Thank you Potatoes USA for sponsoring this post. Make a delicious and convenient meal for your family tonight with potatoes!
This one pan chicken recipe is perfect for busy weeknights! Ready in under an hour with a creamy garlic parmesan sauce, potatoes, mushrooms, and fresh spinach. For more easy potato recipes, check out Potatoes USA on Facebook.
In a hurry? Click here to jump straight to the recipe!
Ok. WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT THIS ONE PAN CHICKEN.
Here are the bullet points because I know you’re busy + also we like to keep things organized and efficient here:
- ONE PAN.
- Mushrooms + potatoes + spinach OH MY
- The easiest, creamiest rosemary garlic parmesan sauce (*swoooooon*)
- ONE PAN. Did I say that already?
- Ready in under an hour. Because we have THINGS to do, duh
- Easy to customize – potatoes and sauce are the perfect blank canvas for any protein or veggies you have on hand! Ahhhhh, possibilities.
- Literally LICK-YOUR-PLATE tasty. Example: When I made this for some friends, there was an, ermmm, “conflict” over the last piece (they ended up splitting it. Because ADULTS).
This one pan chicken dinner is simple but hearty, and it’s packed with a great supporting cast (mushrooms! spinach! potatoes! rosemary!)
You could serve this over rice or quinoa if you’d like to stretch it out a bit more, but I honestly love it just as it is – it’s like a warm, cozy, ultra-comforting food hug (which is perfect, because it’s finally sweater weather and I’m craving warm cozy food baaaaaaasically 24/7).
The mild, creamy, slightly starchy texture of white potatoes makes them perfect for this recipe. They also hold their shape well, so even though we’re cooking them for awhile here and then covering them in the creeeeeeeamiest sauce, you’re still going to have well-defined pieces of potato (rather than an accidentally-sort-of-mashed-but-not-in-the-good-way potatoes situation, because yikes).
Also, I don’t know about you, but I almost ALWAYS have potatoes in my pantry – which means recipes like this one are ultra-convenient even when I haven’t had time to go to the store. Just use the potatoes and sauce as a base, and customize this recipe with whatever else you have on hand! (Broccoli, arugula, roasted butternut squash, and cauliflower are some of my favorite additions so far).
PS – if you ever want to know what type of potato might be best for a recipe, Potatoes USA has this handy-dandy guide to the most common varieties! I’m obsessed with it.
ALSO, if you’ve been following Life As A Strawberry for awhile, you’re probably picked up on the fact that I love thickening sauces with a roux, which is basically just a flour-and-butter (or olive oil) combo.
But that doesn’t always work if you’re out of flour or are following a gluten-free diet, so I mixed it up a bit for this recipe and thickened the sauce with cornstarch.
You can totally use a roux here if you prefer, but a quick cornstarch slurry will do the trick just fine. Observe:
Ahhhhhhh.
Prep Time:
Yield:
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An easy one pan chicken and potatoes recipe ready in under an hour.
Ingredients
- 2 Tbsp. olive oil, divided
- 1.5 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken thighs
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1/2 large yellow onion, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 lb. white potatoes, cut into a large (1/2″ or so) dice
- 8 oz. baby portobello mushrooms, halved (or quartered, if they’re large – you want the mushrooms to be roughly the same size as the diced potatoes!)
- 2 sprigs fresh rosemary, leaves removed from stems and roughly chopped
- 1 cup chicken stock
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
- 1 Tbsp. cornstarch
- 2 cups fresh spinach, roughly chopped
- 2/3 cup shredded parmesan cheese
Instructions
GET READY:
- Heat oven to 400 degrees F.
- Heat half of the olive oil over medium-high heat in a large oven-safe pan (I use a 10-12″ cast iron skillet, but a dutch oven or large flat-bottomed skillet work too)
SEAR THE CHICKEN:
- Season chicken thighs on all sides with salt and pepper.
- Gently add chicken thighs to the hot skillet and sear for 2-3 minutes per side until you have a nice, slightly brown crust. Don’t worry if they’re not fully cooked – they’ll finish cooking in the oven.
- Remove seared chicken thighs to a plate and set aside. Return the skillet to the stove.
MAKE THE SAUCE:
- Add the remaining olive oil to your skillet and turn the heat to medium.
- Add onion and garlic to skillet and sauté 2-3 minutes until onion has softened.
- Add diced potatoes to skillet and stir to combine. Cook another 2-3 minutes until potatoes have softened and developed some color.
- Add mushrooms to skillet and give everything a stir. Cook another 2-3 minutes until mushrooms have softened and reduced in size.
- Add the chopped fresh rosemary and another pinch of salt and pepper to taste. Stir to combine.
- Add chicken stock to pan a little bit at at time, stirring well between each addition to scrape off any browned bits from the bottom of the pan (that’s where the flavor is!)
- Add the heavy cream to the sauce and stir to combine.
BAKE IT ALL UP:
- Return the seared chicken to your skillet, nestling each piece into the sauce.
- Place the skillet in your hot oven and bake for 15-20 minutes until potatoes and chicken are each cooked through.
THICKEN & FINISH THE SAUCE:
- Remove skillet from oven.
- Spoon 2-3 tablespoons of sauce out of the skillet (careful, it’s hot!) and into a small bowl or measuring cup.
- Add cornstarch to bowl and whisk to combine. This is your cornstarch slurry.
- Slowly add cornstarch slurry back to skillet a bit at a time, stirring to combine. It can take a minute or two to thicken up – you may not even need the whole slurry, so just keep an eye on it!
- Add spinach and parmesan cheese to sauce and stir until cheese is melted. Garnish with an extra sprig of rosemary (optional) and serve immediately.
Notes
This looks like a lot of steps, but I promise it isn’t too complicated! I made the recipe instructions a little longer because I wanted you to be able to see the order of operations at a glance.
I used chicken thighs for this recipe because it’s what I usually have on hand, but you can use any cut of chicken you like! I’d recommend sticking with skinless because the skin can get rubbery when it sits in the sauce too long, but you could use bone-in thighs, chicken breasts, or anything else you have on hand!
Use a roux instead of a cornstarch slurry to thicken this sauce if you like. I recommend a roux of 2 Tbsp. butter and 2 Tbsp. flour just before you add the chicken stock.
Lighten this dish up by substituting milk or additional chicken stock for the heavy cream.
Use any veggies you like here! Broccoli, arugula, peppers, cauliflower, and roasted butternut squash are all great additions.
Use fresh thyme instead of rosemary if you like, or substitute 1/2 tsp. dried rosemary for the fresh leaves.
Shred your own parmesan cheese for this recipe – store-bought shredded cheese often has additives that prevent it from melting smoothly.
The exact consistency of your sauce can vary, and everyone has different preferences, so don’t worry if it doesn’t look perfect yet! Try one of these tricks to adapt the sauce to your liking: If you’d like a thicker sauce, make a bit more cornstarch slurry. If you’d like more sauce, you can increase the amount of chicken stock in the recipe. Less sauce? Decrease the amount of stock and cream. To thin the sauce out, add an extra splash of stock or milk.
Lighten this sauce up by swapping our favorite Magic Cauliflower Cream for the heavy cream in this recipe!
I was selected for this opportunity as a member of CLEVER and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.
It is very convenient and quick to prepare a full dish for dinner in one pan. The combination of potatoes and chicken is always a win. I also like this sauce and its creamy texture. This dish is super tasty, fragrant and liked by absolutely everyone. Now I will cook this one pan dish often, thank you for the idea!
★★★★★
Thank you Ann!
I love your recipe.Will try this soon.
★★★★
Hi Val, thank you!
I adjusted the recipe to fit my family’s tastes and for what I had on hand: cauliflower instead of spinach and mushrooms, red potatoes, and leftover pre-cooked chicken, but it still turned out yummy! I will make it again. Thanks for the inspiration!
★★★★★
Wonderful surprise.made a few changes.added sage.used water instead of stock and traded out Evaporated milk.will make a dinner staple
★★★★★
Amazing. I didn’t have corn starch but it was soooooooooo perfect. My wife said it was like something you’d have at a wedding, with its fancy sauce. After dinner she stood at the stove picking at the pan for more veggie.
★★★★★
Hi Jeff, ahhh…the after dinner stovetop pickover, you know you’ve done well! Thank you for the comment.
I made this tonight and thought it was very yummy. I already had mashed potatoes so I skipped adding chopped potatoes and in the end put the chicken and veg on top of the mashed potatoes. It was good. I did pop the skillet back in the oven for a few minutes to better wilt the spinach and melt the cheese. Husbands only critique was that he was missing something crunchy so maybe next time I’ll throw some crispy onions on top. And it took longer than 45 minutes to prepare; more like an hour.
★★★★★
I made this dish for the 1st time a few weeks ago & making it again tonight. It’s delicious!
Hi Mary! Thank you and we love hearing you LOVE it!
I made this today,big hit with my family. I also double the recipes but let out the spinach added abit of paprika, curry and chicken shawarma spices and abit of salt. Thank you for a wonderful recipes.
★★★★★
Hi Theresa – woohoo, we impressed the family! Thank you for the comment.
I didn’t use potatoes.
I cooked the greens separately.
I used twice as much chicken stock as called for, and adjusted other ingredients accordingly to my taste.
It was DELICIOUS!!!
Making this again and again in variatiins!
Thank you!
★★★★★
Hello Stephanie,
Thanks for the feedback and alternative suggestions for the recipe.
Baby spinach works well, absolutely delicious recipe saving the leftovers for tomorrow night with added veggies & chicken yum
★★★★★
Hi Leane,
So happy to hear you enjoyed the recipe! Thanks!
My kids absolutely loved this recipe. My husband and I thought that I may have added too much corn starch. I am going to leave it out next time. Great recipe. Thanks!!!
★★★★★
Hi Jesse,
I just finished preparing this meal and I gotta say I’m so excited to serve it to my family because it’s so delicious!! I will definitely make this again soon, granted I did not have any mushrooms on hand but it still turned out so good! Thank you for sharing this recipe! P.s. I didn’t have to add the cornstarch slurry because the sauce was already thickened by the potatoes.
★★★★★
I’m not sure why there are no reviews yet because this recipe is so delicious and super easy to follow. My only suggestion would be to add the spinach a little earlier just to let it cook a little bit before serving but that’s just my personal preference! None the less I really enjoyed this dish and would highly recommend it 🙂
I’m so happy you liked it, Helene! Thank you so much for letting me know how it turned out!