Today’s recipe is all about comfort food for me. When I think of comfort food, I think back to my childhood and foods like chicken stuffed with Zup’s famous wild rice stuffing, which always led to chicken dumpling soup a couple days later, tuna casserole, pot roast, or what I’m going to show you today smothered chicken. I think this is one of my favorite recipes my mom used to make. The simplicity of it is just great for a weeknight.
Smothered chicken is chicken sautéed with green peppers and onions just until browned and then finished in the oven with a gravy of cream of chicken or cream of mushroom soup. I think my favorite part of this meal though is eating the wild rice with the gravy. I’m kind of spoiled, I get my wild rice from a friend of my parents who hand harvests it. To those of you who I’ve shipped wild rice to (you know who you are), my sincere apologies that I didn’t share the good stuff, but I need to ration it.
Here’s what you need:
When I make this for myself, I only need one can of soup so I usually have to choose between chicken or mushroom. Not anymore! When I went to the grocery store, I found a can that was half and half – who knew?! It’s probably been around awhile and I’m just late in the game but I hadn’t seen it before so I was super excited.
I made this just for one because my husband doesn’t like anything with gravy or wild rice but it’s very easily expandable based on the size of your skillet. My mom used to cook for a family of four in a large 12 inch skillet. You could also substitute chicken thighs.
Beyond the wild rice, this is a one dish meal, which I really like. It goes right from the stovetop to the oven to finish cooking (as long as you use an oven-safe skillet).
Start by sautéing some peppers and onions in a little bit of olive oil over medium heat until the onions become translucent and both veggies begin to soften.
Pound the chicken just to make it even, then season with a little salt and pepper. Push the veggies to the side and add the chicken to the skillet. Cook on both sides just enough to brown – about 2-3 minutes.
Pour in the canned soup. If you are expanding how many people you are cooking for, I’d use one can per every 2 people or every 2 chicken breasts.
Mix the soup with the peppers and onions and spread over the chicken.
Pop it into a 375 degree oven for about 25 minutes until the chicken reaches 165 degrees. If you don’t pound your chicken as thin as I did or don’t brown it as long it might need a little more time. Use some judgement and a thermometer to make sure it’s done.
The gravy will be nice and bubbly when you pull it out.
Serve over wild rice.
This goes great left over. The only reason I made one chicken breast instead of two and planned leftovers is because that’s all I had left in the freezer to defrost and not having leftovers outweighed running to the store.
- ¼ c green peppers, diced
- ¼ c onion, diced
- Olive oil
- 1 boneless, skinless, chicken breast, pounded to an even thickness
- Salt
- pepper
- 1 can cream of chicken and mushroom soup
- Wild rice, prepared
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
- In a 10 inch oven safe skillet, sauté onions and peppers in a little bit of olive oil over medium high heat for 3-4 minutes until onions are translucent and peppers begin to char a little bit.
- Push onions and peppers to the side and add the chicken. Cook 2-3 minutes on both sides until browned. Pour the soup into the pan and mix with the peppers and onions and cover the chicken.
- Transfer the pan to the oven and bake for 25 minutes or until the chicken is cooked.
- Serve over wild rice.
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