Creamy Chicken Broccoli and Leek
This Chicken and leek with mushrooms in a creamy alfredo sauce is quick enough for weeknight dinners or lazy weekends. A flavorful comfort dinner that will become your family favorite.
This chicken and leek casserole is a great recipe to make when you want to cook something fast and delicious? I make it a bit differently than most people. By different, I mean I love to use leeks in some of my recipes. They bring out the unique flavors in this chicken casserole. Everyone loves it!
What are leeks?
Leeks are related to garlic, onions, scallions and shallots. It resembles scallions, a plant related to the onion, with flat overlapping leaves forming an elongated cylindrical bulb that together with the leaf bases are eaten as a vegetable.
This chicken and leek casserole uses heavy whipping cream, butter, and cheese and more cheese and more butter, you get it. It’s quite rich….but, we can treat ourselves every now and then, right?
Feel free to use chicken breast if you prefer, or do a combination of both. However, I suggest you try the chicken thighs. They’re so much more flavorful than chicken breast.
But if you must use chicken breast, I suggest that you brine your chicken breast first. If you aren’t sure how to brine chicken breast, you can check out Ali from Gimme Some Oven chicken brine recipe.
How to make a chicken casserole
The Alfredo sauce in this chicken and leek is rich and flavorful but if you are on a special diet, you can do half milk and half heavy whipping cream. However the taste won’t be the same.
Here’s how to make it. First, preheat the oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.
Prep the veggies.
Season the chicken.
Add vegetable oil to the skillet.
Cook the chicken over medium-high heat until golden and crispy about 3-4 minutes on each side.
While the chicken is cooking, cook the leeks and broccoli together on medium for about 3-5 minutes (make sure to add a teaspoon of vegetable oil)
Remove the chicken and set it to the side.
Add the mushrooms and butter to the same pan you cooked the chicken in.Cook the mushrooms for about 3 minutes.
Add the heavy whipping cream and more butter and let it come to a boil then simmer.
Add the leeks and broccoli to the pan with the mushrooms and heavy whipping cream.
Add the chicken. I love to serve it with mashed potatoes, baked potatoes or pasta. I hope you can try it out!
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Chicken Casserole
Ingredients
For the Chicken
- 6 Chicken Thighs
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp pepper
- 1/4 tsp smoked paprika seasoning
- 1/4 tsp celery salt seasoning
- 1/4 tsp garlic seasoning
- 2 tbs oil
For the vegetables
- 16 oz package of mushrooms
- 1 cleaned leek see notes below
- 2 1/2 cup broccoli florets
- 1 tbs unsalted butter
For the Sauce
- 1 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
- 2 tbs unsalted butter reserve 1 tbsp of the butter
- 2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 1 1/4 pepper reserve 1/4 tsp of pepper
- small pinch of lemon pepper seasoning optional
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 1/4 tsp celery salt
Instructions
Season the Chicken
- In a small bowl, mix the salt, black pepper, smoked paprika, celery salt, and garlic powder. Rub the seasoning mixture evenly onto the chicken thighs.
Cook the Chicken
- Heat the oil in a large pan over medium-high heat.Add the chicken thighs and cook until golden brown and crispy on both sides, about 4–5 minutes per side.Remove the chicken from the pan and set aside.
Saute the Vegetables
- In the same pan, add 1 tablespoon butter and let it melt. Add the mushrooms and cook for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in the broccoli and leeks, and cook for another 2–3 minutes until slightly tender.
Make the Sauce
- Reduce the heat to medium-low. Add the heavy whipping cream, 1 tablespoon reserved butter, salt, Parmesan cheese, reserved 1/4 teaspoon black pepper, lemon pepper seasoning (if using), smoked paprika, and celery salt to the pan. Stir gently until the sauce is smooth and heated through.
Combine and Finish
- Return the chicken to the pan, nestling it into the sauce and vegetables. Simmer for 5 minutes, or until the chicken is heated through and the sauce thickens slightly.
Serve
- Enjoy hot, optionally garnished with extra Parmesan or fresh herbs.
Notes
Thank you so much for this delicious and easy recipe!!! My family it immensely!!
Yummy, but help me understand the “preheat oven to 450°” part. I just did the whole thing in a cast iron pan.
Haha, I must’ve been thinking of another recipe! Sorry! I’ll remove that part. Thank you for letting me know!
Looks delicious. Going to add to my list of meals to make. One quick question: The pepper for the sauce, is that 1 1/4 tsp?
Thank you Tiffany! Correct. 1 and 1/4 tsp. The reserved 1/4 tsp is added after the sauce is done but that is totally optional.