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You’ll love this creamy bourbon chicken with pancetta and mushrooms! It’s all made in one skillet, and that crispy chicken skin is to die for!

skillet with creamy bourbon chicken with pancetta and mushrooms

It’s time for another crispy chicken recipe. This one’s crispy chicken in a creamy bourbon sauce. I can’t help myself. It’s just so good. I really prefer chicken thighs because it’s hard to make them dry and rubbery. And that crispy skin! And that crispy pancetta. I like to eat a healthy balance of bunny food and delicious madness like we have here.

I just love bourbon… in cooking (like these burgers I made this summer!). I can’t drink hard liquor, but I love to cook with it! Bourbon and cream and mushrooms are meant to be together, like in this creamy bourbon chicken recipe.

skillet of crispy pancetta and mushroom chicken in a bourbon cream sauce

Just a note on the recipe – keep in mind that pancetta is quite salty, so if you’re sensitive to salt, I recommend using a bit less than I suggest in the recipe (you could even halve it). I don’t add any extra salt to this recipe, and you know how I feel about the stuff! 🙂

This skillet chicken recipe is pretty easy and mostly hands-off. Fry the chicken then add everything else into the pan, and pop it in the oven. Relax while your kitchen fills with the wonderful aroma.

Perfect for date night at home!

close-up of creamy bourbon chicken with mushrooms and pancetta
I probably licked the pan.

Will you try this creamy bourbon chicken recipe?

You'll love this crispy chicken in a creamy bourbon sauce with pancetta and mushrooms!
4 from 4 votes

Creamy Bourbon Chicken with Pancetta and Mushrooms

Deliciously crispy chicken with salty pancetta, tender mushrooms, and a creamy bourbon sauce. 
Prep: 5 minutes
Cook: 1 hour
Total: 1 hour 5 minutes
Servings: 2

Ingredients 

  • 4.4 ounces pancetta* diced
  • 7 ounces white mushrooms chopped
  • 4-6 chicken thighs
  • 1.5 cups heavy/whipping cream
  • 1/3 cup bourbon
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 2 cloves garlic minced
  • Pepper to taste

Instructions 

  • Preheat oven to 350F and move the rack to the middle position.
  • Fry the pancetta on medium-high heat for 5-7 minutes until it's crispy, stirring occasionally.
  • Meanwhile, slice the mushrooms. Add them to the pan and cook for five minutes. Remove the pan contents and set aside.
  • Add the chicken to the pan, skin-down. Cook for 8-10 minutes then flip and cook for 4 minutes. If it's furiously splattering, you may need to turn the heat down a bit. Add the bourbon, cream, water, pepper, garlic, and the pancetta & mushrooms back into the pan. Give it a stir and then place it in the oven for 45 minutes.
  • Serve immediately. Great with mashed potatoes and a salad.

Notes

  • I bought a package of pre-diced pancetta that was this size. Anything similar would work fine.
  • Pancetta is quite salty, so I do not add any extra salt to this recipe.
  • This is the wonderful skillet pictured.

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Hi! I’m Natasha.

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18 Comments

  1. I used bacon instead of Pancetta (my grocery store was out), low sodium chicken stock instead of water, seasoned the Chicken with garlic and pepper… added 2 extra cloves of garlic, and onion in addition to mushrooms and subbed heavy whipping cream with half and half …. This turned out amazing! This has been one of my favorite recipes for a while, decided to make some small tweAks this time and it was wonderful!

  2. 5 stars
    Very good recipe. When I cooked the mushrooms into the pancetta, I added diced shallots and chopped fresh rosemary. I omitted the heavily cream. I cut the chicken in chunks seasoned with garlic powder, onion powder, a very little old bay, then very lightly dusted with flour so when I seared in pan I could use the fond to thicken. I subbed low sodium chicken stock for water and stirred in a very little dolep of sour cream in before I put it in the oven.

  3. Hi Natasha! I have to share that this is one of our favorite go-to recipes so tonight I was doing my mise en place when I realized I didn’t have mushrooms. So, in a pinch, I subbed with onions. It bought a slight sweetness to it that counterbalanced the salty. It was DELICIOUS! I will definitely go back and forth between mushrooms and onions now…depending on my mood 😉

  4. 2 stars
    I’m disappointed in this recipe. I was super excited as I love mushrooms, and wanted to try pancetta as I bought a package at the store.. It smells great while cooking but the flavors were lackluster. It wasn’t bad, but didn’t pop the way I felt the flavors really should.

  5. Thighs over breast for sure! This looks absolutely delicious and omg that cream sauce….. totally drooling!

  6. I prefer chicken thighs over breasts too. It wasn’t always that way, but definitely nowadays. So much more moist! I always remove the skin, though. Save those calories for extra chicken…hehehe. Totally agree – bourbon, mushrooms and cream are meant to be. Love it! And hubby enjoys bourbon so I know he would be a big fan of this one! Pinned 🙂

    1. 4 stars
      I’m not vegetarian but have you considered trying this with portabello mushrooms? You’d need a little more oil and you might want to reconstitute a small amount of dried mushrooms to build the sauce flavor a little but I think it would be worth a try