It’s great to notice that the best dishes are usually the simplest. That is also the case with this simple but superb dish: easy to make, only 5 healthful ingredients and your taste buds hurtle to heaven! (Figuratively speaking…)
Tips for making the dish
The best result you get if you use low enough heat. The chicken might turn out dry if the heat is too high. Don’t overcook the chicken, that makes the meat tough.
The green onion (= spring onion) also enjoys the gentle warmth of medium-low or even low heat. The onion shouldn’t basically get any color, it should retain its fresh, bright green and white colors. That’s why it’s added quite in the end. If the onion gets color it easily tastes ugly and burned. Cooking the onion too long cooks away the fresh taste, which is the key here. Other than that, this is very easy dish to make. Just follow the directions and you definitely won’t suck seed but succeed (ouch, that was a bad joke…).
Oh, still one note about the thickness of the sauce. So, the thickness depends on how much fluid is left on the skillet from the chicken after cooking it until the state where juices run clear. If you prefer thick sauce, simply reduce the amount of fluid by cooking the chicken uncovered for the last minutes before adding the green onion. In the first photo of this blog post I have quite thin sauce whereas in the rest of the pics I have made the sauce thick.
So, here we go.
Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Take a good pat (2 tablespoons = 1 oz = 30 g) of butter and drop it on the skillet.
When the butter is melted and got some color (don’t let it get brown, though), add the chicken breast halves.
Turn the heat to medium-low, cover and let simmer for some 10 minutes, depending on the thickness of the chicken breast halves.
While the chicken is simmering, chop the green onion.
Use both the green and the white part.
Turn over the chicken breast halves, cover and let simmer for another 10 minutes or until the juices run clear. The total cooking time highly depends on the thickness of the chicken breast halves. Very thin pieces don’t actually need that many minutes.
When the juices run clear, add the chopped green onion.
Stir, and let the onion cook for 1–2 minutes.
Turn off the heat. Add the salt and the sour cream.
Mix well.
Cover and let stand on the stove top for 5 minutes. Mix well before serving. Bon appétit!
- 2 tablespoons = 1 oz = 30 g organic butter
- 4 skinless and boneless chicken breast halves (approximately 6 oz = 170 g each)
- 1 whole organic green onion (= spring onion)
- 8 oz = 230 g full-fat sour cream (organic, if you can find)
- 1/2 teaspoon (or to taste) unrefined sea salt
- Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Drop the butter on the skillet.
- When the butter is melted and got a little bit of color, add the chicken breast halves.
- Turn the heat to medium-low, cover and let simmer for some 10 minutes.
- While the chicken is simmering, chop the green onion. Use both the green and the white part.
- Turn over the chicken breast halves, cover and let simmer for another 10 minutes or until the juices run clear. The total cooking time depends on the thickness of the meat.
- Add the chopped green onion. Stir, and let the onion cook for 1–2 minutes.
- Turn off the heat. Add the salt and the sour cream. Mix well.
- Cover and let stand on the stove top for 5 minutes. Mix well before serving.
| Nutrition information | Protein | Fat | Net carbs | kcal |
| In total: | 153.6 g | 103.9 g | 13.0 g | 1602 kcal |
| Per serving if 4 servings: | 38.4 g | 26.0 g | 3.3 g | 400 kcal |
My experiments with this dish
Actually, I didn’t need to go too much to trouble with this dish, everything just fell to their places relatively easily. The order of adding the ingredients and the cooking times needed the most attention and some experiments before I was satisfied. Well, this hearty dish sure made me satisfied every time I ate it, whether my experiments were successful or not. But getting the best taste without any compromise was my aim.
My idea for this dish started simply from the contents of my fridge. I had chicken breast halves and green onions, both of which I had to use somehow. Anyway, chicken and green onion sounded like a great combination.
As I love rich flavors, I wanted to make my chicken dish creamy. Heavy cream would have been too lame, so I chose sour cream to give a slight sour note and a bit of the needed gentle tang. First I made the mistake that I let the sour cream cook too long. It curdled. Moreover, I used too little sour cream. Later I learnt that 8 oz (230 g) was just right to get enough sauce but not that the chicken would have been swimming in it.
In the beginning I used thin chicken breast halves. First I sautéed some green onion in butter, then added the chicken and cooked until tender. Because the cooking time was so short, the green onion retained its fresh taste quite nicely.
When taking the first photos for this blog post I used thick breast halves, which I hadn’t used before for this dish. Again, I cooked the onion in butter and added the chicken breast halves. This time however, the chicken took long to cook before it was done. In the end, after adding the sour cream, I noticed that the flavor of the green onion had disappeared almost entirely, so had the color.
I was wondering what to do and how to get the flavor of the green onion more prominent and first of all fresh. Suddenly it came to me, that maybe frying the chicken in the butter first and adding the onion after the chicken is done would do the trick.
That worked perfectly! I got the fresh, savory green onion taste I had hoped for. The color was also beautifully bright, nothing wilted there. Well, I had to take new photos, but that wasn’t too bad job, I love photographing anyway. And we got more tasty chicken to eat. Win-win.
Tips for variation
In my opinion this dish is perfect as it is. However, if you are a garlic lover you can add some crushed garlic together with the green onion if you like. Personally, I like the flavor of green onion in this dish and I don’t want anything else to steal the show.
If you prefer more sauce, you can simply use 12 oz (340 g) sour cream. You can also add another chopped green onion.
Garnish the ready dish with some fresh, chopped green onion. Alternatively, good old parsley goes also well. Let’s keep things basic!
P.S. If you haven’t tried out yet my famous Turnip Fries, they make a perfect side dish with this creamy chicken. And if you would like to have some bread, this low-carb bread recipe is popular and extremely tasty in all its simplicity. For dessert, may I suggest some more heavenly creaminess with this indulgent low carb ice cream?
Can I replace sour cream by natural yogurt?
Yes! You can also add a little bit heavy cream to round the flavors.
In the photo, this recipe looks incredibly delicious! Is this homemade?
Yes, everything is homemade 🙂
Hi there! My husband and I would love to make this but we only have drumsticks in the freezer. Can you recommend a cooking time estimate?
Thanks!!
Hi Stephanie! Umm, it’s a bit difficult to say, but I estimate anything between 30 minutes to an hour, depending on the size of the drumsticks.
Go buy some KFC. LoL
Seriously delicious!
Thank you!!
Wish I could insert a pic to show you, Ive recently started uni but have been trying to stick to a low carb diet so cooked this tonight wish a side of roasted carrots and asparagus… all I can say is WOW best tasting tea ive had in everrr, super easy, fast and cheap to make!! will deffo be adding this to the regular menu and might even treat my flatmates to it one night!
THANK YOU 🙂
Hi Ellie, thanks for your comment! Pity indeed that this system doesn’t let to add photos… So great to hear that you liked it!!
Thanks fot the recipe…i’l try it out.also for the sour cream tip..
Hi Durriya, thanks for your comment. Hope you like the dish!
This looks awesome! My hubby loves extra veggies tho so I was wondering how some fresh mushrooms would taste added in with the onions. He isn’t a fan of sour cream also but i think the onions will help mask that flavor…… is the correct?
Hi Ashley, thanks! I bet mushrooms are a great addition. It’s true that onion masks the sour cream flavor, but the result is anyway more sour than if you would just use for example heavy cream (which you naturally can use, you just have to cook it long so that it reduces and forms thick sauce).
Just wanted to let you know that I just made this for my husband and I and we licked our plates clean! Thank you so much for this quick and easy recipe 😀
Thanks, Annette! So great to hear that you both liked it!
I made this a few weeks ago and it was a huge hit! I plan on making it again and before I do I just wanted to verify that a green onion is a scallion? (probably a silly question but just wanted to check) Thanks in advance for your response and of course for the delicious recipe!
Hi Charlotte, great to hear that the recipe appealed to you! Yes, green onion is scallion.
nice
This looks delish. What did you serve as a side to the dish?
Thanks, Gina! Usually I serve mashed cauliflower, or then just cooked cauliflower.
wow,i like simple and easy ways of preparing and cooking recipes.I want to learn more techniques and apply in my own cooking ability.
Hi, thank you for your comment! Please feel free to check my other recipes as well, I love to develop simple and easy recipes!
This is also really tasty if you add in some chives and garlic powder!
Hi Paige, thanks for your comment, garlic powder is also one of my favorite seasonings!
Just tried this today and it was a success! I had to add a little water because the sauce was too thick. Thanks for this great and easy recipe!
Hello Jb and thanks for trying it out! Great that you liked it!
I like it, i will try to cook this.
Thanks, hope you like it!
Wow sounds yum.tnks
Great to hear, you’re welcome!
i will try this recipe. looks yummy. pls. post more recipes. luv it.
Thanks, Merlie! I try to post more as soon as I can.
i think its yummy, healthy and very simple to cook. I’ll try it for my family. Thank you and more simple but yummy dishes
Thank you for your comment!
I will try preparing this recipe. Seems easy to prepare. I do hope I will be successful though!!!!!!!!!!!!
It is easy 🙂 Please let me know how you succeeded when you try it out!
tnx for the recipe. i’ll try this at home.
You’re welcome! Hope you like it!
What is sour cream??
Hi Marissa! It’s fermented dairy product: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sour_cream. If you don’t find sour cream, you can use crème fraîche instead, or just plain, thick yogurt where you add some heavy cream to soften the taste and to make it a bit runnier. Hope this helps!
I need recipe
Good day!!pls give me some delicious recipes and easy to prepare..tnx and more power☺
so easy…taste good. recipe practical for budget conscious…
Thank you, great to hear that you like it!
I find it so easy to prepare and i would surely love the taste coz im more of simple ingredients. low fats guarantee.perfect for my family.
Thanks, Gina!
I’m a celiac patient so plz tell the recipes which r gluten free so I would try them specially the recipe of bread n pizza etc
Hi, all my recipes are gluten-free! Just click under the header where it says “Recipes” and you’ll see all my recipes, also for bread and pizza.
My family love your recipe!. Im looking for more chicken recipe and finaly I found yours ♡ thank you
Great that your family liked it! Thank you for trying it out!
more recipe pls…i love it!and I truly try it.
Thank you! I try to post more recipes once I’ve got my product ready!
Thanks for sharing..How i’d wish try making it soon. Seemed so easy dish. Loved it!
Thank you for your comment! Yes, it’s easy 🙂 Hope you’ll like it if you try out!
Best but not very hot and spicy and pakistani used very hot and spicy so this is best recipe
Thank you for your comment! Great that you like it. Yes, this dish is not very spicy but rather mild. Please feel free to add more spices if needed!
Hi! I made the recipe last week and it was AMAZING. My family devoured it. My dad said he would like to try it with chicken legs instead of breasts. How can I prepare the legs? Thank you!!
Hi Gisela, so great to hear that you family loved it! Chicken legs are best baked in oven. I suggest that you bake them in the oven until done, then place on a skillet and make the sauce following the recipe. How does this sound?
txs
so delicious… so simple to do it…I will follow your step by step
Thank you, Vicky!
hey, i really loved this and cant wait to try it out! I know you have worked hard to perfect it, my father is a heart parient and is restricted from having rich food like butter! Can I use oil instead of butter and get similar taste if not the exact same!?
Hi Mobruka and thanks for your comment! You can use coconut oil or olive oil instead of butter, they are also good for the heart. Actually, after some thinking I recommend light olive oil because of its quite neutral taste, coconut oil might have too strong coconut taste for this dish. Hope it works out!
Simple and easy to serve! Thanks for sharing nicely! kindly give us the contents and photo of that sour sauce ingredient… How to find it in supermarkets and if unasavailable how to replace it?
Thank you for your comment! You can use sour cream or cream fraiche. In case you don’t find those, you can replace that with regular unflavored, unsweetened yogurt and regular cream.
Thanks for the info about low carb
You’re welcome!
Please give me some recipes that are very easy & nutritious to prepare for my family..thank you very have a nice day…God bless all☺
Hi Mary Ann, you can find those recipes right here on my blog, or then from my Easy Everyday Recipes cookbook that you can find on Amazon (Kindle): http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00V3CWW3W/ or my own store (.pdf format): http://www.books.lowcarbsosimple.com/easy-everyday/.
Looks really good… Ill try it..
Thanks! Hope you like it!
What is that sour cream?
Sour-tasting dairy product, Wikipedia can tell some more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sour_cream
I love creamy foods, can u send me some of ur recipes, thank u so much..
Thank you for your comment, you can find my recipes right here on my blog! I also have written cookbooks which you find from Amazon or just click that image on the sidebar on this blog where it says “Buy my Book”.
Hi! Can I use all purpose cream instead of sour cream in this recipe? thanks.
Hi Tina, it should be something sour and all purpose cream makes the dish too bland. You can try to add lemon juice, but as there is cream, it might be that it separates when you add acid lemon juice. If you only can find sour cream, I recommend it. Also a combination of plain yogurt and cream is fine.
Can i use nestle cream instead of sour cream?
Hi, already the word “Nestle” makes me goosebumps. I haven’t yet seen a product from Nestle which wouldn’t be full of artificial crap. Sorry for the hard words, but I recommend that you stay away from it. Nestle couldn’t care less about your health. Moreover, this recipe needs something sour it’s simply too bland with just regular cream, so I really recommend sour cream with it.
could it be taken with rice or pasta? looks inviting
Naturally, if you tolerate the carbs 🙂
it is easy and quick dish.I want to say keep it up and share great things.
Thank you for your kind words!
Have you tried this recipe with fish?
Hi Chelo, no, I haven’t tried it out, but I bet it would also make a great dish with fish.
This is totally for the students who don’t even have the time to make anything complicated. Thanks a lot for this easy recipe..
Thanks for your comment, Mayisha! Yes, I never thought of that, but indeed, the dish is also great for students.
so nice recipe I like to cook the dish tomorrow!!
Thank you! Hope you’ll like it! 🙂
recipe,description,explanation and photography….so perfect ! Love the minimalisticness of it all. Totally inspired. Thank you for the marvellous post.
Thank you, Usha, for your kind words!
Sounds yummy. ..lovely way of recipe. ..will try soon.
Thanks, munazza! Appreciate your comment!
Wow seems to be a delicious easy recipe. Will definitely try. Thanks
Thanks for your comment! Hope you like it 🙂
May make this tonight…what side dishes do you normally pair with this?
Hope you like it! I usually make something with cauliflower; if I’m busy I just cook a whole cauliflower and serve it as side, or if I have more time I prepare mashed cauliflower. Very basic… In addition I serve fresh veggies.
Yummy so delicious ways
Thank you, Lilia!
Nice and simple easy recipe s
Thank you!
What brand of sour cream good to use?
That’s a difficult question 🙂 I live in Finland and use German sour cream (or actually crème fraîche, they import it here). My advice is to choose sour cream or crème fraîche that contains as much fat as possible, is very thick and is without any food additives. Hope this helps!
i love it! its so easy and looks yummy!
Thanks, Mim, great to hear that you like it!
Creamy delicious and nutritious
Thanks for your comment!
I like it looks so yummy and healthy
Thank you!
looks good. Will try this one.
Thanks, please tell me how you liked it!
Very delicious I will try thsnks
Thank you, hope you like it!
Love your creamy green chicken recipe .
Thank you, Saqiba!
So easy to do menu. Thanks esp that it suits me. My sugar is starting to rise and i can stl savor delicious recipes. Thank you.
You’re welcome, Lucilla!
i like it very much,becoz the menu is very yummy ,,its my hubbys favorite
So great to hear! Many thanks for your comment!
tasty and easy dish
Thank you!
…any simple recipes for a diabetic-hypertensive patient??
Hi Noralyn, my all recipes are meant for diabetics. The most important thing for diabetics is to reduce the amount of carbs. My recipes are both low-carb and healthy. Hope you like them!
looks yummy, i will try this week..
Thanks! Hope you like it!
Tasty. Deliciously good.
Great to hear and thanks for your comment!
so simple yet so delicious. thanks for sharing
Thank you, Edwina!
its a simple perfect recipe ive been looking
Thank you, Evelyn, great that you like it!
Thank you very much for this, love to try this one. I’ve done similar recipe before and called it chicken in white sauce, and ingredients are cooking oil, chicken, carrot,potato and all purpose cream. Your recipe seems really delicious garnished with onions, and you suggested to try parsley. I will try this, and we have some basil in our garden, will will try with it too.
Hi Marilyn and thanks for your comment! Your version sounds also very delicious!
Well…I wasn’t that expert in the kitchen so that when I came across of your recipe I became interested and tried it at once. The ingredients are readily available and the procedure is easy. The taste is delicious and it didn’t make me looks like a trying hard. Thanks to you.
Hi Lynne, thanks for trying out my recipe! Great that you liked it!
This is absolutely useful for my family because there are 4 of us who have been into insulin treatment for years now. I am recently diagnosed with borderline high blood sugar.
Thank you for your comment! I’m glad to hear that the recipe is useful and I hope it helps you control the blood sugar levels.
thanks so much to send this recipe my p c.its realy nice food for good health .
You’re welcome! I’m happy that you like it!
I love the recipes. If possible I would love to receive via email more low carb recipes.
Regards
Lorraine
Hi Lorraine and thanks for your comment! Currently I mail only my new blog posts, but on Facebook I publish often Facebook-exclusive recipes. Maybe you would like those?
I agree, simple recipes are usually the best. I’ll have to try this with a little bit of garlic mixed in 😉
Hi Loretta, garlic sounds good, hope you’ll like the dish!
how’s the test’s?
Which test?
I have to say, this was a great recipe! It was easy, fast and tasted amazing! I like the sauce a little bit thicker so I had less juice left in the pan and it came out delicious!
Hi Sara, wonderful to hear that you liked it!
Wow. I normally don’t post comments on recipes, but this really deserved one! I was a bit hesitant about the sour cream, because I don’t normally eat it, but this chicken was seriously delicious! The sauce was the perfect consistency, and it only took a handful of ingredients that I already had on hand! I am so happy I found this recipe; I now know what to make on a weeknight after a long day at work! Thank you soo much for this!!
Thanks for your comment, I really appreciate that you posted it! I’m also very happy that you liked the recipe!
Made it tonight and it was heavenly! Thanks for the detailed tips. Otherwise I might have been more lax and not had the results I did. My son liked the sauce so much he scooped all left on the serving dish and put it on his baked potato. I don’t eat potatoes but my other family members do. This does satisfy my cravings for a sour cream and chive baked potato. Yum!
Hi Jennifer! Thanks for your comment! So great to hear that you and your family liked it!
I was really excited to make this because we eat chicken for dinner about 80% of the time, and I am completely running out of ideas ! I was also really nervous because my boyfriend is extremely picky ! – as in he likes the flavor of onions, but not the onions themselves -. With that being said, I went super light with EVERYTHING. The taste was AMAZING, except it was super subtle. I found myself having to get up and add sauce several times. I look forward to trying it again with the recommended amount of ingredients. Thanks so much for the new recipe !!
Hi Allie, thank you for your comment! Great that you and your boyfriend liked the chicken! You can easily give some variation to the dish by seasoning it with the spices of your preference.
Hi!! This was an excellent recipe i added some red peppers strips and its was excellent as well..sorry for my english! Best regards from Paraguay
Hi Victor and thanks for your comment! Great that you liked the recipe. Well, I’m not a native English speaker either, I appreciate it when you took time to comment here.
Would this recipe work with chives rather than green onions? I have a big patch of chives that I need to find uses for!
Hi Linda, yes, I would expect this works well with chives too. The key is just not to cook them too much, so that the flavor stays fresh and powerful. Hope you like it!
This recipe is perfection! Followed the recipe exactly… I love pepper and it doesn’t need it! Thank you!
Hi Lisa and thank you for your comment, I’m so glad to hear that you liked the recipe!
I am going to be making this tonight! I will be linking back to this, just wanted you to watch for it. Looks delicious! Cant wait!
Thank you, JD! I hope you like it!
I tried this tonight after getting home late from work and wanting something easy and just loved it. Highly recommended.
Thanks, David, for trying it out! Great to hear that you liked it!
Hi,
When i tried to cook this, my sauce didnt go a golden brown colour like in the photos. mine just stayed white of the sour cream
Hi Brendon, it’s about butter. The butter should get first golden brown, then the sauce will be golden brown. Hope this helps!
so i should of cooked the butter on a higher temperature.
Yes, exactly, or then just a little bit longer.
Hello. This recipe looks great but my family does not care for sour cream. Is there an alternative that I can use?
Hi Lisa, you can also use regular heavy cream, however it doesn’t give that diverse flavor than what sour cream does. Moreover, you have to cook the heavy cream together with the chicken to reduce it in order to get thick sauce. Add the spring onion to the ready, thick sauce and let cook maximum 2 minutes. Hope this helps!
I am from Australia so everything is listed in KJ. I have no idea what a Kcal is?
I have tried looking online but i can’t find anything.
Any help on what this would be in Kj or Cal? thank you
Hi Anne! kcal is the official abbreviation for kilocalories, Cal is equal to kcal, so both are used.
You can simply feed the calorie amount to Google, press enter and you get immediately the value in joules. For example if you type: 400 kcal and press enter, Google gives you 1 673 600 joules which you can easily convert to kJ (= 1 673,6 kJ).
Alternatively, if you would like Google to give the value immediately in kJ, you can feed: 400 kcal in kJ. Hope this helps!
Thank you for your response, I ended up figuring it out and feel a bit silly now! Thanks for the great recipe and responding so quickly 🙂
You’re welcome 🙂 No reason to feel silly!
Do you have any recommendations on a low carb side to go with this meal?
Hi Charles, anything with cauliflower goes great. Just simple mashed cauliflower is nice (cooked cauliflower + cream + salt + white pepper). I often make these for my family: https://www.lowcarbsosimple.com/duchess-cauliflowers/.
Hi. Can I use pork instead of chicken?
Hi Jenny, haven’t tried it out, but I think pork will also work.
I made this for dinner last night! I was amazing!! I did season the chicken with salt, pepper and thyme and I also added fresh mushrooms. I have picky eaters and they loved it! Thank you for the recipe.
Hi Jessica! So great to hear that you and also the picky eaters liked the recipe! Thank you for trying it out!
Great simple recipe! Thanks for posting this. I definitely had too much sour cream for the amount of chicken I had but was able to save the meal. Will definitely make again.
Hi Katie! Thanks for trying my recipe! I’m sorry it didn’t turn out perfect, but I’m relieved that you managed to save the meal.
this is the absolutely best, easiest, and yummiest chicken recipe! kids and adults nummied it up!
Peggy, thanks for your comment! It’s fantastic to hear that you all liked the recipe so much!
I made this for lunch today. My son (who is definitely not low-carb; he eats like a typical teenage boy) loved it and so did I! So easy with ingredients I almost always have on hand. Served it with cauliflower “rice”. Yum!
Hi Deborah! Thanks for your comment, so great that you and your son liked the chicken!
This looks amazing! Where I live we don’t have sour cream. Should I make some or is there a good substitute for it? Thank you!
Hi Luisa! I recommend sour cream, you can easily make it from milk, heavy cream and vinegar or buttermilk. For example these are good instructions: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/homemade-sour-cream/ and http://www.bcliving.ca/home/make-homemade-sour-cream.
Please remember that if you make sour cream yourself, this chicken dish tastes better if there is enough fat in the sour cream. Hope you find a good solution!
Thank you so much! I’ll do that then.
This looks very good! I’ve done a similar sauce but with a little bacon added atop ground beef and pork patties and loved it. Sometimes I think the simple green onion is much underused in great cooking. I’ll TRY this. 🙂
Thank you! I was really surprised how good this dish tastes when seasoned with just green onion. Hope you like it if you try out! Btw, you have fantastic recipes in your blog, I’m a regular visitor!
Thank you, Elvira. And back at ya. I visit here often. 🙂
You’re welcome! Great to hear that you visit hear often. You’re always welcome to visit my blog!
This looks fantastic! I have been craving chicken recently and this looks like the perfect and easy recipe to satisfy that craving!
Dominic
Thanks, Dominic! Hope my recipe satisfies your craving!
This sounds delicious! And so simple, indeed! I’ll have to try this out.
Thanks, Peggy! We found it surprisingly good considering how simple it is. Hope you like it as well!
Your browned chicken is perfection! *faints*
🙂 Thanks, Megan!