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French caramelized onion chicken is always a hit with anyone that tastes it. There’s many recipes for it, but this one is the best.
Insanely Popular
Like most recipes, there’s nothing new under the sun. This recipe fits into that category too. Over the years I’ve seen renditions of this with every kind of meat. I even have something similar made with ground beef.
Recently, a friend made this again for her family and posted about it on a Facebook cooking group we both belong to. Well, it took off with members making it with many different substitutions and to suit low-cal and keto diet plans. The response was enormous.
I based this off my friend Lillian’s recipe because hers didn’t rely on convenience ingredients. If anyone would like to see some of Lillian’s recipes from the days she’d blog–sadly she doesn’t anymore-just visit My Recipe Journey.
Make-Ahead Onions
The one step in the recipe that takes the most time is caramelizing the onions. I admit that I don’t like making them because it needs almost constant attention to avoid burning. I also don’t look forward to standing, watching and stirring for 30 minutes or more.
However, a few years ago I discovered that I can make caramelized onion very easily and the trick is to do them in a slow cooker. This way, you can make a load of them, use what you need and freeze the rest. Yep, they freeze well so it saves you time for when another recipe calls for caramelized onions.
Choose Your Cheese
Any melting cheese will work with this recipe.
I chose to use the standard Swiss cheese because if you want to get technical and authentic here, that’s what the French would use.
Lillian chose to make it with provolone. I can really get behind that because it would add tons of flavor and provolone is one of my favorite cheeses.
Jack cheese and colby would be good choices too, as well as mozzarella.
The Recipe
French Caramelized Onion Chicken
Ingredients
- 2 lbs onions sliced see NOTES
- 2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts or thighs
- 2 cups beef broth
- 1 cup swiss cheese grated
- 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil divided
- 2 tbs all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp balsamic vinegar
- 1/2 tsp dried thyme
- 1/2 tsp dried sage
- kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350º F/180C.
- Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large, oven-proof pan or skillet over medium heat. Add onions, season with salt and cook, stirring occasionally, for 15-20 minutes, or until softened and caramelized.
- If you have caramelized onions you may skip the step above and just proceed to the next step
- Add balsamic vinegar and cook for another 3-5 minutes or until darkened, but not burned.
- Remove onions from heat and transfer to a medium bowl.
- Heat remaining olive oil in skillet and raise heat to medium-high.
- Season chicken breasts with salt, pepper, thyme and sage, then place in skillet and sear on both sides until golden brown. Remove chicken from heat and set aside.
- Pour beef broth into skillet and bring mixture to a boil, scraping up stuck bits from the bottom of pan.
- Return heat to medium-low and whisk in flour, stirring until smooth. Cook for 5-7 minutes, or until mixture has thickened. Taste and adjust seasoning, if necessary.
- Return chicken and onions to pan, stir together with beef gravy, then top with grated swiss cheese.
- Transfer skillet to oven and cook until cheese is melted and bubbly, and chicken is cooked through.
- Remove from oven and serve hot
Jan Wendell says
Thank you for sharing all the great recipes. I am enjoying cooking again.
Judith Hanneman says
I totally understand. We all go through slumps at time and sometimes something new or something really easy is enough to get the motors going again!!!