Food You Can Eat: Chicken Lazone With Mushrooms

This is ridiculously easy, if a little bland. It sounds more glamorous than it is; it’s basically a creamed chicken. I throw in mushrooms because we eat tons of them when we have them around. 

1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts, sliced into tenders. I think you have to do this yourself because the tenders need to be uncoated.

2 tbsp. herb mix. The easiest way to do this is to have on hand a jar of “Italian Seasoning” or, my favorite, “Herbes de Provence.” If not, mix some garlic powder, some onion powder, some chili powder, turmeric, black pepper, paprika, whatever, make a mix. Don’t make too much because you’re only using it to make a coating for the chicken tenders.

1/2-stick (4 tbsp) butter, divided in 1/2 and softened, you might need a little more

1 cup heavy cream

1/2–1 cup sliced small mushrooms, depending on how mushroom-y you are

8 oz. of boxed spaghetti. This recipe becomes less bland if you serve it over a spicy rice, or at least some wild rice. 

——————————————————————————————-

Slice the chicken breast(s) into strips. In a shallow dish coat them in the herb mixture. 

Put two tbsp. of butter in a skillet over medium heat. Brown the coated chicken strips on all sides. This should take about five minutes. Take them out and put them on a plate.

You should have enough butter leftover to sauté the mushrooms. If not, add a little more. Remove these with a slotted spoon and put them in a bowl.

The skillet is still heating away, so go down to low and add the cream and stir so whatever’s left in the bottom and the sides gets combined. Let this reduce for a few minutes so you have only 1/2 left. Reduce the heat to a simmer and stir in 2 tbsp. butter. Now add the chicken and the mushrooms. Leave them in there for about 5 minutes. Cut into a chicken tender if you want to make sure there’s no pink and you haven’t inadvertently poached it. Move the skillet to another burner and let it rest.

Make the spaghetti noodles or the rice and serve the chicken and sauce over that. Sprinkling a little black pepper over this wouldn’t hurt. Throw on some chopped parsley if you have any.

If someone (no names) accuses you of just getting chicken tenders from a fast food place and dumping in a can of cream of mushroom soup, pretend to be offended while realizing that, my God, I have pretty much done exactly that. Still, I make this at least a couple of times every winter because it’s cheap and very comforting, to me at least.