Balsamic Chicken with Spinach and Mushrooms
This creamy Chicken with Spinach and Mushrooms boasts tender chicken, fresh veggies, and salty bacon, all nestled in a rich, tangy pan sauce. You’ll love the taste and how easy it is to make in about 30 minutes.
Need more easy dinner ideas? Try pesto artichoke or creamy Tuscan chicken next. Love this cream sauce? You’ll also enjoy my balsamic pork chops recipe.
We love easy chicken dinners, especially those made all in one skillet! This particular combination, with spinach, mushrooms, and a mouth-watering balsamic cream sauce, was inspired by the delicious chicken Florentine we’ve been enjoying recently and The Kitchn’s chicken with mushrooms recipe. It’s a heavenly match!
Ingredients
In addition to the chicken, spinach, and mushrooms, you’ll need a bit of chicken broth or stock, cream, balsamic vinegar, and a few basic seasonings. A couple slices of bacon add incredible flavor, and I like to dredge the chicken in flour to help it form a nice golden crust.
You can certainly skip the flour, or replace it with almond flour, if you want to keep the skillet gluten-free. Several readers have tried that with my creamy Tuscan chicken recipe and had success.
This recipe has a few more steps than some skillet meals, because you’ll cook the bacon, chicken, and mushrooms separately, then set them aside while making the pan sauce.
It’s still pretty simple, though, because you’re using the same skillet throughout. What’s more, it’s very worthwhile, because this process means you’re building layers of flavor with each and every step.
How To Keep Chicken Tender
Use thin-sliced chicken breasts. Chicken breasts often get a bad rap for being dry, especially when pan-fried. This has more to do with the way they are cut and with the cooking method than any inherent problem with the meat. A thick cut of meat naturally takes a long time to cook, and an uneven cut — thick in the middle, thin on the edges, say — will cook unevenly, too. The thin portions will be overdone and, yes, dry, by the time the middle is cooked through.
So, what to do? Be sure your chicken breasts are thin and relatively even before you start. You can buy thin-sliced breasts, or butterfly them yourself.
Many people also recommend pounding chicken breasts to an even thickness before cooking. To be honest I rarely have the patience for that myself. 🙂
What Type of Mushrooms To Use
Cremini mushrooms in this dish taste amazing! Did you know that cremini and baby bella mushrooms are the same thing? For the longest time I assumed that baby bellas were literally just baby Portobellos and therefore different from cremini, but it turns out they are pretty much the same — an everyday brown mushroom.
You can also use regular white mushrooms; the flavor will be less intense.
What To Serve With It
This skillet goes wonderfully with a simple Italian salad, arugula, or roasted vegetables. The sauce is definitely a stand-out part of the dish, so I recommend also having some crusty bread or a bit of pasta on the side to soak up the extra!
More Impressive Chicken Skillets
- Lemon Thyme Chicken
- One-Pan Greek Chicken with Olives
- Creamy Garlic Chicken with Thyme
- Balsamic Cranberry Chicken Skillet
- Honey Mustard Chicken Skillet
- White Wine Spinach Tomato Chicken
If you try this Balsamic Chicken with Spinach and Mushrooms, don’t forget to rate the recipe and leave a comment below. I love hearing how recipes turn out in your kitchen, and it helps other readers, too.
You can also FOLLOW me on PINTEREST, INSTAGRAM, FACEBOOK, and TWITTER for more great recipes and ideas!
Balsamic Chicken with Spinach and Mushrooms
Ingredients
- 2-3 strips bacon
- 4 thin-sliced chicken breasts
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 10-12 cranks fresh-ground black pepper
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1-2 teaspoons olive oil
- 8 ounces sliced mushrooms baby Bella, cremini, or regular white mushrooms all fine
- 1/2 cup chicken broth
- 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 2 large handfuls fresh baby spinach
Instructions
- Place a large skillet over medium-high heat, add bacon, and cook until browned and crisp. Remove to a plate and crumble or chop into small pieces. Leave bacon fat in the pan.
- While the bacon cooks, sprinkle the chicken breasts on both sides with garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Place flour on a shallow plate. Dredge each piece of chicken through it to coat on both sides, shaking gently to remove excess flour.
- After removing the bacon, add chicken to the skillet and cook 3-4 minutes on each side, until cooked through. Add a drizzle of olive oil if the pan starts to look dry. Remove chicken and set aside along with the bacon.
- Add another drizzle of olive oil to the skillet, followed by the mushrooms. Cook for 5-6 minutes, until dry and nicely browned. Turn down the heat if needed. Transfer mushrooms to the same plate as bacon and chicken.
- Add broth and balsamic vinegar to the pan, scraping to release any browned bits. Bring sauce to a simmer and cook 1-2 minutes, until slightly reduced. Add cream and stir until the sauce is smooth.
- Return chicken, bacon, and mushrooms to the pan. Cook for 2-3 minutes to thicken sauce more and warm the chicken. Add spinach and cook 1 minute more to let it wilt. Serve and enjoy!
Everyone loved it! We used boneless chicken thighs cut in bigger strips and also added onions and served on top of egg noodles. Also sliced little tomatoes to make it look pretty. Yum…
Yum, that sounds delicious! Thank you for sharing this helpful review!
This is truly one of the best tasting recipes that I’ve tried from Pinterest. Congrats on a very flavorful meal. The only difference I made was added a bit of fresh garlic at the mushroom stage and doubled the sauce so I could serve it with farfalle. It is awesome and I thank you so much.
Those tweaks sound terrific, and I’m so happy to hear it was a winner for you! Thank you for leaving this feedback!