If you are looking for an easy to cook dinner, then this chicken recipe is perfect for you. Creamy Spinach and Mushrooms Chicken is fast and easy to cook. This skillet dish is low carb and gluten free.
A Favorite Creamy Chicken Dinner Recipe
This delicious chicken spinach & mushrooms recipe is my go to on a lot of nights when we get home late from my kids activities. You don’t need to chop a lot of veggies or do a lot of prep work. As long as the chicken breasts are thawed, you are ready to go!!
Serve the chicken with pasta, zucchini pasta, rice, quinoa, steamed vegetables or salad. My kids like this garlic jasmine rice as a side dish. The leftovers are soooo good, so I always look forward to next day too.
Type of Parmesan Cheese
I use shredded parmesan cheese from deli section to cook this chicken, spinach and mushrooms dish. I usually stock up when my grocery store has a bogo free sale. If I have a bit more time, than I grate the parmesan cheese myself.
Feel free to experiment with different types of cheese when cooking this dish. Once when I didn’t have enough parmesan cheese, I used only 3 oz of parmesan and the other 3 oz I substituted with shredded Swiss cheese.
Always, be careful with the amount of salt you use especially when several ingredients already contain salt i.e. cheese, broth, butter etc.
Ingredient Substitutions and Variations
- If you don’t have heavy cream, you can use milk or half and half. The sauce will still be delicious, but maybe not as thick. I’m all for experimenting in the kitchen, so feel free to replace ingredients on a recipe and create what works for you and your family.
- Also, there are times when I don’t have both spinach and mushrooms on hand. I love how it tastes with both, but if i’m in a hurry and don’t have one of them I just increase the quantity of spinach or vice versa. If you double up on mushrooms when you don’t have spinach, it will make for a great creamy mushrooms chicken!!!
- Feel free to use butter instead of ghee. Back when I came up with this recipe, I had a lot of ghee in my refrigerator and I cooked several recipes with it. However, you can definitely use butter!
Creamy Spinach and Mushrooms Recipe Notes & Tips
- This is a perfect low-carb, high protein dinner recipe. If you can buy triple washed spinach and chopped mushrooms at your grocery store, it will save you a lot of preparation time too.
- This keto chicken mushrooms and spinach sauce is perfect for when you are trying to eat low carb or completely keto. Serve it with vegetables or salad and you have the perfect balance of fats, protein and low carb. Plus, you’ll never go hungry because it is a filling meal. In my family we have 2 people who eat everything, 1 low carb and 1 keto and this recipe is perfect for everyone and I only have to cook 1 meal.
- Also, I tend to increase the quantity of heavy cream or half & half when I’m serving over pasta for my kids. However, if serving with steamed veggies or salad I tend to let it simmer a little longer so the sauce is not too runny.
- If you would like to make the dish a bit more garlicky, you can increase the quantity of garlic cloves you use. I tend to add a lot of garlic usually, like most people from the Mediterranean region. If a recipe says 2-3 cloves, I tend to double up:)). But I also know that young kids don’t like strong flavors so I’m careful and try to keep it balanced when it is a family meal.
See below a collage of process pictures taken as I was cooking this chicken dinner recipe:
Creamy Spinach and Mushrooms Chicken
Ingredients
- 4 chicken breasts
- 1 medium yellow onion
- 4 tbsps ghee you can use butter too
- 8 oz mushrooms
- 6 oz spinach
- 6 oz parmesan cheese shredded or grated
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 2 garlic cloves
- Salt/pepper/paprika to taste
Instructions
- If chicken breasts are too thick, slice them in the middle. Fry chicken breast in a deep skillet in ghee. Keep heat in medium so chicken doesn’t get burned. Fry for about 3-4 minutes. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and paprika.
- Flip chicken to the other side. Sprinkle again with salt, pepper and paprika. Go slow on salt, you can always add more later. We’ll use parmesan cheese for this recipe, which is very salty so you don’t want to have made the chicken too salty already. Keep cooking for another 3-4 minutes. You want to make sure chicken is thoroughly cooked and not pink in the middle.
- Once chicken is cooked, remove from skillet and place in a plate. Keep it covered for a little bit.
- Use the remaining ghee in the same skillet. Add finely chopped onion, minced garlic and sliced mushrooms. Sautee all the veggies together until mushrooms are soft.
- Add spinach and continue stirring occasionally until all the spinach welts. Its volume will go down by 3-4 fold.
- Add heavy cream, mix well and once it starts simmering then add parmesan cheese.
- Finally, return chicken back to the skillet and turn the heat on low. Let the whole thing simmer for few minutes on low while you set up the table and warm up the side dish of choice.
Video
Notes
- Please note that size of chicken breasts varies a lot. Sometimes this recipe yields about 6-7 servings and I store the leftovers for next day.
Nutrition Label
Nutrition
Note: this post was initially published on 11-05-2018 and updated on 01-03-2020!! Update includes better quality pictures! Scroll down to end of post for one of the older pictures which was taken with cell phone.
If you’d like to save this creamy spinach and mushrooms chicken recipe for later, please pin it in Pinterest. I would love to hear from you in comments or in social media if you made it for your family:). Thank you!
Instagram: mediterranean_latin_love or Facebook: Mediterranean Latin Love Affair.
Other Low Carb Dinner Recipes from My Blog:
Check out these other low carb recipes from my blog:
- Rosemary Chicken Parmesan
- Tarragon Chicken in White Wine Sauce
- Low Carb Cuban Picadillo
- Mustard Garlic Chicken
- Creamy Chicken in a Sun Dried Tomato and Mushrooms Sauce
* One of the older pictures of this recipe is below for my readers who have made this recipe so many times.
Christine
This recipe was a hit at my house, it was scrumptious. This will be on my monthly menu rotation!
Sonila
Thank you Christine, this makes me so happy:)). Have a great day!
Karen Dresdale
7-13-24
I tried this recipe last night and it was delicious! I followed it as it was given and served it with yellow rice. we enjoyed it and this will be a keeper! Thanks! 🙂
Polly
Sonila, thank you for this really good recipe. I was a bit hesitant to use much salt so actually it wasn’t salty enough. Will change that next time. More cheese was suggested by some in the family so will load it up when making it again…and I will make it again as I was told “it’s a keeper.”
Sonila
Hi Polly, thank you so much:). I really appreciate your comment. Yes salt in this recipe can be a bit tricky because there’s so much cheese!! This is my by far my son’s favorite recipe, he loves it over pasta so I usually have to make it more saucy for him (more cream, more cheese). Feel free to adjust any ingredient to your liking!
Sarah
Thank you SO MUCH for this recipe! I’m so used to spending HOURS on a “fancy” lunch and dinner. This took no time at all and was so delicious! It’s a really good recipe to start with if you’re new to cooking, and it’s a perfect base recipe for experienced cooks to experiment with! I replaced the parmesan with Coastal Sharp Cheddar by Ford Farms (Costco). I’ll definitely be making this recipe multiple times. It’ll be fun to discover what ratios are good for which proteins! Thank you again!!!
admin
Thank you so much Sarah!! It’s one of the recipes I cook the most for dinner too and I too change something every time:)). Sometimes the cheese, sometimes the ghee and sometimes even chicken cut. It’s definitely a fun base recipe to have than switch it up.
I’ve made a similar one with kale too just haven’t had time to take good pictures & publish it.
Christine
This recipe was so simple and just fabulous! We are doing more of a Mediterranean lifestyle and this will be one of my go-to recipes which can easily be changed up. A couple of things I did differently, was to use lemon juice over the chicken before I turned it, which also helped to deglaze the pan a bit. I also used more olive oil than butter but did plop a chunk of butter in before the onions, mushrooms, garlic and spinach. I would like to try variations on this with sun-dried tomatoes, kalamata olives, zucchini… Endless possibilities. This is a fabulous base recipe which stands fabulously on its own. Thanks much! 🤤
admin
Thank you so much Christine! Love your adjustments and I often switch things up myself too. I have a sun-dried tomatoes version with feta cheese chicken, a creamy tarragon chicken and a recently added garlic chicken. But don’t have enough time to publish all of them:))). Have a great evening and thank you again!
Suzie
Can I use unsweetened almond milk instead of heavy cream?
Sonila
Hi Suzie, to tell you the truth I have never tried it with unsweetened almond milk. If you are going to give it a try, cook chicken separately and just test a small portion on the side with the almond milk to see if it becomes creamy so you don’t end up wasting the whole dinner. I’ll ask a friend of mine who only eats DF to see if she substitutes heavy cream for almond milk when she cooks. I’ll come back here and reply to you again as soon as I get an answer from her. Thank you for checking out my recipe anyway:). I appreciate it!
Kathy Owen
I was wondering what the calories and carbs are for the Creamy Spinach & Mushroom Chicken?
admin
Hi Kathy, based on the brands I have used when I cooked this recipe (and I have cooked it over 10 times) a portion of this recipe has 497 calories, 40 g fat, 8 g Carbs (out of which 2 are dietary fiber) and 23 grams of protein.
Lorrie MN Keating
If you are tagging this as low carb or keto, why don’t you include the nutritional information?
Sonila
Hi Lorrie, as a food blogger I’m not required to include the nutritional information. Often times even when it is included, it is an estimate because a lot of times the brand you’re using to cook the recipe is different from that the blogger used. So, overall it is best to grab the recipe and calculate it yourself. That way you can choose the brands that have the amount of carbs you are allowed to use. Based on the brands I have used when I cooked this recipe (and I have cooked it over 10 times) a portion of this recipe has 497 calories, 40 g fat, 8 g Carbs (out of which 2 are dietary fiber) and 23 grams of protein.
Joyce Cantin
Hi I commend you for this outstanding delish recipe. however didn’t have heavy cream so I took Greek yogourt and diluted it with milk. Will surely make this again, thanks again, regards from Mont Saint Hilaire Québec Canada
admin
Thank you Joyce:)). I really appreciate your feedback! I’m glad the recipe came out great. Yes, I substitute a lot too when I don’t have all ingredients on hand. All the best, Sonila!
Gina
This looks awesome. Will be adding it to next weeks meal plan. Yum!
admin
Thank you Gina!!! It’s surprisingly my most famous recipe to date:)).
Debra Roberts
I didn’t quite have all the ingredients, but I went for it. I used portabella mushrooms, bones thighs, tons of Paprika, Tastefully Simple’s “Garlic Garlic”, red onions, frozen spinach and half and half. I was low on parm, so I used the 4oz that I had and I put it over chickpea pasta. Absolutely delish!
Sonila
Thank you Debra for giving it a try:). I’m so happy it turned out delicious. I too improvise a lot with recipes based on what I have on hand.
Tamieka S
You always have yummy looking food.
admin
Thank you Tamieka!!
Luz
This recipe looks so yummy and it’s keto! Double bonus. Can’t wait to try.
Junas
Looking tasty
I want to test it once
Anna MV
Yummy 😊😋