Chicken Fricassee Recipe
Published August 21, 2024. This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy.
This delicious, easy-to-make Chicken Fricassee recipe is the perfect 1-pan meal to serve to family or friends during the week or weekends. You will love the creamy mushroom sauce that goes with the chicken.
We are huge chicken fans in our house and like to keep things simple, like my Chicken Paprikash or Teriyaki Chicken. If you’re the same, then this one’s for you.
Chicken Fricassee
Chicken fricassee is a classic French dish usually made with chicken sautéed in butter and stewed with vegetables. It can also be a verb, so you can “fricassee” something such as beef or pork.
The word fricassee comes from the French word fry and is said to have been created in the 16th century. It was created based on what was available and what people could afford. It’s the quintessential peasant food recipe.
While it is a hearty dish, chicken fricassee is a great meal for all year. If you’re looking to perfect and hone your cooking skills, you’ll get to sauté and braise in this dish.
Ingredients and Substitutions
- Chicken – I fabricated a whole roasting chicken into breasts, thighs, and drums. You can use any combination of cuts or just one singular cut.
- Butter – I always use unsalted butter in my cooking and baking so that I can control the sodium content instead of a butter company.
- Onions — White, yellow, or red pearl onions will work for this dish. Substitute regular peeled and medium diced red, yellow, white, or sweet onions. In addition, you will need some whole garlic cloves.
- Mushrooms — Any wild mushroom or blend will work. I prefer to use button or cremini mushrooms for this Chicken Fricassee.
- Lemon – Some freshly squeezed lemon juice is used in the sauce and necessary.
- Flour – All-purpose or bread flour can be used.
- Wine – Any dry white wine like chardonnay, Pinot Grigio, or Sauvignon Blanc will work. vid
- Stock – Chicken stock is best to use in this dish. However, you can use vegetable stock or brodo.
- Herbs – I used a combination of bay leaves, fresh parsley, and thyme in the sauce. Substitute the parsley with one teaspoon of dry and 1/2 teaspoon of dry thyme for fresh.
- Cream— Heavy whipping cream will give this the most flavor. However, you can use half and half, 1%, 2%, skim, whole milk, or even yogurt.
How to Make Chicken Fricassee
Brown the seasoned chicken (salt and pepper) in a large Dutch oven, rondeau pot, or cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat with unsalted butter until browned on each side but not cooked through. This takes about 3-4 minutes per side.
Set the chicken aside. Lightly sauté the onions and mushrooms over low heat for 4-5 minutes or until lightly browned and tender. Stir in the garlic and cook for 30 more seconds.
Deglaze with the juice of ½ lemon.
Sprinkle in and mix the flour with the vegetables to create a roux.
Add some dry white wine (I used chardonnay) and cook until thick, about 30 seconds.
Pour in the chicken stock and cook over low heat while stirring for 3-4 minutes or until it becomes thick like a gravy.
Add a bay leaf, parsley, thyme, salt, and pepper, and mix until combined.
Place the chicken back into the pan, cover, and cook for 25-30 minutes over low heat until it is cooked throughout.
Stir in the heavy whipping cream.
Finish with a garnish of minced parsley
Fricasse Variations
- Cuban Style—Also known as Fricasé de Pollo, this dish uses mojo-marinated chicken that is pan-seared and then slow-cooked with sofrito, wine, herbs, potatoes, peas, chicken stock, and olives.
- Cajun Style — It is exactly like making gumbo, where spice-rubbed and pan-roasted chicken is simmered in a broth of the trinity (onions, celery, and peppers), dark roux, mushrooms, and chicken stock.
Make-Ahead and Storage
Make-Ahead: You can make this up to 1 hour ahead of time. Keep it warm in the oven with a lid at 200°.
How to Store: Cover and store in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. It will freeze well for up to 2 months. Be sure to thaw for one day in the refrigerator before reheating.
How to Reheat: Add the desired amount of chicken fricassee to a medium-sized pan with a lid and heat over low heat until hot, or in the oven at 350° for 15-20 minutes or until hot.
chef notes + tips
- If the sauce is not thick, add a little slurry (2 tablespoons cornstarch mixed with one tablespoon water) before adding the chicken.
- For the Slow Cooker, follow steps 1-7 above on the “Sauté” function of your slow cooker. Once you add the chicken, place the lid on and slow cook on high for 3 hours. Finish by stirring in cream.
More Chicken Recipes
Video
Chicken Fricassee Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 3 1/2 to 4 pound roasting chicken, cut into breasts, thighs, drums, and wings
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 2 cups peeled yellow pearl onions
- 1 pound quartered button mushrooms
- 2 finely minced cloves of garlic
- juice of ½ lemon
- 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- ½ cup chardonnay or other dry white wine
- 3 cups chicken stock
- 1 bay leaf
- 3 parsley sprigs
- 3 thyme sprigs
- 2/3 cup heavy whipping cream
- coarse salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste
Instructions
- Season the chicken on all sides with salt and pepper.
- Add the butter to a 12” large cast-iron skillet or Dutch oven over medium-high heat.
- Add in the chicken skin side down and cook for 3-4 minutes per side or until well browned.
- Remove the chicken and set aside. Next, add the onions and mushrooms to the pan and sauté over low heat for 5 minutes while frequently stirring.
- Add in the garlic, cook for a further minute, and deglaze with lemon juice.
- Stir in the flour until completely mixed in. Then add the wine and stir it in just until combined, and then add in the stock.
- Cook for 3-4 minutes over low to medium heat or until it becomes thick like gravy. See Note.
- Add bay leaf, parsley, thyme, salt, and pepper to the sauce and mix in.
- Place the chicken back into the pan, cover with a lid and cook over low heat for 25-30 minutes, or until the chicken is done and cooked throughout, 165° internally.
- Remove the lid and stir in the heavy cream. Serve hot.
I have an unrelated question…I own a Le Creuset pan stamped on the lid reads 30. Would you be able to tell me how many US quarts it is? I’m currently not at home but recovering from a stroke and I’d like to know if I need a larger one.
Not sure. Try googling it.
Question: can you use the frozen pearl onions instead?
yup
My family and I enjoyed this recipe a lot! The tangy lemon flavour was a nice touch – first time making the dish and will definitely be repeating. Thanks for the great instructions.
Awesome!
I find it so helpful to have your ingredients and substitutions list for all your recipes. That, and the storage instructions. Oh, and your notes and tips. Heck, I just love it all!
I appreciate that very much.
Love it!
I can’t wait to make this. My grandma used to make this for me when I was a kid and unfortunately when she passed away, the recipe which she had in her mind and not paper went with her.
Great recipe! Was a huge success and easy with items I regularly have on hand. Thanks so much!
Excellent!
Easy and delicious
This was an amazing dish. Made it with Boneless skinless chicken breast and followed the rest of recipe. The flavors were perfect together. This will be a repeat for sure.
Thanks Billy. You are one amazing chef
I made this tonight and it was so delicious! My 5year old granddaughter wanted to help prep so I had her dice some celery that I then had to add, still delicious!
Absolutely love this recipe! Finally a dish that all 8 extended family members loved. This website is my ‘go to’ when I’m looking for a new recipe.
Somebody once told me if I mastered a few techniques the possibilities would be endless. made this as shown with breasts only, a bit thin but very good. Round 2 added 1/2 cup chopped fresh asparagus, 2 finely chopped celery sticks and increased flour by 1 tbls. FANTASTIC my guests loved it.
Thank You Billy, others have shown me how to make things, you have taught me to cook.
Appreciate you trying this and learning!
got told this one was a keeper ! def going to make it again some time soon , he loved it and so did i , shared recipe w/ friends as well .
excellent!
Fantastic one pan recipe! So delicious
so good!!
First time Fricassee-er and this recipe was easy and turned out delicious. My sauce got a little too thin when I added the cream, but it was so dang delicious I could have eaten it as a soup anyway. I used skin on chicken thighs only and a Vidalia onion. I didn’t have a enough white shrooms so I included baby bella. All went well so don’t be scared to improvise. Love me some Chef Billy Parisi food. Wish he was my neighbor.
so good!!
Thank you again What a hit this is. The sauce is just scrumptious, and so easy to make. And the aroma in our home was incredible. Certainly a keeper.
perfect
This Chicken Fricassee recipe was so easy to make and absolutely delicious. Thanks Chef Parisi for helping me be successful in the kitchen!
It’s a good one!
This is sooooo good. My husband wants me to make it again.
so good!!
totally yummy!
thank you so kindly!!
Loooove this recipe! Super easy to make (thank you for your awesome video too👍)
I dare say it was “plate licken good”.
Perfect!
I made this dish for a friend and his family who just returned home from the hospital. I mentioned it was a new recipe. They told me don’t lose this recipe!!! They absolutely loved it. Is it to prepare? It had just a slight twist from the chicken piccata recipe, yet a completely different flavor. Yum!
Amazing!
I have made this a few times and it’s incredibly tasty and makes great leftovers if makes it that long after dinner. Chef Billy does an incredible job of demonstrating short cuts, cooking tips, and that recipes can be interchangeable. I love this dish and it’s made beautifully.
I just made this and it was delicious! I substituted frozen pearl onions snd they worked out perfect unfortunately I forgot to add the cream at the end…but it was not missed. The gravy was delicious without it. Thank you for sharing your wonderful recipes and techniques.
I love the way you talk it’s soothing but easy to learn from you . Thank you for your expertise.
I love this and most all of your recipes! My house smells delicious! You are my go to for recipes on-line. Thank you so much for sharing!
Oh my Billy this is wonderful! Thank you for refining my cooking skills!
This was delightful! Thank you! How do you actually serve it. It almost seemed like I should have bowls to get every last drop of broth.