It’s been too long since I posted a new recipe. I’m sorry about that! And I apologize in advance to the working parents – this recipe isn’t really work-night friendly, but it is so amazing that you’ll be able to make it for company.
I know what you’re thinking – Is Lynne obsessed with all things French onion? And the answer would be YES! This is only the second French onion recipe that I’ve posted – the other one being the irresistible French onion soup mini puffs appetizers. But, I do have more French onion recipes coming – including the actual soup. In the meantime, you need to try this French Onion Chicken!
I love French onion soup, and even though it is a meal in itself, because it’s soup, your brain keeps telling you that you need to eat more. This French onion chicken fills the bill for a satisfying dinner with the yummy deliciousness of French onion soup.
As always, the all-important, but time-consuming step is carmelizing the onions. You need to take your time with the cooking – browning, but not burning. You could do this step the night before you are going to serve the chicken, and then this would totally work for a weeknight meal (but, let’s face it, who wants to start cooking again once you’ve cooked, eaten, and cleaned up dinner?)
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- It looks like a lot of onions . . .
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- Starting to wilt.
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- Starting to brown.
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- Almost done.
You can see that some thighs have skin and others do not. We preferred no skin.
You can save some time by browning the chicken thighs while you are caramelizing the onions. The original recipe called for bone-in chicken thighs with the skin, but I always take the skin off (it’s very easy to take chicken thigh skin off), but I do like the bone in, so I buy the full chicken thighs and remove the skin.
Once the onions are cooked, you deglaze the pan with wine and broth and add some Dijon mustard, Worcestershire sauce, and balsamic vinegar
Chicken covered with the French onion sauce and ready for baking!
to make a rich sauce. Spoon it over the browned chicken thighs and bake for about 20 minutes. Top each thigh with some of the shredded Swiss cheese and broil until melted, and you have a flavorful and satisfying meal. I served this with spaghetti and steamed carrots. The sauce is so good over pasta! You’ll want to make extra pasta just to use the sauce.
This is my new favorite chicken dish. I think that you’ll love it too.
And hold tight, I’ve got a great, new, FAST dinner coming up in the next week or so – finally one for the weeknight cook!
French Onion Chicken
Ingredients
- 8 pieces chicken thighs bone in, skin removed
- 2 + 1 tablespoons olive oil
- 3 large onions peeled and sliced to 1/4" thick
- 1 teaspoon thyme
- 3 tablespoons flour
- 1 can 14oz chicken broth
- 1/4 c dry white wine or sherry
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
- 2 tablespoons dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon worcestershire sauce
- 1 1/2 cups Swiss cheese Gruyere or Emmentaler works well
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Peel the onions and cut in half on the root or stem end. Then start slicing no more than 1/4" slices. This will give you half rings.
- Place 2 tablespoons olive oil in pan and heat to medium-low. Add onions and cook until the onions are a deep rich brown color. About 45 minutes. Don't turn up the heat. Watch closely, you do not want to burn them, but they will be very brown and reduce down to less than half of their original volume.
- While the onions are cooking, put another large skillet* on high heat. Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Season the chicken with salt and pepper than brown the each side of the chicken for 5 mins per side. Remove the chicken from the pan and place in 9x13 glass pyrex.*
- Once the onions have caramelized, add garlic, thyme and flour to onions and stir until flour is absorbed. Continue to cook for 3 minutes. Then add the wine and deglaze. Add the chicken broth and continue to scrape up any bits on the bottom of the pan. Add the balsamic vinegar, mustard and Worcestershire sauce and bring to a boil. (Add any deglazed juices from cooking the chicken.) The sauce should start to thicken in a few minutes, turn off heat.
- Pour the sauce over the chicken and bake in a preheated 350° oven for 20 minutes. Then remove from the oven and turn the oven to broil. Cover each thigh with a generous portion of the shredded Swiss cheese. Place pan back in the oven and broil until cheese is melted and golden brown. (about 5 minutes depending on your oven)
- Serve over spaghetti or noodles.
