This chicken with sherry and mushrooms, paired with a Dutch Baby and arugula salad, is absolutely wonderful and takes only about 40 minutes (35 if you include the Dutch baby).
This is one of my daughter’s current favorite meals. The Dutch baby makes it very exciting for the kids, and although they would prefer to eat around the mushrooms, they are each willing to try small bites of mushrooms or other vegetables to earn more Dutch baby.
How To Serve
This chicken with sherry and mushrooms is very saucy – so I personally like to eat it on something. Crusty bread or pasta would be good. But my personal favorite is the Dutch baby. I make a whole wheat Dutch baby which cooks up very fast, and I pile the chicken and salad into the Dutch baby and eat it a bit like a sandwich (see below).
A Mustard-Free Recipe
This recipe began with the one from the NYT that relies on mustard. It also says it takes like 25 minutes – I’m not sure what they’re doing over there, but I’ve never had it take less than 40 minutes. But we still love this dish.
Unfortunately, my son was recently diagnosed with a mustard allergy. We’ve been instructed to avoid mustard for a little while. Also unfortunately, a huge number of delicious chicken recipes rely on mustard as a key flavor in the sauces. And, naturally, those are some of his favorite meals!
The good news is that I enjoy experimenting in the kitchen. So we have been doing a tour of some of our family-favorites, where mom tries to replace the mustard with alternative ingredients to achieve a similar effect. So far, we’ve had a reasonable degree of success. And some dishes that require more attempts.
This work-around works really well, and I think the flavor is just as good, if not better, than the version with mustard.
Use Sherry Vinegar (not Sherry)
I love sherry. Happy to admit that, even if it makes me seem like the crazy old aunt who is likely to get inappropriately drunk off of the cooking wine. (I totally get why that might happen! Sherry is probably my second favorite drink if its a good bottle! Plus it’s underpriced because it’s not that popular right now for some reason. Maybe it’s the crazy old aunt stereotype.) You can even use it to make amazing cocktails. Anyway, I go for Amontillado, which is a type of dry sherry with a darker color and nutty flavor. Avoid sweet sherry.
Now that I’ve professed my love of sherry and probably increased my family’s perceived likelihood I’ll end up as the drunk family aunt, we can move on. I’ve tried making this dish with sherry and with sherry vinegar. The vinegar option is better. The dish needs the acidity to turn out well. So don’t try to substitute sherry vinegar with sherry. If you don’t have sherry vinegar, the next best thing is red wine vinegar, then white wine vinegar, then apple cider vinegar.
Chicken and Mushrooms for Kids
Our kids love chicken – and this chicken and mushrooms is such a classic dish. The onions add sweetness, the mushrooms add earthiness, the sherry vinegar adds a bit of tang. You end up with a very rich and satisfying dish.
I will note that our kids can be skeptical of the mushrooms, but one of the great things about this recipe is that the mushroom flavor gets everywhere – and the flavor is good! Even if the kids are still a bit skeptical about the texture of mushrooms, they like the flavor. For that reason, I think this dish is a great gateway to mushroom appreciation (and sherry appreciation, one day). Get them familiar with the flavor, and liking the mushroom will follow. And it’s not too hard for them to pick around the mushrooms if the kids are being absolute delights that evening.
Now, on to the recipe!
PrintWeeknight Chickens & Mushrooms
This chicken with sherry and mushrooms, paired with a Dutch Baby and arugula salad, is absolutely wonderful and can be created in about 40 minutes (45 minutes with the Dutch Baby).
If you’re making a Dutch baby, mix it up before you start this recipe and start preheating the oven. Pop the Dutch baby into the oven at the same time you add the mushrooms to the pan (step 4).
- Total Time: 30 min
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
Ingredients
Marinade
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons sherry vinegar
2 teaspoons honey
1 teaspoon Greek yogurt
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon salt
Chicken & Mushrooms
1.5 – 2 lbs boneless skinless chicken thighs (cut into 3-inch chunks)
olive oil
2 medium onions, thinly sliced (ideally yellow, but white or red also work)
1 lb portabella mushrooms, thinly sliced
2 tbsp chopped dill (optional)
Salad
5 ounces of arugula
1 shallot
1/4 cup shredded parmesan cheese
olive oil
balsamic vinegar (preferably a dense, aged vinegar that has some thickness to it – example)
Instructions
1. Make the marinade.
Combine the following ingredients in a bowl (big enough to fit the chicken – unless the chicken came in a hard plastic container you can just pour the marinade into; more on this below) and whisk together:
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 3 tablespoons sherry vinegar
- 2 teaspoons honey
- 1 teaspoon Greek yogurt
- 1/2 teaspoon paprika
- 1 teaspoon salt
2. Cut up the Chicken.
I really don’t like handling raw chicken, so I’m going to explain what I do here. It involves rubber gloves and good kitchen scissors.
First, I usually buy 1.5 to 2 pounds of chicken thighs in a hard plastic package so that I can just cut up the chicken parts and plop them back into the container they came in. Then I pour the marinade over the top. If you don’t have a hard plastic package, that’s fine. You’ll just need to use a bowl. I usually use one that I can easily rinse and plop straight into the dishwasher when I’m done.
Second, when I’m ready, I get out rubber exam gloves. I put one on my left hand. In my right hand, I hold the kitchen shears. I pick up the chicken in my gloved hand and cut it down into 3-inch pieces. Once I cut off a piece, I let it fall back into the container it came in. If the raw chicken didn’t come in a good container, I instead cut it over the marinade bowl and let the chicken chunks go in there. Mmm.
3. Pour the marinade over the chicken & mix it well.
Mix the chicken around in the marinade using your gloved raw chicken hand until all the pieces are coated in marinade. Then remove the glove straight into the trash. Wash your hands for good measure.
4. Cook the thinly sliced onion, then the mushrooms.
Slice the onions, thinly. Preheat your pan and 2 tbsp of olive oil over medium heat. Put the onions into the pan in a single layer. Let it sit for 1 minute before stirring. Only stir a handful of times. Cook for maybe 3-5 minutes, until they are lightly browned. They don’t need to be fully caramelized at this point – they will continue cooking as you add the other ingredients to the pan.
While the onions cook, cut the mushrooms thinly (see above)! Thin slicing is key to the recipe timing. If you don’t slice thinly, they will take longer to cook. Once the onions are lightly caramelized (picture below), add the mushrooms and continue to cook for another 5 minutes or so.
5. Add the chicken to the mix.
Push everything to the edges of the pan, a bit like a nest with no middle (see below).
Put the chicken in the nest – pour the marinated chicken into the middle of the nest and let it sit there for about 5 minutes without stirring. Then stir everything together and cook for another 10 minutes, stirring intermittently, until the chicken is cooked through and the sauce reduced.
6. Make the salad.
While the chicken cooks, throw together the following:
- 5 ounces of arugula (washed)
- 1 shallot (thinly sliced)
- 1/4 cup shredded parmesan cheese (I use a vegetable peeler to get good long but thin pieces of cheese)
- olive oil (about 1-2 tbsp)
- balsamic vinegar (about 1-2 tbsp)
6. Add the vinegar.
Once the chicken is cooked through, sprinkle with 1 tbsp sherry vinegar and stir. Scatter with dill (or don’t).
7. Enjoy!
- Prep Time: 5 min
- Cook Time: 25 min
- Category: Dinner
- Method: stovetop
