it's absolutely perfect for a cold winter day.
Try it when you're sick of cold weather and ready for spring, or when the holiday season has morphed into an overload of gifts to buy, events to attend, lists to check off. Maybe make yourself an Oat Milk Hot Chocolate or Vin Chaud too?
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Why Make This Recipe
- Creamy and Delicious: Did I mention the creamy, mushroom-y, cheesy sauce? So. Darn. Good.
- Nutrient-Rich: Yes, this is comfort food, but this comfort food includes lean chicken breasts, mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes, and spinach. A lot healthier than a pot of mac n' cheese!
- Low-Carb: This dish is gluten-free and low-carb. Great if you're trying to reduce the carbs in your life!
🥗 Ingredients for Creamy Parmesan Mushroom Chicken
- Mushrooms: This recipe calls for white button or cremini mushrooms, but since the mushrooms are cooked on their own first, you can replace with shiitakes or portobellos, or whatever mushrooms you prefer.
- Fresh Spinach: Feel free to substitute arugula or baby kale, or any green that cooks relatively quickly. Or, swap in thawed frozen spinach—just make sure to squeeze out any extra liquid.
- Heavy Cream: I will grant you that this is not a low-calorie dish. You can replace the heavy cream with half-and-half or whole milk, but you will not get the same creamy texture. Check out Expert Tips for a suggestion.
- Chicken: I recommend chicken breasts for this recipe, but you could also use boneless chicken thighs.
- Shallot: You can replace this with chopped white onion, yellow onion, or red onion.
🥣 Step-by-Step Instructions
Heat 2 T. olive oil in a 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Sprinkle 1 ⅓ pounds of boneless, skinless chicken cutlets with salt and pepper and place in pan without overlapping.
Cook until bottom of chicken cutlets are browned, about 4-5 minutes. Then turn over and cook for another 3 minutes until browned and cooked through.
Add another tablespoon of olive oil, then add 8 ounces of sliced white button or cremini mushrooms and one chopped shallot. Season with salt and pepper.
Cook until mushrooms release their moisture and start to brown, stirring occasionally, about 4-5 minutes. Add 3 minced garlic cloves and cook for another minute.
Then add ¼ cup of white wine and cook until it evaporates. Now add 7 ounces of heavy cream, ½ cup chicken broth, ½ cup grated parmesan cheese, and ⅓ cup chopped sun-dried tomatoes. Cook until sauce thickens, about 3-5 minutes.
Add 2 cups of baby spinach and cook until wilted, about 1 minute. Add chicken back to the sauce to warm up. Sprinkle with additional grated parmesan to serve.
🧐 Recipe FAQs
Personally, I would not recommend freezing this dish. Cream has a tendency to separate when it is frozen and then thawed. Given the amount of cream in this sauce, I don’t think it would take well to freezing and then reheating. However, leftovers can be put into an airtight container and refrigerated for 3-4 days.
Yes! This creamy chicken mushroom recipe is low in carbs, and uses full fat heavy cream. Just make sure to serve it by itself or with something else that fits the keto diet, such as zucchini noodles or a green salad.
👩🍳 Expert Tips
If your chicken cutlets don’t fit in your pan without overlapping, cook half at one time and repeat. (If you crowd the chicken into the skillet, the cutlets will steam and will not brown.)
Buying good-quality parmesan cheese in a block and grating it yourself will give you better flavor, and the parmesan cheese will melt easily into to the creamy, garlicky sauce. Pre-grated cheese will often not melt as well, because it is made to sprinkle on top of a dish. Put your shredding disk onto your Cuisinart and you can grate your parm in seconds!
If you're trying to make a lower-fat version of this dish, you may be tempted to avoid the heavy cream. However, on their own, half-and-half and milk do not thicken the way heavy cream does when cooked. If you want to replace the cream, you can thicken your sauce using cornstarch. Make a paste from 1 tablespoon cornstarch mixed with 1 tablespoon half-and-half, then whisk into the pan while your sauce is cooking.
Want to make this dish extra decadent? Roast a head of garlic and squeeze the caramelized cloves into the sauce. See my How to Roast Garlic recipe to find out how.
What Should I Serve with Creamy Parmesan Mushroom Chicken?
This dish is delicious with all sorts of sides. This recipe is gluten-free and low-carb, so should you want to stay with that theme for your meal, I’d encourage you to serve it with a side of simple steamed vegetables or some lightly sautéed zoodles.
If carb consumption is not a concern for you, this creamy chicken mushroom recipe goes beautifully on a bed of rice or pasta, or with some thick slices of garlic bread. A bright salad on the side like my Kale Salad with Cranberries or my Pear Gorgonzola Salad would be delicious as well.
Other Delicious Comfort Food Meals
Looking for more warming meals to cozy up to? This Chicken Bacon Ranch Pasta can be made in 30 minutes, and is flavor-packed! Or how about trying one of these:
If you try this Creamy Mushroom Chicken recipe, I would love to hear from you! Leave a comment below—I read them all, and your feedback is invaluable to me.
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📖 Recipe
Creamy Parmesan Garlic Mushroom Chicken
This low-carb Creamy Parmesan Garlic Mushroom Chicken dish features chicken in a creamy sauce loaded with mushrooms, garlic, spinach, and sundried tomatoes. Comfort food at its finest!
Ingredients
- 8 ounces button mushrooms
- 1 shallot
- 3 garlic cloves
- ⅓ cup sun-dried tomatoes
- 3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
- 1 ⅓ pounds boneless, skinless chicken breast cutlets
- ¼ cup white wine
- 7 ounces heavy cream
- ½ cup chicken broth
- ½ cup grated parmesan cheese, plus more for garnish
- 2 cups baby spinach
- kosher salt
- freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Wipe mushrooms with a damp paper towel to remove any dirt. Slice into ¼-inch thick slices.
- Chop shallot (you should end up with about 1.5 tablespoons) and mince garlic cloves.
- Slice or chop sun-dried tomatoes into small pieces.
- Heat 2 T. olive oil in a 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.
- Sprinkle chicken cutlets with salt and pepper and place in pan without overlapping. If they don’t fit in the pan without overlapping, cook half at one time and repeat. (If you crowd the chicken into the skillet, the cutlets will not brown.)
- Cook until bottom is browned, about 4-5 minutes.
- Then turn over and cook for another 3 minutes until browned and cooked through. Test with an instant-read thermometer—the internal temperature should read 165 Fahrenheit or 74 degrees Celsius.
- Remove from pan and put on a plate while you cook the mushrooms.
- Add another tablespoon of olive oil, then mushrooms and shallots.
- Season with salt and pepper.
- Cook until mushrooms release their moisture and start to brown, stirring occasionally, about 4-5 minutes.
- Add garlic and cook for 1 minute.
- Add wine and cook until it evaporates.
- Add cream, chicken broth, parmesan cheese, and sun-dried tomatoes and cook until sauce is thickened, about 3-5 minutes.
- Add spinach and cook until wilted, about 1 minute.
- Add chicken back to the sauce to warm up.
- Sprinkle with additional grated parmesan to serve.
Notes
Make-Ahead Notes:
This dish will last for 3-4 days in the refrigerator in an airtight container. I don't recommend freezing it, as the cream sauce will separate when defrosted.
Expert Tips:
If you don’t have thin-sliced chicken cutlets, you can make them yourself by horizontally slicing regular chicken breasts in half.
Buying good-quality parmesan cheese in a block and grating it yourself will give you better flavor, and the parmesan cheese will melt easily into your sauce. Pre-grated cheese will often not melt as well, because it is made to sprinkle on top of a dish. Put your shredding disk onto your Cuisinart and you can grate your parm in seconds!
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 4 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 625Total Fat: 38gSaturated Fat: 17gTrans Fat: 1gUnsaturated Fat: 18gCholesterol: 199mgSodium: 566mgCarbohydrates: 13gFiber: 3gSugar: 6gProtein: 55g
Nutrition information is provided as a general reference for users courtesy of the online nutrition calculator Nutritionix.
Instagram Users: Now that you've made this recipe, tag me @vanillabeancuisine or #vanillabeancuisine because I'd love to see your results!
More About Molly
Cooking healthy(ish) meals with seasonal ingredients is my passion. Trained as a French pastry chef, I spent over 10 years as a personal chef. Here you'll find well-tested recipes that you and your family will love!
Mimi Rippee says
Definitely a comfort dish for me as well. Great flavors!
Molly Pisula says
Thank you! Love anything with cream and mushrooms!
Jeff the Chef says
This sounds like a lovely dish. It certainly does sound cozy. I also love your photos. I love the angle, and I really love that frying pan that you used. What kind of frying pan is that?
Chef Molly says
Thanks so much! My pan is a French brand called Durand Dupont--they are aluminum and nonstick. They came with the apartment we're renting here in Paris, and I quite like them! Quite inexpensive as well.