Chicken? Red wine? Fresh basil and wild mushrooms? Yeah, I couldn’t pass up trying this Chicken Pinot Noir with Wild Mushrooms and Fresh Basil recipe. I know it’s intended to be a late summer meal and summer is just beginning, but I couldn’t wait. This roast chicken breast dinner sounds like a hearty and slightly indulgent kind of meal that I suddenly need to try. Let’s find out if it’s as delish as it sounds!
Chicken Pinot Noir with Wild Mushrooms and Fresh Basil is a dish with a European flair! A rich, yet light wine sauce with earthy wild mushrooms is perfect for transitioning from summer to fall!
The Ingredients
I had a few things that I needed for this recipe—basics like dried herbs, salt, pepper, olive oil, and flour. That left a good-sized shopping list, but I found it all at my regular grocery store.
The only bone-in skin-on chicken breasts were packaged 4 to a container. Since my refrigerator is half dead, I gave the extra 2 to my in-laws.
And I found 2 4-ounce packages of wild mushrooms. They were pricey at $3.99 each but worth it since they had all the mushrooms suggested in the recipe. They were a mix of shiitake, oyster, and cremini and were pre-sliced to boot. All I had to do was give them a quick rinse and pat them dry.
The Process
I decided to prep everything before I began cooking, and it made things so easy. I did a little chopping and had everything measured out in 10 minutes. Not bad. I also preheated the oven so it was ready to go when the chicken and sauce were prepped.
Browning the Chicken & Making the Sauce
I cooked up my Chicken Pinot Noir in a 5.5-quart cast iron Dutch oven. It’s enameled, so it was safe to make tomato sauce in it. Tip: Tomatoes are too acidic for non-enameled cast iron and will eat away the seasoning.
I let the Dutch oven and oil preheat for a few minutes at the end of my prep work, so it was ready to brown the chicken. The large size fit both breasts at the same time, and I let them brown for 5 minutes per side. A long pair of tongs allowed me to add, flip, and remove them without getting spattered with hot oil.
The sauce was the next thing to make, and the instructions made it a breeze. I added the ingredients as instructed, and they cooked up nicely. The sauce was ready before I knew it, so I added the chicken to the pot and let it roast in the oven for the next hour.
Finishing Up
The last steps were brown the mushrooms, thicken the sauce, and add the basil. I browned the mushrooms in a large saute pan for a few minutes before the chicken finished roasting. They took 7 minutes including time to preheat the pan and were ready when the chicken came out of the oven. I set them aside while I added the thickener.
A mixture of flour and butter was used to thicken the sauce (it was already thickening, and this step made it silky). It’s not in the instructions, but I melted the butter for a few seconds in the microwave. The melted butter and flour mixed up to a smooth paste and mixed into the sauce easily.
Finally, I added the browned mushrooms and chopped basil to the pan and gave it a stir. I intended to adjust the seasonings, but a quick sample of the sauce and I realized it didn’t need any more salt or pepper. My Chicken Pinot Noir with Wild Mushrooms and Fresh Basil was ready to serve up!
Timing
This recipe lists 20 minutes of prep time, 1 hour and 15 minutes to cook, and a total time of 1 hour and 35 minutes. Here’s how my time broke down:
- 10 minutes to prep
- 20 minutes to cook on the stove
- 1 hour to roast in the oven
- 3 minutes to finish cooking
- 1 hour 33 minutes total
