Chicken à la King

A Classic Chicken à la King Recipe

While grandma’s Chicken à la King may have relied on canned foods, it’s actually so much easier to make Chicken à la King from scratch than you’d guess. Simple enough for a weeknight, this recipe is a genius way to use up leftover chicken, too. If you’ve never had Chicken à la King before, think of it as hearty, simple comfort food, like our Chicken Pot Pie Soup and Chicken and Dumplings all mashed into one cozy, soothing meal.

Chicken à la King Ingrédients

• Chicken breast. To make this homemade Chicken à la King even simpler and faster, you can use leftover cooked chicken, or even the meat from a store-bought rotisserie chicken.
• Mushrooms. Cremini mushrooms are our favorite mushroom — they just make the mushroom cream sauce so rich and savory — but white button mushrooms are OK, too.
• White wine. Yes, sherry is traditional in this recipe, but a nice, dry white wine is our preference.
• Milk
• Peas. We use frozen because it’s just so easy.
• Pimentos
• Flour
• Olive oil
• Spices! Salt, pepper, onion powder, fresh thyme
• Salted butter
• Yellow onion
• Garlic
• Chicken stock AND bouillon (we love the Better Than Bouillon brand, but whatever you have on-hand is fine.)

How To Make Chicken à la King From Scratch

1. Brown the chicken breasts. Warm the oil In a large saucepan, and add the seasoned chicken. Cook it until it’s browned and cooked through, and set it aside.
2. Cook the mushrooms. Cook the mushrooms in butter (yum) and add the garlic and white wine (yum and yum) and bring all of that loveliness to a simmer.
3. Make a creamy sauce. Sprinkle the winey mushrooms with flour, and then slowly stir in the broth and milk. A flexible silicone spatula is handy for this, so you can really scrape up delicious bits of garlic or mushroom as you stir. Then add the chicken bouillon, pepper, onion powder, and thyme and simmer it all until the cream sauce is nicely thick.
4. Finish by adding the cooked chicken, peas and pimentos to the cream sauce (if you are using leftover chicken, now is the time to add it!).
5. Serve with biscuits, just like Grandma did! Use the ultra-tender biscuits from our Biscuits and Gravy recipe, or go next-level with our Onion-Chive Biscuits.

How To Freeze Chicken à la King + Tips

• Yes, you can freeze Chicken à la King! To freeze the finished chicken à la king, cool it completely and transfer any leftovers to a freezer-safe container. Store the it for up to 3 months.
• When you are ready to eat it, defrost it in the fridge overnight. Then warm it gently on the stove top over low heat. Because of the cream sauce, it’s not quite as good after being frozen, but it’s still delicious.
• About the wine in our recipe: Any dry white wine that you love — we usually reach for an affordable-but-good sauvignon blanc, pinot gris, or gruner veltliner — will work well here. And if you don’t cook with alcohol, just use a little more chicken broth.

Weeknight Chicken Recipes & So Much More

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