French Onion Baked Hen Breasts

These French Onion Baked Hen Breasts will blow your thoughts with all of the flavors of the unimaginable soup, however much less problem! Impress the entire household with tremendous juicy, golden-brown hen smothered in caramelized onion sauce!

What are the components within the French Onion Baked Hen Breasts?

Since we’re principally making a French onion sauce scenario for the hen to take a seat in whereas it bakes, you’ll want almost all the identical belongings you’d anticipate for a French onion soup: onions, liquids, thyme, and many others., plus the hen. Right here’s an entire listing of all of the components you’ll want and a little bit data for every:

• boneless skinless hen breasts – This lower of hen is very easy to seek out in my space and works rather well for this recipe. Nonetheless, I’ve included directions for bone-in breasts and bone-in thighs as properly.
• kosher salt & recent floor black pepper – Use this to season the hen, in addition to for the onions and sauce later within the recipe! I strongly favor recent floor black pepper over pre-ground store-bought. Simply belief me!
• olive oil & butter – Olive oil helps give a pleasant sear when browning the hen, and utilizing butter to cook dinner the onions supplies one of the best taste. Collectively, they provide a very good steadiness of upper smoke level however scrumptious taste.
• yellow onions – Two giant onions are loads for this recipe. It can really seem like a number of onions at first, however they’ll cook dinner down as they caramelize!
• recent thyme – Contemporary thyme is a signature a part of French onion soup, so don’t skip. You simply want the one recent herb for this recipe.
• garlic – One other requirement for French onion soup. I strongly suggest utilizing recent garlic (over jarred) for one of the best taste.
• all-purpose flour – A small quantity of flour is what thickens up the sauce and offers a creamy end.
• white wine – Don’t fear, the alcohol cooks off and you may’t really style any wine. It really helps open up the opposite flavors within the dish and brighten every part up!
• hen broth – Use a very good hen broth to offer much more taste total.
• Worcestershire sauce – For that savory chunk of taste, I like so as to add a heavy sprint of W sauce!
• Gruyère and/or Swiss cheese – The cheese is optionally available right here, and that’s solely as a result of the hen is so unimaginable and saucy and savory, you don’t NEED the cheese. However for those who prefer it tacky, I say go for it!

Gear you’ll must make this recipe:

An important piece of apparatus you’ll want for this recipe is a giant, oven-safe skillet or pan. I like utilizing the GreenPan nonstick model for lots of my cooking. Good browning outcomes, straightforward to scrub, and so they simply look good. For this recipe, I might use a GreenPan 12 inch Skillet. In fact every other 12 inch, oven-safe skillet would work too!

For utensils, I might suggest OXO 9-Inch Silicone Head Tongs (affiliate hyperlink!). The silicone tipped tongs eliminates scratches in your nonstick floor. An alternative choice for nonstick surfaces is picket tongs. I like this 3-Piece OXO Wooden Spoon Set (affiliate hyperlink!).

make this French Onion Baked Hen Breasts recipe:

That is simply an outline – please scroll all the way down to the recipe card for components and directions! Regardless of wanting tremendous fancy, this meal is definitely quite simple to make, with the principle factor to pay attention to is how lengthy it takes to cook dinner.

To essentially caramelize the onions, you’re going to want to cook dinner them for not less than 20 minutes. Mixed with the baking time for the hen, it will probably make this recipe really feel a little bit longer than others, however value each single minute!

In spite of everything ingredient prep is finished (reducing the onions, measuring out liquids, and many others), start the recipe by seasoning the hen. I wish to set the hen on a reducing board or plate, pat dry with a paper towel, then use tongs to flip the hen as I season. You possibly can see this pictured right here above!

Warmth up the oil in a big nonstick and oven-safe skillet. As soon as it’s sizzling and shimmering, add the hen breasts and brown them on either side. This could take about 4-5 minutes on both sides. As soon as either side are seared and golden, take away them from the pan and put aside on a plate for now. They’ll end cooking within the oven later.

Cut back the warmth to medium and add the chunk of butter to the identical pan used to sear the hen. As soon as it has melted utterly and began to froth, add the onions and thyme sprigs (sure, full sprigs, not lower up!) together with a really beneficiant pinch of salt.

Cook dinner, stirring ceaselessly, for not less than 20 minutes till the onions are gentle and barely golden (you could possibly go even longer if you need!). They’ll cook dinner down as properly. Take away the sprigs of thyme from the pan when the onions are performed. Now’s a very good time to preheat the oven to 350F.

Whereas the oven preheats, it’s time to make the sauce. Add the garlic to the onions and stir, cooking for one more minute or so till you possibly can odor the garlic properly. Subsequent, stir within the flour and cook dinner for a further minute or two to cook dinner the ‘uncooked flour’ style out of the sauce. The onions will begin to thicken up a bit and stick collectively, which is regular.

Stir within the wine and cook dinner for 2-3 minutes till you possibly can now not odor any alcohol. The onions will begin to look a bit jammy. Lastly, stir within the broth and Worcestershire sauce till you may have a properly combined and barely thickened onion sauce. 

At this level, flip off the burner. Nestle the seared hen within the onion sauce and switch the pan to the oven. Bake for about 15-20 minutes (relying on the scale of your hen breasts) till the hen is cooked by and reaches an inner temperature of 165F. Add the shredded cheese over the last 5 minutes of baking, for those who’re utilizing it.

When you take away the hen from the oven, let it cool within the sauce for not less than 5 minutes earlier than digging in. My favourite method to serve that is to slice the hen on a reducing board, put it on the plate with the perimeters, after which smother it within the onion sauce! Unimaginable 🙂

Beneath within the pictures, I served this with roasted veggies and plain couscous. The onion sauce supplies such an unimaginable taste, it’s okay to maintain the remainder of the meal a bit extra primary. There’s loads of sauce for every serving!

Finest ideas for making French Onion Baked Hen Breasts:

Listed below are my greatest ideas for making this dish at residence in your individual kitchen:

• When choosing boneless skinless hen for this recipe, search for hen breasts which are about the identical dimension. This helps them cook dinner on the similar price and end cooking on the similar time.
• Don’t skip the wine, because it provides a priceless taste enhancement to the recipe, and helps hold it nearer to the unique French onion soup type. I get the little $4 tiny field of sauvignon blanc for cooking!
• Be affected person with the onions. Time and low warmth are essential for caramelizing the pure sugars in onions. You possibly can’t pace this up with increased warmth or anything. It’s a must to give it the total time!

What to serve with French Onion Baked Hen Breasts?

Right here within the pictures under, I served this dish with oven roasted zucchini and bell peppers, plus some plain stovetop couscous. Listed below are some extra concepts:

• over mashed potatoes or a baked potato
• with rice and roasted Fall greens
• smothered over sourdough toast
• served over egg noodles (or any pasta)

Methods to meal prep this recipe:

There are a pair methods to avoid wasting time by making ready all or a part of this recipe forward. Listed below are some choices:

1. Ingredient prep: It’s potential to caramelize onions as much as 4 days forward and retailer them within the fridge, which might prevent 20 minutes of cook dinner time for this recipe. On this case, you’ll merely reheat the onions throughout Step 2 of the recipe and observe the remaining as written.
2. Full recipe prep: You can put together this whole recipe forward of time (on the weekend, for instance), then package deal it up for reheating through the week. For the reason that hen has a sauce, it would reheat properly and received’t dry out. It might reheat properly within the microwave, within the oven, or in a HotLogic (see my HotLogic assessment right here).
3. Prep & freeze: This principal dish might be frozen for as much as 3 months for very best quality. I might suggest including a further cup of broth to the sauce so all of the hen might be lined because it freezes.

retailer French Onion Baked Hen Breasts:

Retailer leftovers in an hermetic container within the fridge for as much as 4 days.

freeze French Onion Baked Hen Breasts:

These cooked hen breasts in onions sauce might be frozen for as much as 3 months for very best quality. I might suggest including a further cup of broth to the sauce so all of the hen might be lined because it freezes.

reheat French Onion Baked Hen Breasts:

Reheat leftovers in any of the next strategies:

• Microwave on Excessive for 30 second blasts, stirring in between. If serving with a facet of rice or different grain, add 1-2 TB of water to create steam whereas reheating.
• Oven: Be sure to’re utilizing an oven protected container. Cowl leftovers with foil and place within the oven. Flip oven on to 350F. Examine leftovers on the 25 minute mark. Learn my information on Reheat food With out A Microwave for more information.
• HotLogic is a mini private countertop oven that reheats meals in about 90 minutes (see my HotLogic assessment right here). I believe this recipe would reheat properly in an HL.

Recipe developed by Rachel Phipps.