My smothered chicken recipe is determined to be your new favorite meal. The one you crave for its tender pieces of poultry. Its slow-simmered flavors. It’s perfectly seasoned gravy that goes well with anything. Yeah, that kind of meal!
What makes this recipe one of the most memorable chicken recipes you’ll ever eat? Gravy. The chicken’s cooked in it. The flavors get plenty of time to develop. And you get a gravy that rivals any southern chicken dish you’ve ever had.
If you’re like me and love wonderfully tender meat smothered in a luscious gravy try my Swiss steak, crockpot pork chops smothered in mushroom and onion gravy, authentic steak pizzaiola, and super easy crockpot chicken and gravy! Your family will love them all. ♥
Let’s Make This!
What I Love About This Recipe
Any recipe that has the word smothered promises deliciousness. And this smothered chicken recipe? Oh, trust me. It delivers on those promises!
- Deep, slow-simmered flavor
- Tender, juicy chicken
- Crowd-pleasing perfection
- Southern comfort at its best!
Smothered Chicken Ingredients
- Whole Chicken: Cut up into 8 pieces.
- Salt + Pepper: Table salt and fresh cracked black pepper.
- All-Purpose Flour:
- Vegetable Oil: Any Neutral Flavored Vegetable Oil.
- Onion: Yellow onion chopped into small pieces.
- Celery: Diced Into 1/4 inch or smaller pieces.
- Garlic: Chopped, not minced but chopped into small pieces.
- Carrots: I like these chopped small like the rest of the vegetables in this dish.
- Chicken Broth: Use low sodium so you can control the overall salt of the finished dish.
- Poultry Seasoning: Adds the perfect herbal seasoning mix to the dish.
- Cayenne Pepper: Adds a little background heat to the dish. If your family is heat sensitive, feel free to omit it!
- Parsley: Adds some freshness to the long simmered dish!
Storing + Freezing
- How Long Can You Keep This In The Fridge? Gravy isn’t super versatile when it comes to fridge storage. You’ll only get up to two days in the fridge, even sealed. Longer and the gravy starts to separate and congeal, which makes for texture differentiations and general ickiness
- Can You Freeze This? Yes! The gravy in my smothered in chicken recipe freezes very nicely. Once fully cooled, store your leftovers in an airtight container, and you can freeze the chicken and gravy for up to three months. Your chicken would normally last longer, but the way it’s been cooked in the gravy breaks down the freezer life a little bit.
Serving Recommendations:
I love this served on a bed of my creamy make ahead mashed potatoes to sop up the dreamy gravy and you know I’m going to have fresh, buttery crescent rolls or Bisquick biscuits for dipping!
For my veg, I like to serve everyone’s favorite KFC coleslaw, or roasted broccoli or keep it southern with either Southern collard greens recipe, Southern green beans, Arkansas green beans, or sweet corn casserole.
Top it all off with my amazing peach cobbler, strawberry jello cake, pineapple sheet cake, or Cola Cola cake for the meal of a lifetime!
How To Make Smothered Chicken Recipe
The crux of this cajun-smothered chicken recipe is the homemade gravy! If you’ve never made gravy before, let me walk you through it.
You’ll need fat, aromatics, a starchy thickener, and chicken stock. For this recipe, we use the vegetable oil our chicken was cooked in.
Next, we’ll sauté the aromatic components: onions, garlic, celery, and carrots. These classic “mirepoix” ingredients will soften enough to release their natural oils and flavors into the gravy but still leave a little texture in the finished product.
Then comes the thickener. I use flour and cook it just enough to eliminate the raw taste and emulsify it with the other ingredients. Once it’s happy, add chicken stock, and finish cooking your chicken pieces in this velvety mixture.
Finally, garnish your recipe with chopped parsley, and dig in!
More Southern Favorites
- Texas Sheet Cake
- Southern Chicken And Dumplings
- Southern Macaroni Salad
- Southern Cornbread
- Louisiana Crunch Cake
- Mississippi Pot Roast
- Blackened Chicken
Smothered Chicken
Ingredients
- 1 (3-4 pounds) whole chicken, cut into 8 pieces
- salt
- pepper
- 3/4 cup plus 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour divided
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- 2 cups yellow onion chopped
- 1 cup celery chopped
- 3 cloves garlic chopped
- 2 cups carrots chopped
- 3 cups chicken broth
- 1/2 teaspoon poultry seasoning
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 2 tablespoons fresh parsley chopped
Garnish
- fresh sprigs of thyme
Instructions
- Pat chicken pieces (3-4 pounds) dry with paper towels. Sprinkle chicken pieces with 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. In a shallow bowl, spread 3/4 cup all-purpose flour. Dredge chicken pieces, one at a time, in the flour mixture, shaking off any excess.
- Heat vegetable oil (1/4 cup) in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add half the chicken pieces, skin side down, cooking for 4-6 minutes until nicely browned. Remove the browned chicken to a plate. Repeat with remaining chicken pieces, adjusting heat as needed, so as not to burn the flour.
- Pour off all but 3 tablespoons of the oil. Reduce the heat to medium-low and add the onions (2 cups), celery (1 cup), garlic (3 cloves), and carrots (2 cups) and cook until veggies are soft, 7-8 minutes. Sprinkle the remaining 3 tablespoons of all-purpose flour over the veggies and stir to combine. Continue to cook for 1 minute. Mix in broth (3 cups), poultry seasoning (1/2 teaspoon), cayenne pepper (1/4 teaspoon), 2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon black pepper. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to low. Nestle chicken pieces into the sauce along with any accumulated juices. Partially cover and simmer chicken for 30-40 minutes, or until cooked through and tender.
- Transfer chicken to a deep platter. Adjust gravy seasoning if needed, then pour over chicken. Sprinkle with parsley (2 tablespoons) and fresh sprigs of thyme. Serve.
This was easy to make and just delicious! I added a little worchestershire sauce. Served it with lightly buttered rice. Thanks for sharing the recipe!
You’re very welcome, Whirley! 😀
I made this for my son who is on the low FODMAP diet. I substituted gluten free all purpose flour for the dusting, sweet rice flour to thicken, leek greens and green onion greens for the onion and garlic oil for the garlic. It was amazing.
That’s so awesome, Hele! Love your tweaks! 😀