This is what the dish looks like right before going into the oven. The chicken gets buried in the sauce, so make sure your baking dish is deep enough.
This recipe has been a win in my book for over twenty years. It’s super easy and can be whipped together in literally 5 minutes. Notice I said super easy.
You can simply throw it in the oven, set a timer, and walk away to deal with any other chores you might have.
This is one of the few meals I make in which I’m okay using the grated Parmesan cheese from the spaghetti isle. By and large, I’m not a fan of the grated Parmesan cheese you find on the top shelf in the plastic bottle with the green lid and green labels. It doesn’t really seem like cheese to me.
Also, I like to watch my sodium intake so I personally always use the lower sodium cream of mushroom soup. It’s up to you what you use though. Just be aware that this dish can contain a lot of sodium.
It’s really as simple as taking a spatula or whisk and a baking baking dish and mixing all the ingredients together. Resist the urge to put the chicken in yet though. You need to make sure there’s enough lemon juice mixed with the cream of mushroom soup. And that means you’ll need to taste it before adding the raw chicken.
The steps usually go as follows: Plop the cream of mushroom soup in the dish. Add your lemon juice and grated Parmesan cheese then mix until everything is smooth. You can add some milk at this point to thin it out more if you want.
When you’re satisfied with your sauce, take a taste and see if it needs more lemon. I usually add a lot of lemon because it’s what makes this dish in my opinion. If you feel it needs more lemon, go ahead and add more now.
Mix everything back up and then taste it again!
When you’re happy with the taste of the sauce, add the chicken and coat them well. Top it all off with another liberal sprinkling of the grated Parmesan. As it cooks it will form a nice thin layer of crispiness that you can pull off and eat.
I purposefully made sure that the recipe below makes enough sauce for a lot of white rice. That’s the beauty of this recipe in my opinion. I usually make this recipe in a 9″ x 9″ dish that’s fairly deep, and it will be full, trust me. But the ratios work out perfectly and you’ll get lots of meal out of this recipe.
I want to stress something that’s very important. Make sure you cook a lot of white rice. I’m not kidding when I say this; I don’t think there’s another dish I’ve tried in which I could eat more white rice in one sitting than with this one. The sauce pairs perfectly with the rice, which means there’s a very real chance you might not be able to eat a ‘normal’ size portion. You very well might find yourself shoveling fork after fork full of the sauce covered rice into your mouth.
And that’s it. That’s all there is to this dish. It’s simple but delicious. I honestly don’t know why I haven’t added this recipe to the site yet.
So give it a try and tell us what you think about it!
Easy Lemon and Cream of Mushroom Soup Chicken
By: Semiserious Chefs
Serves: 4 – 6
Ingredients:
- 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts or 6 boneless skinless chicken thighs (thawed)
- 2 x 26 oz cans of cream of mushroom soup (I prefer lower sodium)
- 3/4 cup lemon juice
- 3 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
- milk (optional)
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 400° F (200° C) and place cooking rack in the second slot from the top.
- In a medium baking dish add the cream of mushroom soup, lemon juice, and 2 tablespoons of the grated Parmesan cheese. If you want to thin it out a little with some milk, now is the time. Mix everything with a spatula or whisk until it’s smooth.
- Give it a taste and add more lemon juice if desired. Mix and repeat until satisfied with the taste.
- Add chicken to sauce, coat well and sprinkle the final tablespoon of grated Parmesan cheese over the chicken.
- Put it in the oven and let it bake for 45 minutes. You can bake it longer if you want more of a crisp on top.
- While the chicken is cooking go ahead and cook a good amount of white rice. If you want a little primer on how to perfectly cook white rice in a pot at home, click here: Kitchen Hacks – Perfect Long Grain White Rice Every Time
- Remove the chicken from the oven and let cool for 5 minutes. The thin layers of crusty cheese on top can be pulled off and eaten at this point. Just be careful because it will be hot!
- Serve one piece of chicken over a heaping pile of white rice and scoop spoonfulls of additional sauce over the rice. There should be plenty of sauce.
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