Thanksgiving-style Skillet Chicken

Fall is here and that means Thanksgiving is right around the corner. And that also means I start craving stuffing. Nothing fancy, I’m happy with the stuff right out of the cardboard box, so that’s why I was excited to find a recipe for Thanksgiving skillet chicken in the latest issue of Cook’s Country. This recipe had a TON of stuffing—in all honesty you could probably feed 6-8 people with it if you increased the number of chicken pieces. It’s also really quick and easy—it took about 35 minutes from start to finish.

This is really yummy-what makes it so good is you mix cranberry sauce into the stuffing, and the stuffing is put on top of the chicken, so it gets crispy and brown on top. Mmm, mmm, mmm!!! (And you can justify eating all that stuffing becuase it's made with lean meat and has antioxidant rich cranberry sauce).

Here’s my version of the recipe:

Thanksgiving-style Skillet Chicken

4 chicken breasts (3-4 oz. each)
1 stalk celery
1 onion
2 boxes of cornbread stuffing (or 5 cups)
3 Tbsp. butter, divided
¼ cup of half & half
¾ cup chicken broth
1 egg
2 cups of homemade cranberry sauce (or 1 16-oz. can of whole berry cranberry sauce)
5 cups cornbread stuffing
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
Salt & pepper

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Melt 2 tablespoons of the butter in a large cast iron skillet (yeah-the butter doesn’t hurt the dish, either!). Then add your onion and celery to the pan and cook until soft-this takes about 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, whisk the half & half, chicken broth, and egg together in a LARGE bowl, and season with salt and pepper. Then, whisk in the cranberry sauce*.

Once the onions and celery have cooked, stir those into the broth mixture, and then fold in the stuffing.

Look how pretty!

Time to brown the chicken—pat it dry with paper towels, season the meat with salt and pepper, and melt the last tablespoon of butter in the skillet. Brown the chicken for about 3 minutes on each side. Once the chicken has browned, pour the stuffing mixture over the chicken and pop the skillet in the oven for 10-12 minutes.

Before the oven...

... and after!

(The meal cooked for 12 minutes in our oven and it came out perfectly).

Of course we ate this with a side of my favorite vegetable—mushy green beans!

I’m finally off the road after this week, so Goode Taste will be getting updated on a more regular basis.
*I was feeling adventurous so I made my own cranberry sauce-it was so easy! I took a bag of fresh cranberries and simmered them with 1 cup of water and 1 cup of sugar in a saucepan until the mixture was deep red and thick.