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Chicken au Champagne

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Bonjour, bienvenue à la nourriture de ce mois-ci du monde, la France! Hello, welcome to this month’s Food of the World – France! Let me just start by saying, this Chicken au Champagne is going to blow your mind!! The flavors are absolutely amazing. I am not a Champagne lover, I actually can’t stand the taste of it. When combined with chicken, and tarragon, il est magnifique!

Chicken thighs covered in a mushroom sauce in a cast iron skillet.

How crazy is it, that I used a cast iron skillet to make a meal with Champagne? It worked perfectly, and adds a nice rustic touch to this gourmet meal. Oh yes, this is a restaurant quality meal that you can surely impress your dinner guests with!

Impressive, elegant, delicious, and simple to prepare. That is a perfect meal in my book. 😉

Chicken thighs cooked in a cast iron skillet with a creamy mushroom sauce.

Don’t want to use Champagne or mushrooms? Then give this Coq au Riesling with leeks a try!

How do you make Chicken au Champagne?

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large skillet. Seer the chicken, about three minutes on each side.

Four chicken thighs browned in a cast iron skillet.

Remove chicken, and place on a plate.

Four browned chicken thighs on a plate.

Remove pan from heat, and add shallots.

Shallots simmering in a cast iron skillet.

Have the champagne ready to go BEFORE you add the shallots. They cook very quickly! Add the champagne.

Champagne and shallots in a cast iron skillet.

My shallots got a bit too brown, but don’t worry, it didn’t ruin the dish. 😉  Scrape the bottom of the pan to remove the cooked bits, and add the chicken back to the pan.

Four chicken thighs in a cast iron skillet with shallots and champagne.

Baste chicken with the sauce and place in preheated oven and bake for 25 minutes, until thoroughly cooked.

While the chicken is baking, heat butter in a non-stick pan. Add the mushrooms and cook for 5 minutes.

Sliced mushrooms and butter in a non-stick skillet.

Remove chicken from oven, and add the mushrooms and tarragon to the skillet.

Four baked chicken thighs in a cast iron skillet with champagne, sliced mushrooms and chopped parsley.

Gently stir to combine and drizzle with fresh lemon juice. Serve with brown rice and Hericot Vert (French green beans).

Chicken au Champagne on a plate with brown rice and green beans.

Pour sauce over the chicken and oooh, la la!!

Recipe Notes & Tips:

  • *Disclaimer* I did not use French Champagne – blasphème! I just could not wrap my head around the thought of using a $60 bottle of Veuve Clicquot, in a main dish. That is a champagne to savor and enjoy! I used Korbel Brut, at $14 a bottle it is a much better choice.
  • This dish would traditionally be made with skin on, bone in, chicken breasts, but those can be difficult to find. I used chicken thighs, and probably always will.
  • Sorry, there is no substitute for the champagne in in this dish.

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Enjoy!!

Chicken thighs covered in a mushroom sauce in a cast iron skillet.

Chicken au Champagne

This rustic, yet elegant Chicken au Champagne is sure to please everyone around the dinner table! It’s perfect for date night or a casual weeknight meal.
4.31 from 56 votes
Print Rate
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: French
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 35 minutes
Total Time: 45 minutes
Servings: 4 Servings
Calories: 436kcal
Author: Lisa Johnson

Ingredients

  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 4 chicken breasts or thighs (skin-on, bone-in)
  • sea salt and black pepper (to taste)
  • 1 large shallot (minced)
  • 1 cup champagne
  • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 1 cup sliced mushrooms
  • 2 tablespoons fresh tarragon (chopped)
  • fresh lemon juice (to garnish)

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Heat olive oil in a large skillet.
  • Add chicken to skillet and seer for 3 minutes on each side.
  • Remove chicken, and place on a plate.
  • Remove pan from heat, and add shallots. Heat and stir for 1 minute.
  • Add the Champagne and scrape bottom of pan to remove all of the cooked bits.
  • Place the chicken back in the pan, baste with the champagne sauce and place in the oven. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes until thoroughly cooked.
  • Heat butter in a large non-stick pan. Add the mushrooms and cook for 5 minutes.
  • Remove chicken from oven, and add the sauteed mushrooms. Stir in the tarragon and drizzle with lemon juice.
  • Serve with brown rice and Haricot Vert (French green beans).

Notes

  • *Disclaimer* I did not use French Champagne – blasphème!  I just could not wrap my head around the thought of using a $60 bottle of Veuve Clicquot, in a main dish.  That is a champagne to savor and enjoy!  I used Korbel Brut, at $14 a bottle it is a much better choice.
  • This dish would traditionally be made with skin on, bone in, chicken breasts, but those can be difficult to find.  I used chicken thighs, and probably always will. ?
  • Sorry, there is no substitute for the champagne in in this dish.
  • If chicken thighs are small, you can easily fit 6 in the pan.
 

Nutrition

Calories: 436kcal | Carbohydrates: 3g | Protein: 39g | Fat: 26g | Saturated Fat: 8g | Cholesterol: 130mg | Sodium: 122mg | Potassium: 631mg | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 470IU | Vitamin C: 2.2mg | Calcium: 65mg | Iron: 2.8mg

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60 Comments

  1. Oh my goodness, Lisa, this dish looks beautiful and amazing – I can only imagine how incredible it tastes! I love finding new recipes that use chicken. Love! Thanks for sharing and pinning – hope you have a great Tuesday!

  2. Good Morning Lisa,
    I can’t wait to try this recipe, I can almost taste it, the flavor would be just fantastic! Thanks so much for sharing this recipe and have a great day!
    Miz Helen

  3. Don’t like champagne, and I thought we could be friends.
    Well, I am pinning this to make with a very cheap bottle of champagne, I might even use prosecco. It looks amazing and simple to make. Fantastique!

    1. Hahaha, no I don’t like champagne. I am so strange sometimes. I don’t like caviar either. I could never make it as a rich person. I realized after I bought the champagne, that I could have just used the little single serving bottles. 😉

  4. I actually love cooking with chicken thighs. My husband thinks he only likes white meat, but whenever i cook with the thighs he comments on how tender the chicken is… and I just smile. I think I’ve had a bottle of champagne leftover from the holidays in my fridge for months – this might be the perfect solution!

  5. Lisa, this chicken looks amazing! I love skillet dinners like this — so rustic and the chicken has such a nice golden brown color. Pinning!

  6. OMG – that plate looks so amazing for dinner and tarragon is one of my favorite herbs – I’ve made coq au vin before but with champagne this dish must be so awesome

  7. Wow! That looks great, and not too hard to prepare. My boyfriend won’t eat mushrooms, though, so I may have to leave them out. (Or add them and make him eat around them.) Also, your food photography is is always SO NICE!

  8. Dear Lisa, Your chicken looks absolutely wonderful. So juicy and flavorful. I don’t care for the taste of champagne either, but this is just perfect. Blessings, Catherine xo

  9. This dish looks fantastic! I love the way it has a chance to bake in the oven and absorb all the flavors from the other ingredients. Definitely on my list to try. Thanks for sharing on Cast Party Wednesday.

  10. Made this for dinner tonight. Quick, easy, and DIVINE! Quick for a weeknight dinner, but “fancy” enough for a dinner party! Love it, thanks!

  11. Absolutely gorgeous dish!! With Valentine’s Day coming up, this would make a nice special dinner for two! 🙂

  12. Dear Lisa, thank you for sharing this amazing recipe. I prepared it yesterday together with a good friend of mine and we really enjoyed the taste of it. It made a lot of fun using this great amount of different fresh herbs. We had a bottle of Hugo (which is a sparkling wine, flavored with elderflower and mint) with it, which fits perfectly 🙂
    p.s. if somebody else is wondering how to heat the oven up to 375 degrees, he or she should convert it from degree Fahrenheit in centigrade 😀 its about 190 °C That caused a bit of confusion in the beginning 😀
    Best wishes from Germany 🙂

    1. Thank you so much Alex, I’m so glad that you enjoyed it….and thanks for the tip about converting the oven temperature!! I love the idea of using a flavored sparkling wine! 🙂

  13. French advise : You can also try this receipe with 1/2 cup of cognac instead of champagne and add a little bit of french cream at the end … It taste a little bit different but it is also fabulous… and no need to open a bottle of champagne just to cook.

  14. So I made this tonight for my hubby and my dad. I served with green beans and potatoes. I feel it needs some kind of starch because it’s hard to imagine the chicken and sauce without it. This dish was yummy and made me feel like I was in a fancy traditional French restaurant. And it was boy approved!

    I also live in New orleans so if you want more of that creole french feel, this isn’t it. But if you want more of that yummy traditional flavor from the shallots and champagne, this is sure to hit the spot. Great job on the recipe!

  15. This was fantastic, and easy, thanks! We had it over mashed potatoes. I added too much oil to the pan for fear of sticking and it may have prevented some of the browning, so I’ll use less in the future. I don’t cook with tarragon much, but this is going to be added to the regular rotation. The leftover champagne is just a bonus. I am going to try growing tarragon!

  16. My neighbor gave me four little bottles of Barefoot Bubbly Brut Cuvée for New Years (California). Little did she know that I rarely drink and I don’t like the taste. Very happy to find this and other recipes to try 🙂

  17. Thank you so much for this recipe! I made this last night for supper and it was divine. Not only was the presentation lovely but the chicken was full of so much flavor! Juicy, sweet and the tarragon gave it just a hint of warmth. Easily one of my new favorites 🙂

  18. This was amazing and is now my “special occasion” meal. I did it once with thick cut porkchops… Huge win!

  19. 5 stars
    This is so good!!! I’ve been looking to replace the retro chicken & rice my mom served with something more real fresh and flavorful for years and this is finally it! I couldn’t find the tarragon (which I don’t love anyway) so tried fresh parsley. I figured it would be bland with this less flavor packed herb but nope! It was amazing!

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