This delicious mustard chicken is simple enough for weeknights, but special enough for company.
This one-pan easy mustard chicken has a creamy mustard sauce, bacon and onions. Simple enough for weeknights, but special enough for company.
Ingredients and Substitutions
Chicken – I made this with skin-on/bone-in chicken thighs and legs (drumsticks). If you prefer boneless chicken, I suggest picking up bone-in/skin on chicken breasts and just cutting the bone out yourself. Chicken breasts are easy to take off the bone, and at least you’ll get the skin to brown and add flavour. It’s also usually cheaper than buying boneless chicken breasts.
Mustard – you will need both regular Dijon mustard and Grainy mustard for this recipe.
Pancetta – the pancetta bring a lovely salty note to this dish, so I highly recommend it. If you don’t have pancetta, you can substitute bacon.
Serving Suggestion
This dish would be perfect with some creamy mashed potatoes, as the gravy is delicious. The mustard sauce is also well suited to serve with pasta.
Get the Recipe: Mustard Chicken
Ingredients
- 8 bone-in/skin-on chicken thighs, or breasts/drumsticks or mixture
Chicken Marinade:
- 1/3 cup Dijon mustard
- 1/4 teaspoon paprika, sweet or smoked
- 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
- Freshly ground pepper
For the rest:
- 1/2 cup pancetta, diced (can use bacon)
- 1/2 cup onion, diced
- 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves, (or 1/2 tsp. dried)
- 3/4 cup white wine
- 2 Tablespoons grainy mustard
- 2-3 Tablespoons creme fraiche, or heavy cream
- Fresh thyme, for garnish
Instructions
- Chicken Marinade: Combine the marinade ingredients in a large bowl. Toss the chicken pieces in the marinade mixture, coating well. Set aside.
- Heat a large skillet with a cover (or a Dutch oveover medium-high heat. Add the bacon and cook, stirring frequently, until it’s just starting to brown. Remove bacon from pan in to a small bowl. Leave about 1 Tbsp. of bacon fat in the pan (or add a bit of olive oil if you used pancetta and there isn’t much fat). Add the onion and cook for about 5 minutes, until soft. Stir in the thyme and let cook for a few minutes more. Remove onion to bowl with bacon.
- Add a bit of olive oil to pan and heat. Add half the chicken to the pan (Don’t over-crowd. Cooking in two batches is best). Cook over medium-high heat until browned on one side, then flip over and brown the other side. Remove to a plate and cook the second batch, adding more olive oil, as necessary. Remove this batch to a plate, as well.
- To the hot, empty skillet, add the wine and stir/scrape well to loosen the brown bits on the bottom. Return the chicken, bacon and onions to the pan. Cover and cook over low-medium heat for about 15 minutes, turning the chicken in the sauce a few times during cooking. Test chicken for doneness and cook a few more minutes, if necessary.
- Remove chicken from pan to a serving plate. Stir grainy mustard and creme fraiche or heavy cream in to the sauce and stir just until heated through. (If sauce is too thick, you can thin with a little warm water). Spoon sauce over chicken and garnish with some thyme.
- This dish is nice with pasta or mashed potatoes.
Notes
Adapted from David Lebovitz’s “My Paris Kitchen”
More Chicken Dinner Recipes to Love!
Hi! I’m Jennifer, a home cook schooled by trial and error and almost 40 years of getting dinner on the table! I love to share my favourite recipes, both old and new, together with lots of tips and tricks to hopefully help make your home cooking enjoyable, stress free, rewarding and of course, delicious!
Discovered this recipe a few years ago and it has become a family favorite. Sooooo good! Well, last night I had the brilliant idea to make it in an Instant Pot. Followed the recipe exactly as written except pressure cooked for 10 mins instead of cooking on stovetop. Sauté feature worked wonderfully for everything else from browning meat to thickening sauce. WINNER! WINNER! CHICKEN DINNER!
So glad to hear, Lisa :) Thanks so much!
Very delicious. I used boneless skinless thighs and subbed bacon for pancetta. Served with mashed potatoes. The meat was tender and flavorful. And the sauce is very tasty I cooked for 20 minutes and it was just right. Thank you for the new addition to this family’s meal lineup! ❤️
So glad to hear, Penny! Thanks so much :)
I served this over homemade egg noodles – what a culinary hit it was.
Thanks Jennifer for this tasty and easy to prepare dish for weekdays or for company. I am new to your blog, however you have quickly become my go to recipe provider.
So glad you enjoyed it, Carole Ann! Thanks so much :)
This is absolutely delicious! I used four bone-in, skin on thighs but kept the amount of sauce the same. As some others suggested, I added some chicken broth with the mustard and cream to make more sauce. I used 10 percent cream as that’s what I had and the sauce was delightful. Great with mashed potatoes. Thanks for the recipe, Jennifer!
So glad to hear, Julie :) Thanks!
The mustard burns when I am browning my chicken which makes my sauce taste a little burnt. How do I brown the chicken on med-high and not burn the bottom of my pan?
Hi Audrey, You definitely don’t want burnt mustard, so you can do one of two things – a heavier-bottomed pan or lower the heat. Every pan/stove is a bit different, so if if the instructions aren’t working in your kitchen, you can always adjust as needed.
Hi! Maybe a weird question but what pan is that? brand, size? I love love love it and want one!
Hi Rebecka! Sorry for the delay. I was away for the weekend and had to wait until I got home to confirm which skillet that is. It is a Kitchen Aid Stainless Steel 10-inch skillet. It is part of a set and has a glass lid. I love the Kitchen Aid cookware. Nice and heavy and it has stood up well to everyday use :) Hope that helps!
I have found my new favorite chicken recipe! This is so amazing!!!
Thanks Monica! So glad you enoyed it :)
Hi Jennifer, I wanted to make this dish, but I can’t really understand the proceedings. You wrote that one have to combine all the marinade ingredients and toss the chicken into it, then let it stand for a while, but then you mention in the procedure adding each ingredient separate. Does that mean I have to reclaim the ingredients from the marinade to do so?
Hi Edward, Sorry, I just realized that it could be confusing as written. The marinade is the first 4 ingredients only. I have fixed the recipe to make it more clear. The additional items (bacon, onion, thyme, wine, grainy mustard and creme fraiche are added to the pan later, per the instructions. Hope that helps :)
Hi Edward! It looks like the site style has changed a bit since I first made this recipe, so now the way the ingredients list has been formatted makes it confusing. The marinade is just the first four ingredients (dijon, paprika, salt, pepper). The rest of the items on the list are added throughout the cooking process, as you see in the recipe. Perhaps Jennifer can format it a little differently to separate the marinade from the other items.
Thanks for replying Suze and you’re right. When I switched recipe card thing recently, the spaces disappeared between the sections, so I see why Edward was confused too. I have fixed the recipe to make it more clear. Thanks again!
I Jennifer! The recipe sounds great but I’m not sure what to do with the marinate before cooking. Should I scrap it off or fry the chicken as is? Will you please clarify this issue for me?
Thanks!!!
Hi Gia, You don’t need to scrape it off, just let any excess drip off when you remove the chicken from the marinade and cook with a bit of the marinade on it. Hope that helps.
I’ve made this many times, and my marinade is usually fairly thick, so it wouldn’t necessarily drip. If there’s any extra in the bottom of the bowl, I usually scrape it into the pan at some point, as it all goes towards the final sauce.
Thanks Suze! It’s been so long since I made this dish, it was hard to remember. Which reminds me I need to make this again soon :)
Hi Jennifer, I’m cooking this right now and I must say, it smells and tastes fantastic!
However, I must confess that I added 1/2 cup of chicken stock because I wanted more of the gravy.
So glad Susan and I’ve done that before, too. I love my gravy :)
I found this recipe on Pinterest (of course!) and loved it! Second time I made it I shredded the chicken, stirred the sauce into the chicken and made tacos with a little red onion and avo. Delish! I can’t wait to look around some more. :)
So glad you enjoyed it, Mari and tacos sound delicious!
I’m interested to see what size/brand of pan you prefer to use for dishes like these? I try not to over crowd but the ditch oven I have is too small. And sometimes gravy sauces in my cast iron can have a taste I don’t like. Think I’m probably needing to add a pan to my stash…Curious! Thanks :)
Hi Sarah! The pan shown in this post is a 10-inch Kitchen Aid stainless skillet. I have a whole set of Kitchen Aid stainless. This skillet comes with a glass lid, as well. I also have a 10-inch Le Creuset stainless skillet. Both of these are good quality – nice and heavy. Both of these can go into the oven too, which is always good. 10-inch size is a good size for us, as I’m only cooking for 2 or 3 most of the time. If you’re regularly cooking for more, I’d look at a 12-inch.
As for Dutch ovens, I have two – both 5.5 quart. I have a Le Creuset enamelled cast iron and an Emile Henry one, that isn’t cast iron, but I’m not sure what it’s made of (maybe porcelain?). I like and use them both and find the size just about perfect for most dishes.
We try not to eat complex carbs, so any suggestions of a nice veg side dish that would go well with this? We love all the other ingredients so I’m sure we will enjoy this.
This would be lovely with a cauliflower mash or a parsnip puree Kristi.
Loved the flavours I used turkey bacon and added a bit of chicken stock to make extra sauce for the pasta. Thanks for the recipe.
Thanks Beverly. So glad you enjoyed it :)
I made the chicken with mustard and it was delicious my husband really enjoyed it.I did not tell him i made it with mustard until after he had eaten it.
this is a keeper.
So glad you enjoyed it, Ammie and love your strategy of leaving out the mustard detail ;)
I’m confused about the marinade that is listed in the ingredients list and the chicken is to sit in before cooking. There is no mention of what goes into the marinade. I went through the directions and the process does not use all the ingredients so I thought the left over would make a marinade. 1/3 of a cup of Dijon, salt, pepper, paprika, doesn’t sound like enough liquid to make a marinade.
Can you please explain?
Hi Tracy, The marinade ingredients are a rub that goes on to the chicken before it is cooked. After that, there are additional ingredients added, like wine and more mustard, that finishes the sauce.
Thanks you very much for the answer to my question, will make it as soon I get at my door the grainy mustad you suggested.