chicken with creole cream sauce and green chili mash

Chicken with creole cream sauce on a bed of green chili, garlic mashed potatoes. It takes a rustic cajun dish up a couple big notches.

It goes from down and dirty stew to dinner party. Don’t get me wrong. I love a creole chicken stew. It’s comfort food with spice. But sometimes upscale is the way to go.

Same ingredients but done differently

Chicken with creole cream sauce  takes the basic creole flavours and refines them a bit. Think cajun seasoning and the holy trinity (green bell pepper, onion and celery).  Except I’ve dropped the celery. But for a reason.

Celery is hard to puree. Has that stringy texture.  Texture that has no place in this dish. Something lost in flavour. Something gained in texture. This dish isn’t light on flavour so it’s a pretty good trade.

Low salt creole seasoning is key

There’s no getting around this. You want lots of flavour. And that means lots of creole seasoning. Lots. So you can’t use store bought seasonings

Commercial seasoning blends are mostly salt. And if you put lots and lots of commercial seasonings you are going to wind up a really bad meal. Like inedible bad.

So you have to make your own. Not such a big deal. Cheaper. And better for you. And more versatile. Because now you control the salt. And the flavour. 

You can adjust salt up. That’s easy. You cannot adjust salt down. That’s impossible. Make your own low salt creole seasoning. Or dial the creole seasoning way back and be disappointed. Up to you. I know what I pick.

Chicken with creole cream sauce on a bed of green chili, garlic mashed potatoes.

Fond makes chicken with creole cream special

You know those little brown bits in the bottom of your pan when you roast chicken? Those are pure culinary gold. They are what takes average to amazing.

You never want to leave them behind. Not ever. There is so much flavour there. When heat hits protein this thing called the Maillard reaction happens.

And when that happens all sorts of new, wonderful flavour compounds are created. It’s science. But it’s magic really.

And in the end that’s what you want. Magic in the kitchen. I’m not sure chicken with creole cream sauce qualifies as magic. But it will put a smile on your face when you taste it.

Chicken with creole cream sauce on a bed of green chili, garlic mashed potatoes.
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4.91 from 10 votes

chicken with creole cream sauce and green chili mash

Pureeing the sauce before adding the cream takes a rustic cajun dish into fine dining territory.
Course Main
Cuisine American
Keyword cajun chicken, chicken with creole cream
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Total Time 1 hour 20 minutes
Servings 4
Calories 511kcal

Ingredients

  • 4 bone-in skin-on chicken breasts
  • low salt creole seasoning to sprinkle over the chicken
  • 1-2 Tbsp vegetable oil to fry the chicken briefly

The sauce

  • 1 small green bell pepper coarsely chopped
  • 1 small onion coarsely chopped
  • 1 large clove garlic minced
  • 2 Tbsp low salt creole seasoning
  • 2 tsp tomato paste mixed with 1 Tbsp of water
  • 1/2 cup chicken stock
  • 2 Tbsp vegetable oil
  • 1/2 cup heavy cream 35% milk fat or higher
  • salt to taste

Instructions

The sauce

  • Heat the oil in a small saucepan.
  • Cook the onion and green pepper for about 5-7 minutes, until the onion is translucent and the pepper has started to soften.
  • Add the creole seasoning and cook another minute or two. Add the garlic and cook one more minute.
  • Add the diluted tomato paste and cook one minute more. Now add the chicken stock and simmer, covered, over low heat for about 20 minutes or until the green pepper is tender.
  • Allow to cool briefly and puree in a blender until smooth.

The chicken

  • Pre-heat your oven to 400F. Pre-heat a frying pan over medium heat.
  • Season chicken with creole seasoning.
  • Add oil. When it shimmers, add the chicken and sear, skin side down until just golden – about 2 minutes. Spoon off fat, turn the chicken skin side up and roast, uncovered, to an internal temperature of 165F – about 30-35 minutes.

To finish

  • Remove chicken from the oven. Set the chicken aside, tented with foil.
  • Deglaze the pan with a splash of chicken stock. Add the pureed sauce and cook, stirring constantly for about a minute. Add a bit of stock if the sauce is too thick. Add the heavy cream and stir to combine. Adjust seasoning.
  • To serve, mound green chili mash in the middle of the plate. Spoon sauce around and top with the chicken breast.

Notes

Green chili garlic mashed potatoes
Cook 4 large Yukon gold (yellow flesh mashing) potatoes in well salted water along with 3-4 cloves garlic.
Blister and char one or two poblano peppers under the broiler. Peel and seed. Chop finely.
Mash potatoes and garlic as you usually do with butter and hot milk. Add chopped, roasted poblano peppers and stir to combine. Adjust seasoning.
Use low salt creole seasoning for this.

Nutrition

Calories: 511kcal | Carbohydrates: 7g | Protein: 37g | Fat: 37g | Saturated Fat: 20g | Cholesterol: 158mg | Sodium: 140mg | Potassium: 802mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 3g | Vitamin A: 1635IU | Vitamin C: 28.8mg | Calcium: 65mg | Iron: 1.6mg
Chicken with creole cream sauce on a bed of green chili, garlic mashed potatoes.

34 thoughts on “chicken with creole cream sauce and green chili mash”

  1. 5 stars
    I made my own potatoes and pureed them with sour cream milk butter and cooked green onion and salt and pepper to taste. And when I made the sauce I added in some roasted carrots I was doing with the meal. And used a red pepper instead of a green pepper. It was absolutely delicious!

    Reply
  2. 5 stars
    I made this for Mother’s Day. So So Super delicious I am going to make it again this weekend. In my opinion you could easily pan fry boneless skinless chicken breasts and skip the oven roasting part all together. If you prepare the sauce and boil the potatoes at the same time…..(just make all the items simultaneously) I think you could prepare this dish easily in just 35 minutes. Also, since you just sear the chicken and not cook it in the skillet and you add the sauce puree after it is already cooked I chose not to use the pan/deglaze it for the finish to make sure there were no raw chicken cooties. The sauce is/was amazing regardless. I may add the celery back for take-two that the author chose to eliminate just to see how it comes out, celery has a lot of flavor. Cheers!

    Reply
    • Absolutely. Just roast the chicken as you would the pieces (but longer, until the chicken registers 165F in the breast and 175F in the thigh using an instant read thermometer. Baste it once or twice along the way.

      Remove the chicken from the roasting pan and follow the rest of the recipe. Make sure any juices that accumulate on the cutting board wind up in the sauce. That’s real flavour that shouldn’t go down the drain!

    • For me – always. I will correct that. It really never occurred to me to do it any other way. Thanks for the catch!

  3. What veggie would pair well with this? Do you think a wilted spinach could be added to the sauce after its plated?

    Reply
  4. 5 stars
    I tried this recipe today and although I don’t really care for spicy foods it wasn’t extremely spicy, it just had a little kick to it. I only added half of the pepper to the mashed potatoes but OMG this recipe is so good everyone loved it I’m definitely going to cook this again! Thank you

    Reply
    • I’m so glad you liked it. I was trying to figure out what to make for dinner today myself and thanks to your comment I am having this. Thanks for reminding me!

  5. 5 stars
    This looks sooo good!! Love the vibrant colored sauce. Anything that mixes tomato and cream is a winner in my book. Plus the creole seasoning sounds amazing! Can’t wait to make this!

    Reply
    • The creole seasoning is the key. It’s a low salt mix so you can really pile it on to drive up the other flavours without worrying about the final dish coming out too salty.

  6. 5 stars
    I cook A LOT of chicken and I’m always looking for new ways to do it! Can’t wait to try this recipe out. I also love making my own seasonings so I’ll be making your creole seasoning as well! Pinning for later, thanks for sharing!

    Reply
    • I’m a chicken addict as well Erica. Hope you like it. I have a few other solid chicken recipes posted under poultry if you’re interested…

  7. That chicken looks fabulous! And I love roasted poblanos, but have never thought to add them to mashed potatoes. This is my kind of dish! Can’t wait to try this one.

    Reply
  8. Spicy mash potatoes and a creamy creole sauce! Such a clever ideas with such an interesting flavours that I would have never thought of! I will need to give this a go. Oh! I totally agree, homemade spice mixes are a must, such a easy thing to do that allows proper salt adjustments.

    Reply

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