Smothered Chicken with caramelized onions, mushrooms, spinach and provolone!

I've been in a recipe rut these days! While it's technically fall, the weather in Toronto has been surprisingly warm, sunny and summer-like... and I am not complaining at all! I'm pretty much dreading winter and the snow, so the longer it can stay warm out, the happier I am! However, I've noticed a lot of fall recipes are making their rounds online... pumpkin dishes, fall stews, apple pies, etc... but I'm just not in the mood to make these autumn staples just yet lol. I am also coming off of a week long vacation so maybe that's it too haha

So while trying to find some cooking inspo, I was searching for an easy chicken dish on Pinterest and stumbled upon this Smothered Chicken with Creamed Spinach, Bacon and Mushroom recipe from Julia's Album. Knowing I had some chicken breasts in the freezer, I decided to make this for dinner last week.

I made a few adjustments to the recipe based on my preferences and while I will probably need to tweak the measurements for the next time, the dish came out great! It was a comforting and tasty meal, using easy-to-find ingredients! I was really into the idea of caramelized mushrooms so I opted to also add in caramelized onions! I also pan fried my chicken first because I like getting some colour and flavour on my chicken breasts before baking! One short-cut that I tried out was to use Cream of Bacon soup, in place of cream and cooking bacon strips LOL I don't typically have or buy cream and I also didn't feel like frying up bacon, so thought this would be a great way to cut those two ingredients out haha and it actually worked really well!!! It definitely added a rich flavour to the dish while cutting out some prep work! I would just advise to be careful with how much salt you add to the other components because I found that the Cream of Bacon was already on the salty side.

Anyways, because I only had used 2 chicken breasts this recipe made more "sauce" than was needed. So if you aren't all about the sauce, I would suggest either adding more chicken breasts to the recipe or reducing the amount of Cream of Bacon soup. I will probably try to play with the sauce to chicken ratio the next time I make this, but it turned out delicious regardless!

Take a peek at the recipe below :)

Smothered Chicken with Caramelized Mushrooms and Onions, Spinach & Provolone

Adapted from Julia's Album

Serves 2

1 C sliced cremini mushrooms

2 medium onions, sliced into thin rings

2 chicken breasts, butterflied in half

1 tsp butter

pinch of salt

pinch of black pepper

pinch of red pepper flakes

4 garlic cloves, minced

10 oz fresh spinach

1 can of Cream of Bacon soup

4 slices of provolone cheese

1. Start the caramelized onions and mushrooms: These will need some time to cook down and caramelize, so start this process first. In a large frying pan, add the butter, onions and mushrooms and cook on medium heat for about 15-20 minutes or until the veggies are caramelized. Stir frequently and add some water (just a teeny tiny bit!) if the veggies start to brown and stick to the pan.

2. In the meantime, start the cook on your chicken breast: First season both sides of your chicken breast with salt, black pepper and a pinch of red pepper flakes. Add some oil to a frying pan and pan fry the chicken for 10-15 minutes or until cooked through, flipping half way. Remove the chicken and place into a large baking dish. Pre-heat your oven to 375 F.

3. Using the same dish you cooked your chicken in and add the garlic, spinach and a pinch of salt and pepper and sauté for 2-3 minutes (until the spinach has wilted). Next add in the cream of bacon and let it come to a boil, on high heat. Once boiling, reduce the heat and let simmer for another 2-3 minutes.

4. Assemble the chicken: Place a spoonful of spinach, followed by a spoonful of the caramelized onions and mushroom mixture on top of each piece of chicken. Then pour the remaining spinach mixture into the baking dish. Finally, top each piece of chicken with a slice of provolone cheese. Bake in the oven uncovered, for 15 minutes. Once the 15 minutes is up, broil for another 1 minute so that the cheese gets some colour. Remove and serve immediately. I served mine with a brown rice, and it was delish!