So simple. Chicken and Peas. File this recipe under fast and easy. With minimal prep involved, week night cooking just got tastier! This Chicken and Peas dish is the ideal combo of protein (chicken), vitamins and fiber (from the garden peas.)
Cream cheesy, white wine sauce served over breasts of pan seared Chicken with a copious amount of garden Peas. Serve it with rice, pasta or Crispy Red Potatoes.
Another use for Chicken and Peas is as a filling for chicken pot pie. Simply cut the cooked chicken into chunks and add some diced cooked carrots. Or use it as a delicious topping for a baked potato.
Ingredients
- Chicken breasts: fresh, boneless and skinless.
- Green peas: frozen
- Chicken stock: if you can get it – roasted chicken stock is the most flavorful and the one I recommend for this recipe.
- White wine: it should be dry (meaning low sugar) such as Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Grigio, Riesling etc.
- Cream cheese: I recommend using chive and onion cream cheese.
- Olive oil.
- Cornstarch.
Instructions
Heat oil in a skillet or deep frying pan. Season each side of chicken using salt and pepper. Add the chicken once the oil is hot (between 300-350 degrees F). Fry 2 breasts at at time rather than overcrowd the skillet.
Flip each chicken breast over, after about 8-11 minutes or when it is golden brown. If the chicken breasts are plump, turn them vertically in the skillet to seer and cook the sides of each breast. Once an internal temperature of 165 degrees F has been reached, then remove the chicken breasts, let them rest on a plate.
Pour in the chicken stock. It does not need to be heated prior.
Using a whisk (which is perfectly safe in a cast iron skillet,) scour the bottom of the pan to remove any stuck on chicken bits (added flavor!)
Add the white wine and stir.
Empty the contents of the cream cheese container into the skillet.
Add some cold water to the cornstarch to make a slurry. Then add it to the skillet, stirring continuously to avoid lumps.
Once the sauce has thickened, test it to see if it coats the back of a spoon. If not (too thin), add more cornstarch one teaspoon at a time until desired thickness is reached. If there are lumps, use a stick blender to pulverize them.
Add the frozen peas to the sauce and stir.
Return the chicken to the skillet to heat through. Add in any juices that collected on the plate. Serve immediately.
Flexibility
This recipe uses breasts of chicken. Ground chicken could be used instead. If you don’t want to use chicken, then consider using turkey (ground or breast) or pork (ground or loin.)
Instead of green peas, use snap peas or snow peas. Any vegetable or vegetable combination can be used. Peas or other vegetables can be fresh or frozen, it’s best if they are organic.
If you choose not to use white wine, then increase the quantity of chicken stock to include the missing wine quantity.
Flavored cream cheese brings 2 sources onion flavor and a dairy component which makes the sauce creamy. Feel free to use fresh diced onions, sauté them in oil until golden brown, once the chicken has been removed. Continue on with the recipe by adding the wine and stock then thickening the sauce with cornstarch. Add heavy whipping cream or coconut milk to add creaminess to the sauce.
Any changes made to the original recipe will change the nutritional value, taste, appearance and how long it takes to prepare and cook.
Storage
Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days in the refrigerator or freeze in an airtight container or freezer bag for up to 2 months. Defrost in the refrigerator overnight.
A Tip From Me
Flavored cream cheese spreads are a convenient ingredient in sauce making. If you are more of a novice in the kitchen, then they can be a life saver. Making sauces can be daunting for some people, so using this sauce hack will make sauce making so much easier. I particularly like using a local organic cream cheese and I like using the chive and onion one or veggie one for savory sauces. They cut down on the need for ingredients. In this recipe 1 tub of flavored cream cheese eliminates the need for chives, onions and cream.
Another Tip From Me is to make a double batch of this recipe. Use this extra quantity for the filling of a chicken pot pie. Cut the cooked chicken breast into chunks and add some cooked diced carrots to the sauce. This creamy chicken mixture works well as the chicken pot pie filling or even as topping for a baked potato.
Equipment
Chicken and Peas can be cooked in any type of pan or pot. I chose a skillet. Skillet cooking uses a little less oil, and it heats up evenly. Here is a skillet I recommend.
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Got Questions?
I’ve got answers – hopefully!
- What is the difference between Garden Peas, English Peas, Green Peas, Sweet Peas, and Frozen Peas? Garden, Sweet and English Peas are the same thing, they are called Shelling Peas (shelled because the pea pod is inedible) by farmers and growers. Frozen peas are simply the frozen version of these Shelling Peas. The term ‘Green Peas’ can mean different things to different groups of people. If you talk to a farmer about a green pea, they’ll define it as a pea grown and destined for dehydration and splitting (split pea.). The rest of us non-farmers consider the term Green Peas as another name for the peas mentioned above.
- How do I keep my peas from loosing their color? Peas will automatically loose their vibrant green color during cooking. Heat enables the acidic compounds that occur naturally in vegetables to attack the chlorophyll (the compound in green vegetables that make them green.) The greenness starts to fade. It is inevitable unless measures are taken. The best and easiest way to maintain this green color is to add baking soda. Its alkali properties prevent the acidic compounds from attacking chlorophyll and therefore maintaining the original color of the vegetable. The downside is, the baking soda destroys the Vitamin C in the peas. So, it’s up to you which one you want to preserve – the color or nutritive value.
Food Safety
My good friends over at the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention have the following safety information regarding handling, cooking and serving chicken:
- Wash hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds before and after handling chicken.
- Raw chicken is ready to cook. It doesn’t need to be washed first. According to a USDA study, 1 in 7 people who cleaned their sink after washing chicken still had germs in the sink.
- If you choose to wash chicken, do so as safely as possible:
- Run the water gently over the chicken to reduce splashing.
- Then immediately clean the sink and area around the sink with hot soapy water and sanitize them thoroughly.
- Wash your hands for 20 seconds.
- If you choose to wash chicken, do so as safely as possible:
- Use a separate cutting board for raw chicken.
- Never place cooked food or fresh produce on a plate, cutting board, or other surface that previously held raw chicken.
- Wash cutting boards, utensils, dishes, and countertops with hot soapy water after preparing chicken and before you prepare the next item.
- Use a food thermometer to make sure chicken is cooked to a safe internal temperature of 165°F.
- If cooking a microwaveable meal that includes frozen raw chicken, handle it as you would fresh raw chicken. Follow cooking directions carefully to prevent food poisoning.
- If you think the chicken you are served at a restaurant or anywhere else is not fully cooked, send it back for more cooking.
- Refrigerate or freeze leftover chicken within 2 hours (or within 1 hour if the food is exposed to temperatures above 90°F, like a hot car or picnic).
For more information on safe practices with chicken or any other type of food please refer to the website for the CDC.
Chicken and Peas
Equipment
Ingredients
- 24 oz boneless, skinless chicken breast 4 x 6oz breasts
- 16 oz frozen garden peas
- 7 oz chive and onion cream cheese
- 16 oz chicken stock preferably roasted chicken stock
- 6 oz dry white wine
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp cornstarch
Instructions
- Heat oil in a skillet or deep frying pan. Season each side of chicken using salt and pepper. Add the chicken once the oil is hot (between 300-350 degrees F). Fry 2 breasts at at time rather than overcrowd the skillet.
- Flip each chicken breast over, after about 8-11 minutes. If the chicken breasts are plump, turn them vertically in the skillet to seer and cook the sides of each breast. Once an internal temperature of 165 degrees F has been reached, then remove the chicken breasts from the skillet and place them on a plate.
- Pour in the chicken stock. Using a whisk scour the bottom of the pan to remove any stuck on chicken bits.
- Add the white wine and stir.
- Empty the contents of the cream cheese container and stir.
- Add some cold water to the cornstarch to make a slurry. Then add it to the skillet, stirring continuously to avoid lumps.
- Once the sauce has thickened, test it to see if it coats the back of a spoon. If not (too thin), add more cornstarch one teaspoon at a time until desired thickness is reached. If there are lumps, use a stick blender to pulverize them.
- Add the frozen peas to the sauce and stir.
- Return the chicken to the skillet to heat through. Add in any juices that collected on the plate. Serve immediately.
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