There's A Better Way To Make Chicken Fricassee — Use This $2 Canned Soup For A Tasty Shortcut

If you're craving a luxurious meal, but don't necessarily want to empty your wallet at a fancy restaurant, we have good news for you. There are plenty of home-cooked recipes out there that taste just as delicious at a much cheaper price point. One of our favorite five-star meals to make at home is chicken fricassee — a classic French dish of chicken thighs smothered in a white wine mushroom sauce. However, instead of throwing together the complex sauce, we use a $2 substitute instead: cream of mushroom soup.

You read that right. Rather than mixing together flour, heavy cream, chicken stock, and mushrooms for an intense homemade sauce, you can use canned cream of mushroom soup instead. This canned offering is thick, creamy, and provides the right amount of savory umami flavor, so you won't necessarily need the flour or stock. Plus, you can typically find it for under $2 at most grocery stores, making it a super affordable ingredient swap. While it's typically used for casseroles, it will taste amazing mixed into this meal. 

When you make chicken fricassee at home, combine a can of soup with a splash of white wine, chicken broth, heavy cream, herbs like parsley and thyme, and shallots or onions. If you don't have these ingredients, don't fret: the soup, milk, salt, pepper, and lemon juice will do. After cooking your chicken, veggies, and herbs, pour the sauce into the pan. Cover and cook on low for about a half-hour. The finished product? A fancy, low-budget meal that tastes restaurant-made. Bon appétit!

Chicken fricassee is quite rich and delectable as is but what makes this classic French dish so unique is its tender white meat. Other recipes tend to overly brown chicken, but fricassee helps the meat stay juicy. To further preserve all that chicken juice goodness, consider making it in the crockpot. No matter how you choose to prepare it, we have a few food pairings you can try to make it even more delicious.

Start with sides you'll find at a restaurant, like mashed potatoes or steamed white rice. Both will soak up that cream of mushroom-based sauce and add a light, fluffy texture to the meal. You can also serve chicken fricassee over a pile of wide egg noodles to resemble a hearty (and creamy) stroganoff. For a lighter option, pair the meal with veggies like steamed broccoli or asparagus, and pour extra mushroom sauce over them. And don't forget slices of crusty French baguette on the side.