Juicy chicken breasts absolutely smothered in saucy caramelized onions and loads of gooey cheese! Easy to prep ahead, and a great family dinner option when you just can’t handle another boring meal.
Searching for other easy family dinner recipes? Check out my One Pot Spaghetti, Italian Wedding Soup, Crockpot Meatloaf, and Chicken Parmesan Pasta!
FRENCH ONION BAKED CHICKEN
It’s no secret that I love comfort food, and french onion flavor is one of my all-time favorites. A few years back I combined french onion flavor with pork chops and it’s been a reader-favorite ever since!
The French Onion Smothered Pork Chop recipe doesn’t use traditional caramelized onions, and I knew I wanted to share a recipe that would use true caramelized onions, in all their jammy goodness!
Enticingly sweet and savory, this baked chicken recipe is absolutely amazing and so easy to make. The onions take a long time to cook, but they can be prepared days ahead of time.
HOW TO MAKE FRENCH ONION BAKED CHICKEN
- Caramelize the onions.
- Add part of the onions and beef broth to baking dish.
- Top with chicken breasts (raw).
- Top with remaining onions and cheese.
- Bake.
In terms of steps, it’s very simple! The hardest part is caramelizing the onions, and that’s really just a test of your patience.
COOKING TIPS FOR FRENCH ONION CHICKEN
- Don’t salt the onions – if you add salt right away to the onions, they’ll release their liquids too early and won’t caramelize properly.
- Be patient – I know, it’s hard for me too. Caramelized onions take time, plain and simple. There’s no secret way to instantly get gloriously brown and jammy onions. Trust me, it’s SO worth the wait! If you’re looking for a great visual representation of the stages of caramelizing onions, this is a great resource!
- Shred your own cheeses – it’s the best way to get amazingly gooey cheese.
- Get some crusty bread – there will be plenty of saucy onion broth after the chicken cooks, and there’s nothing better than soaking it up with amazing bread! We love this easy no-knead artisan bread.
VARIATIONS OF FRENCH ONION BAKED CHICKEN
- One Pan – if you have an oven-safe skillet, you can make this dish entirely in one pan! See the recipe notes section below (after the written recipe) for details.
- Seared – if you prefer, you can sear the chicken breasts before or after cooking the onions. This adds extra flavor, but isn’t necessary.
- Other protein – this recipe is fantastic with pork chops or even steak!
MAKING BAKED CHICKEN AHEAD OF TIME
I think this baked chicken recipe tastes best when made fresh, however, you can prep a couple things ahead of time to make the cooking time considerably shorter.
- Trim chicken breasts of any extra fat and keep refrigerated in an airtight container.
- Caramelize onions and garlic and keep refrigerated in an airtight container.
- Combine salt, pepper, thyme and garlic powder and keep on the counter in an airtight container.
This will cut your cook time in half, since the onions are already done!
STORING FRENCH ONION CHICKEN
Leftovers should be refrigerated and consumed within 2-3 days for best flavor.
Leftover caramelized onions should be refrigerated and consumed within 1-4 days. They can also be frozen, for up to 2 months.
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Ingredients
- 3 Tbsp butter
- 2 tsp olive oil
- 4-5 large yellow or white onions peeled, sliced in half then cut into thin half moon shapes
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 2 sprigs fresh thyme (or 1/2 tsp dried)
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar (or red wine or sherry)
- 2/3 cup reduced sodium beef broth divided
- 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1/2 tsp dried thyme
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella or gruyere
- 1/3 cup shredded parmesan (fresh is best)
Instructions
- Heat a large skillet over MED/MED-HIGH heat. Add butter and olive oil and sliced onions. Season with 1/4 tsp pepper. Add thyme sprigs and cook 8 minutes, stirring very occasionally.
- While onions are cooking, preheat oven to 400 F degrees and butter a 9x13" baking dish. Set aside.
- After 8 minutes, reduce the heat on the pan of onions down to MED/MED-LOW, and cook another 15 minutes or so, stirring occasionally.
- Stir in garlic, cook 1 minute. Stir in balsamic vinegar and 1/3 cup of the beef broth. Stir and cook another minute or so, until onion mixture is thick and jam-like in consistency.
- Add about a 1/2 cup of the caramelized onions to the prepared baking dish and add the remaining 1/3 cup beef broth to the dish. Stir.
- Season chicken breasts on both sides with salt, black pepper, dried thyme and garlic powder. Arrange chicken in prepared baking dish and top each breast with a generous spoonful of caramelized onions.
- Top chicken and onions with mozzarella and parmesan.
- Bake 25 minutes, or until chicken is cooked to an internal temperature of 165 F degrees.
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Chef Tips
- Caramelized onions can be made 1-3 days ahead and kept refrigerated in an airtight container.
ONE PAN VERSION
You will need an oven-safe skillet for this version (such as cast iron)- Complete steps 1 - 4. Transfer all but 1/2 cup of the onions to a plate.
- Add remaining 1/3 beef broth to the skillet.
- Arrange seasoned chicken breasts on top of the onions in the skillet.
- Top with caramelized onions and cheese.
- Bake as directed, in skillet.
Video
Nutrition Disclaimer
The Chunky Chef is not a dietician or nutritionist, and any nutritional information shared is an estimate. If calorie count and other nutritional values are important to you, we recommend running the ingredients through whichever online nutritional calculator you prefer. Calories can vary quite a bit depending on which brands were used.
Marj says
Can I make this ahead of time and just pop in the oven when company is here?
The Chunky Chef says
I don’t recommend making this entirely ahead of time, but there are prep ahead instructions in the post under the heading title “making baked chicken ahead of time”. Prepping it ahead saves a ton of time 🙂
Greg Gibson says
EXCELLENT way to use chicken breast’s. Was going to take a picture but was half way through meal when it popped into my head to take a picture.
Devin McCormick says
Made this last week and already had to make it again! So good!!!!
Debra says
I had made this several times it’s always good. I have made substitutions, I didn’t have enough mozzarella one time and used Swiss instead just as good. Always more onions than recipe calls for. I also add Worcestershire and Tony Chachere’s Creole Seasoning !
Donna S Tobey says
I had a craving for French onion soup but it’s 92° here so I made French onion chicken bake. This has been a fantastic idea and the meal was absolutely delicious.
Julie says
This has become a household favorite here. I’ve made a couple small changes – I use Goya beef bouillon instead of broth, and for cheeses, I use equal parts of Swiss, Parmesan, mozzarella and provolone.
I make double the onion and sauce mixture and then use part of it in the stick of butter rice. It totally levels up that rice.
Thanks for sharing these recipes. I’ll be making this for many years.
Sue says
This was a winner with my family! I used Tarragon in place of Thyme – don’t know how I ran out of that staple – and it was delicious. The time put into cooking the onions is the longest and I’ll try doing that ahead of time as the dish was a great combination of flavor and the chicken was tender and moist. I had really large chicken breasts so I cooked three instead of four and had to lengthen the time by 15 minutes to get them up to temperature. Thermometers make a difference!
Thanks for an alternative everyone enjoyed!
Jessica says
I have a household full of picky eaters and even the pickiest of the bunch enjoyed this. We’ve made it twice so far and it’s been great both times with my own little tweaks.
Julie says
This has become a sought after dish in my house, along with the stick of butter rice! Everyone loves it. I do add beef consommé and extra garlic to my sauce, and top with blend of Swiss and mozzarella, but either way is delicious
Steve says
This looks amazing, will the cheese burn before the chicken is done cooking?
The Chunky Chef says
I’ve never had an issue with the cheese burning, but if you’re worried, you could always cover it loosely with foil if you notice the cheese getting too golden for your liking.
Steve says
Thank you so much for this recipe, it was Amazing! one of my new favorite Chicken dishes, we will be making all the time!
Kyle says
This looks amazing! We cannot wait to try it as we love your other recipes, can this be made without balsamic vinegar, we do not have any? If so, is there a substitution you recommend?
Sam says
Can I use chicken broth instead of beef? My family can’t do beef broth.
The Chunky Chef says
Yes 🙂
Anna says
Very good! Followed the receipe exactly. Thank you for sharing. I will make again.
Christine says
I made this recipe for dinner tonight. I try new chicken recipes every week. My husband and I both thought this recipe was very good. It had a lot of flavor and was pretty easy to make. Also, it did not require a lot of ingredients.
Nancy Jackson says
Gr8!
Kim says
I absolutely love your recipes and this one was divine! So yummy served over mashed potato’s and the onions were so so good! Easy to make and a definite family pleaser. This might make it into the regular rotation for us. Thanks!
Melissa says
This was amazing!!!!
Bas says
I made it according to the directions with a longer baking time because the chicken breasts were huge. It was delicious. I served it over rice to absorb those delightful juices. Will make it again.
Dontay Lesser says
I can’t wait to make it and try it for myself
Raevenne says
I made this exactly as the recipe stated, and was really disappointed. I don’t know how your sauce and onions turned out so dark and lovely looking, but ours was really watery from the juices in the chicken, and the onions were nowhere near caramelized in that amount of cooking time, and just swam in this weak liquid at the end. This is definitely not something I’ll try making again.
Amanda says
Oh no, I’m sorry you didn’t have a good experience! This recipe will have a fair amount of juice in the pan, as any baked chicken recipe will, and you can see that in my photos. The onions are caramelized in a skillet before adding to the baking dish, so it sounds like our stovetops cook a bit differently. Unfortunately I can’t be in the kitchen with my readers, and I can’t account for every variance… I can only share what worked for me and my recipe testers. Best of luck to you in the future!