Learn how to make chicken with a creamy, cheesy, sauce and fresh in-season asparagus in a cast iron skillet - which is great at evenly browning the chicken as well as caramelizing the sauce.
Filling in the Gap
I am not shy about my love for asparagus. It's one of my favorite vegetables.
On this blog I have talked about:
What I have NOT done is use it very much as part of a complete meal. Well that is about to change as I offer up my newest asparagus recipe, this Creamy Chicken with Asparagus.
The basis for the sauce is my go-to mac & cheese sauce, but instead of using just sharp cheddar cheese only, I use a combo of sharp cheddar, mozzarella, provolone, and parmesan - so it tastes more like an alfredo.
Give it a try and let me know what you think!
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Ingredients
Here is the list of what you will need from the grocery store to make this recipe:
- Boneless Skinless Chicken breasts - Whenever I cook with chicken breasts, I make sure that they are thin so they cook quickly and don't dry out.
- Asparagus - May is the best month of the year to buy asparagus as no matter where you are in the country, you can find US grown asparagus somewhere. The fresher asparagus is sweeter and more flavorful.
- All-Purpose Flour - This used to thicken the sauce. You will need to use a wheat free alternative if you want to make this a gluten free recipe.
- Tillamook Italian 4 Cheese blend - This blend is a combination of sharp cheddar, provolone, parmesan, and mozzarella. If you can't find the blend, just use a combination of those cheeses that you get separately. You could skip out of the cheddar in that case.
- Butter - I always buy salted butter. You could use a grass-fed milk butter like Kerrygold to add richness to the sauce.
- Whole Milk - You want the higher fat content of whole milk, so I wouldn't swap it out for 2% or skim instead.
- Salt - You can use whatever type of salt you want. I like to use kosher salt for seasoning the chicken and Redmond Real Salt for the seasoning the cheese sauce.
- Black pepper - Always grind it yourself, my friend!
- Garlic powder - Add this to taste onto your chicken before you cook it.
Cooking Tips
Youi can prepare the asparagus anyway you want. It's easy to just do in the pan before you cook the chicken. But if you wanted you could air fry or roast the asparagus instead and then add it to the final dish.
Let me share with you a few cooking tips that will make this dish the best it can be. It's important than you are able to track the temperature of your chicken. It's the only way to know for sure that it's perfectly done. We worry so much about undercooking chicken that many people overcook it instead. But if you have a good thermometer it takes out all the guesswork.
I have tried out many different instant read thermometers but when I got The Thermapen® ONE from ThermoWorks I realized the power of a quality thermometer. Most therometers are not really instant, they take many seconds to register, which is frustarting when youa re trying to test different parts of the meat. The ThermaPen One really does register in a 1 second. It's become one of my most used kitchen gadgets.
This next tip I kind of discovered on accident. I cooked the sauce first and then cooked my chicken, so I wanted to make sure the sauce. So I put it into the cast iron pan right after the chicken was done cooking. That sauce soaked up all the flavors from the bottom of the pan as well as it actually caramelized the sauce just a bit, adding incredible flavor to it.
Creamy Chicken & Asparagus in Cast Iron
Ingredients
- 3 large chicken breasts pounded thin
- 1 lb asparagus
- 3 tbsp all-purpose flour
- 8 oz Tillamook Italian 4 Cheese blend
- 4 oz salted butter
- 2 cups whole milk
- salt to taste
- freshly cracked black pepper to taste
- garlic powder to taste
Instructions
Prep the chicken
- Start by preparing your chicken. Pound it as thin as possible so it cooks quickly and stays juicy.
- Place one chicken breast at a time between two pieces of plastic wrap. Pound it with a meat mallet or rolling pin until it is as flat and uniform in thickness as possible.
- Season the chicken on both sides with salt, pepper, and garlic powder to taste, then set aside.
To make the sauce
- Start by melting the butter in the bottom of a medium to large pot over medium heat.
- Once the butter has melted, add the flour. Stir to combine and cook the flour slightly.
- Now add the milk and bring it just to a boil. Watch the pot to prevent it from boiling over. Stir until it has thickened, about a minute.
- Remove from the heat and stir in all the cheese until melted. Set aside.
To cook the asparagus
- Cut off the bottom 2 inches or so of the asparagus spears, as they are too tough. You can save them to make stock.
- Cut the spears into bite-sized pieces.
- Add the asparagus to a cast iron pan, then add just enough water to cover the bottom of the pan.
- Bring to a simmer to begin cooking the asparagus.
- Once the water has evaporated, add oil and continue to cook the asparagus until it’s soft. Set aside
To cook the chicken
- Heat up a cast iron pan over medium high heat. Drizzle some cooking oil in the bottom and add the chicken. Work in batches if you can't fit it all.
- Once the chicken has browned on one side, flip it over and cook the other side. The chicken should flip easily when it’s browned enough.
- Cook the chicken until it reaches an internal temperature of 165°F in the thickest part of the meat.
- Remove the chicken from the pan and place it on a cutting board. Let it rest for 5 minutes, then cut into bite-sized strips.
To put the dish together
- Heat your cast iron pan until it's hot again, then add the cheese sauce. Stir to reheat quickly, then add the chicken and asparagus. Remove from the heat and serve.
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