It has come to my attention that I don’t do a lot of “dinner” recipes on the blog lately. I’m not really sure why that is. I eat dinner every day, you know. If I hadn’t, you would know, because of the trail of destruction in my wake from being hangry. But seriously. I’m not sure why that happened. Let’s fix it, shall we?

We have plenty of dinners where we keep things pretty chill – we’ll have some seasonal veggies and rice, seasoned into tacos or a stir fry or something else simple and nourishing. But sometimes, like for this recipe, I wanted to get a little fancier.

I love a good cream sauce so much. Especially if mushrooms are involved. You can use any mushroom in this recipe but wild chanterelles are in season here in Oregon and I find them to be utterly irresistible even if they are $10-12/lb. And, I don’t think cream sauce is quite the same with just veggies. It and chicken make a pretty good pair.

Oh, and let me take a moment to also say, dark meat and chicken skin FTW. I will eat the chicken skin on my own piece and Dave’s and anyone else’s who will give theirs up, haha. Especially if it’s nice and crispy like it turns out in this preparation.

So all that is to say, I’m really proud of how this decadent chicken dinner turned out. We each ate one thigh and plenty of mushrooms with a huge salad, and it was perfect and not too heavy. I think this one might be a new regular menu item!

Crispy Chicken Thighs & Chanterelles in Cream Sauce

Ingredients

• 6 chicken thighs, bone in and skin on
• 3 Tbsp. neutral oil such as vegetable oil
• 1 lemon, thinly sliced
• 2 tbsp dry sherry
• 2-3 cups chopped chanterelle mushrooms
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 cup half and half or cream
• salt
• fresh thyme

Instructions

1. Heat 2 Tbsp oil in a cast iron skillet on high. Once the oil gets nice and hot, place 6 chicken thighs in, skin side down, and cook for 5 minutes. Flip and cook for another 2 minutes. Remove the chicen and set aside.
2. Add 2 Tbsp of sherry to the hot skillet and deglaze. Once the alcohol has boiled off (a minute or two), add the chantarelle mushrooms and garlic and cook for 10 minutes until the mushrooms soften and start to darken. (You may need to add 1 more tablespoon oil).
3. Add 1 cup half and half, a heavy pinch salt, and 3 sprigs of thyme leaves. Then, return the chicken back to the pan, skin side up. Place a few thin slices of lemon on each chicken breast, and put into a 450 degree oven.
4. Bake for 15 minutes or until the internal temperature of the chicken is cooked through to 165 degrees.