Chicken à la King

While grandma’s Chicken à la King recipe might have taken short cuts, it’s actually easy to make Chicken à la King completely from scratch! Creamy comfort that’s easy on the budget and simple enough for a weeknight, this recipe is a genius way to use up leftover chicken, if you have it on hand. If you’ve never had Chicken à la King before, it’s a hearty, simple comfort food that reminds me of chicken pot pie soup or chicken and dumplings. Serve the creamy chicken dish with rice or pasta, or over mashed potatoes or even biscuits! It’s a total comfort meal, so do what feels good.  

Chicken à la King Ingrédients

• Chicken breast. To make this homemade Chicken à la King even simpler and faster, use leftover cooked chicken, or even the meat from a store-bought rotisserie chicken to make it really easy.
• Mushrooms. Cremini mushrooms make the mushroom cream sauce so rich and savory, but white button mushrooms work fine, too.
• White wine. Any dry white wine that you love will work well here. Sherry is also traditional, so you could use that instead if you really prefer it. If you don’t cook with alcohol, just use a little more chicken broth in place of the wine.
• Milk: to make the cream sauce creamy!
• Peas. Frozen peas are sweet and delicious, not to mention EASY.
• Pimentos: Jarred and drained.
• Flour: To thicken the cream sauce.
• Seasonings! Salt, pepper, onion powder, fresh thyme, garlic.
• Butter: I use salted butter, because I love how flavorful it makes things! Unsalted is OK too, but you may need to adjust the seasonings.
• Chicken stock AND bouillon: I love the Better Than Bouillon brand, but whatever you have on-hand is fine.

How To Make Chicken à la King, Step By Step

See the full recipe at the bottom of this post for complete instructions. 

1. Brown the chicken breasts. Warm the oil in a large saucepan, and add the chicken. Cook it until it’s browned and cooked through, and set it aside.
2. Cook the mushrooms. Cook the mushrooms in butter, and add the garlic and white wine.
3. Make a creamy sauce. Sprinkle the mushrooms with flour. Stir in the broth and milk. A flexible silicone spatula is handy for this, so you can scrape up delicious bits of garlic or mushroom as you stir.
4. Add the bouillon, and seasonings, and simmer it all until the cream sauce is thick.
5. Finish by adding the cooked chicken, peas and pimentos to the cream sauce.
6. Serve with biscuits, just like Grandma did! Use the ultra-tender buttermilk biscuits or go next-level with onion-chive biscuits. 

How To Freeze Chicken à la King 

• 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 labeled, freezer-safe container. Store it in the freezer 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, the texture may change slightly after being frozen, but it’ll still be delicious. 

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