Smothered French Onion Chicken combines tender chicken breast, caramelized onions, and gooey melted cheese for a comfort food experience like no other. The sweet and savory onions perfectly complement the chicken breast in a rich sauce that’s then topped with shredded gruyere cheese.
We use common, pantry-friendly ingredients and simple steps to make this restaurant-quality recipe accessible to all levels of the home cook. You’re gonna impress with this recipe for sure!
What is Smothered French Onion Chicken?
Smothered chicken is a traditional Southern American dish where seasoned chicken is slowly cooked in a flavorful gravy or sauce.
“French onion” typically refers to French Onion Soup, a classic French dish known for its rich and savory flavors. French onion soup is made by slowly carmelizing onions and then adding broth or stock before it’s topped with Gruyere cheese, which is a type of Swiss cheese.
Our smothered French onion chicken takes the best of both of these dishes to create an amazing meal using boneless, skinless chicken breasts smothered in a caramelized onion sauce and then topped with melty cheese. Oh my goodness! This dish is seriously something to behold.
Equipment and Ingredients
This simple stovetop recipe will all take place in one heavy-bottomed pan with a cover. You can use a cast iron pan or any good pan of about 3-5 quarts. I like to use a good quality pan because it helps with heat distribution and even cooking.
The stars of this recipe are the chicken breast, onions and gruyere cheese. We’ll want to use 4, boneless, skinless chicken breasts of about ½ inch thick and around 4-6oz each. Most chicken breasts are pretty thick, so you can easily take 2 and slice them in half horizontally. Additionally, you can pound them thin with a meat mallet which helps tenderize them as well.
We’ll get our flavors from chicken broth, fresh thyme, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper. Some all-purpose flour will help us to sear the chicken and also thicken the sauce.
Preparation
We start by giving the chicken a quick seasoning of salt and pepper and then a dip in some flour. Not too much flour, just a quick dip to coat them before shaking off any excess.
Now heat the oil in a pan over medium-high heat and cook the chicken on each side until golden brown, about 2 minutes per side. We’re not heating the chicken all the way through, just getting a nice golden sear. Then we’ll set the chicken aside on a plate while we do the onions.
With the chicken set aside, reduce the heat in the pan to medium and add the onions. All of them. Stir them around to get them coated in the remaining oil and let them do their magic.
The key to carmelizing onions
Ah, the amazing taste, flavor, and texture of caramelized onions. It truly is a culinary joy and is the backbone of so many great recipes, including this one. There’s a couple of different approaches to attaining optimal caramelized onions. Low and very slow is a tried and true method, but for this recipe, we don’t want to spend half a day on the slow method. We’ll use a higher temperature for a shorter period of time. The key to cooking onions at a higher temperature is to actually not stir them too frequently (only when they begin to brown). The built-up steam/moisture from within the top layer of the onions then naturally “deglazes” the pan as you stir it.
When the onions reach their desired golden hue, it’s time to stir in the 2 tablespoons of flour. Just lightly sprinkle over the onions and stir until no lumps remain in the flour. The onions will absorb the flour and become quite thick. This is fine because we’ll now add broth and vinegar. After adding the liquids, scrape the bottom of the pot to get up any remaining fond (stuck on bits). There’s lots of flavor there! Stir in the thyme now as well.
It’s time to return those chicken breasts to the skillet. Go ahead and nestle them in the onions and liquid and reduce the heat so the mixture simmers. Cover and let simmer until the internal temperature of the chicken reaches 165°F, probably around 5 minutes. But we’re not quite done yet. Add that shredded cheese to each chicken breast and cover for another 1 minute until the cheese is melted. Oh boy… it’s getting real now!
Turn off the heat and let the sauce thicken for a couple of minutes. You’re then ready to serve!
Frequently Asked Questions
While Gruyere cheese is one of the keys to making the recipe “French onion”, we sometimes may need to find a substitute. In this case, the very best substitute is to shred some Swiss cheese. The flavor profile of Swiss works very well in place of Gruyere.
Dried thyme is much more potent than fresh thyme. Use half the amount and add any additional to taste. That said, I highly recommend trying it with fresh. It’s such a wonderful herb and the flavor brings the dish to life.
Recipe
Best Damn Smothered French Onion Chicken
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients
- 4 (4-6 oz) ½-inch-thick chicken breasts
- 2 tsp kosher salt
- 1 tsp ground black pepper
- 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour, divided
- 2 tbs olive oil
- 3 medium (about 3 cups) yellow onions, thinly sliced
- 1 ½ cup low-sodium chicken broth, plus more as needed
- 2 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
- 1 tbs chopped fresh thyme, divided
- 1 cup shredded Gruyere cheese
Instructions
-
Season chicken with salt and pepper. Add 1 cup flour to a medium shallow bowl. Dip chicken in flour, shaking off any excess.
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In a large cast iron skillet, or heavy bottom skillet over medium high heat, heat oil. Working in batches, if necessary, add chicken and cook until light golden-brown, about 1-2 minutes per side. Transfer to a plate and set aside. Repeat with remaining chicken.
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Reduce heat to medium. Add onions and cook, stirring every few minutes, and adding a splash of broth, if necessary to prevent it from coloring too much in any one place (reduce the heat if onions begin to darken too quickly). Cook, scraping up any brown bits from the bottom of the pan, until onions are dark golden-brown, about 25-30 minutes.
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Stir the 2 tablespoons of flour into the onions and cook until no lumps remain, about 1 minute. Slowly stir in broth, vinegar and 2 teaspoons of fresh thyme, scraping up brown bits from bottom of pan, as needed, until combined.
-
Return chicken to skillet. Cover and simmer until sauce thickens and chicken reaches an internal temperature of 165°(F) on an instant-read thermometer, about 3-5 minutes. Top each chicken breast evenly with Gruyere. Cover and cook until cheese is melted, about 1 minute.
- Top with remaining thyme and serve!
- Prep Time: 15 min
- Cook Time: 45 min
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: American
GEORGE POE says
Made this two nights ago. Had half then the rest tonight. OUTSTANDING!!! Easy vert flavorful. Will definitely do this one again. Would I serve to guests, absolutely
Elizabeth says
Is it possible to make this gluten free? What could I substitute?
RecipeTeacher says
Hi Elizabeth! Substitute the all-purpose flour with 1-to-1 gluten-free flour blend that contains xantham gum or guar gum.
LCM says
This was very good. I wouldn’t cook the onions as long as I did because they disintegrated and made it feel like lumpy gravy. My bad! I might add some dry white wine next time and a little garlic but otherwise the flavor was tasty. My husband loved it.
Deborah Holle says
Delicious recipe!
Mel says
This looks like a great recipe. Wondering if there is any make ahead hints?
George poe says
Tried this tonight. Was very very good. Could have used more moisture. Next time won’t let sauce get so thick.
Judy D says
I haven’t made this yet but I have made french onion soup several times and this sounds amazing! Thanks for the recipe!
Phyllis D says
Hi Jason I am definitely going to make this but can I substitute the balsamic vinegar being my husband & I do not like it.
RecipeTeacher says
Hey Phyllis. So the balsamic vinegar provides a pretty important flavor, even such a small amount. You’ll still want the acid so i’d recommend cider vinegar. It won’t be the same but will work.