It’s hard to beat juicy chicken in a decadently creamy and flavorful sauce. We’ve made a few of them here, like our Marry Me Chicken, Cacio e Pepe, or the always classic Chicken Alfredo, and it’s my distinct pleasure to add another one with this week's one-pan Chicken and Gnocchi recipe. What’s not to love about golden-brown chicken breast with a hearty mix of veggies in a creamy and cheesy sauce, especially when it’s this quick and easy?
Once you start pan frying Midamars Halal chicken breast, you’re off to the races and you don’t need to stop until you’re digging into the finished meal. One of the hidden keys to this recipe's amazing flavor comes from this frying as it leaves a delicious golden-brown fond on the bottom of the pan that will get incorporated into the creamy sauce later.
And speaking of, once the chicken is done it can be set aside while the veggies get their turn to fry. We used a mix of sliced shallots and mushrooms for a savory and earthy blend that goes miles towards adding a great richness to the sauce with a mix of complex and delicious flavors, from savory, to earthy, to creamy and cheesy later on.
This mix of veggies with the chicken fond from earlier all get to know each other when you start to make the cream sauce in the pan next. We went with a whole milk base rather than a heavy cream for a sauce that’s a bit better for you but will still thicken up and become addictingly creamy. As the sauce comes to simmer, scrape up that tasty fond at the bottom with a wooden spatula so you aren’t missing any of that flavor. You’re taking the time to make it, so we want you to enjoy all of this recipe!
The titular gnocchi will simmer in this sauce as well until deliciously tender, and the starch from these lil’ guys will also help thicken the sauce a bit. Then mix in some spinach and freshly shredded parmesan for some added freshness and cheesiness that we all love in a good Italian cream sauce. We used about 1 ½ cups of freshly shredded parmesan, but this is a sauce you can adjust to your tastes when it comes to the cheese, salt, and pepper, so make it your own!
With any good cream sauce with cheese, freshly shredded is the best to ensure that it melts correctly and smoothly blends into the sauce without getting stringy. And patience is key as well, add the cheese in batches and mix throughout to melt before adding more so your sauce comes out nice and smooth. When all is said and done, add the chicken back into the sauce with its accumulated juices just to warm back up and you’re ready to dive in!
Great flavor is what we strive for whenever we cook, but I think a great recipe always tastes better when it’s also simple to make. All you need is one large pan to bounce back and forth to while you’re cooking and you’re all set, and on top of being easy, this ensures all the great flavors of each ingredient really come together to give as much flavor as they can to the final dish.
What a final dish this is, like I said up top, it’s really hard to beat a recipe like this that does so many things right. The chicken is juicy with a delicious golden-brown exterior, and the sauce is rich and flavorful, containing everything we love about each of the ingredients mixed in, and of course the tender gnocchi are a delight to enjoy. It’s called comfort food for a reason, and that’s why we love them, it’s absolutely delicious and it’s so easy to make.
