Eleven ingredients and forty minutes in one skillet, with three minutes of covered steam in the middle of it.
It looks like it should be a cheese sauce and it is not. Step 4 says to keep the sauce fluid rather than reducing it into one.
Why This Recipe Works
- Medium heat gives pale-golden chicken rather than a dark crust.
- A splash of water under a lid steams broccoli bright green in three minutes.
- Frozen sweetcorn goes straight in and needs only two minutes.
- More cream than broth keeps the sauce white without thickening it.
- Returning the chicken only at the end stops it overcooking in the sauce.
Ingredient Notes
- Frozen sweetcorn
- A cup and a half, and frozen rather than fresh or canned. Two minutes in the pan is all it needs.
- Heavy cream and broth
- A cup and half a cup. More cream than broth is what keeps the sauce white; the broth is what keeps it thin.
- Chicken breast in chunks
- A pound and a half, cooked to pale-golden at medium heat rather than seared dark. It reaches 165 degrees Fahrenheit before it leaves the pan.
- Red pepper flakes and dried mixed herbs
- A quarter teaspoon and a teaspoon. Both are visible as flecks in the finished white sauce.
How to Make It
Chicken pale-golden to 165F, then out
Season chicken lightly and cook in oil over medium heat until pale-golden and 165 degrees Fahrenheit; transfer out.
Broccoli steamed three minutes, then corn and garlic
Add broccoli with a splash of water, cover, and steam 3 minutes until bright green. Add frozen sweetcorn and garlic and cook 2 minutes.
Cream and broth to a thin white sauce
Pour in cream and broth, add red pepper flakes and herbs, and simmer gently until it becomes a thin white cream sauce.
Chicken back, sauce kept fluid
Return chicken and warm through. Keep the sauce fluid rather than reducing it into a cheese sauce.
No cheese, no bacon, no starch
Do not add cheddar, Parmesan, cream cheese, bacon, pasta, or rice.
Four Things This Dish Is Deliberately Not
This creamy chicken and broccoli is defined mostly by restraint - each checkpoint below is a place where the obvious move would turn it into a different dish.
The chicken
PALE-GOLDEN at MEDIUM heat, and 165F.
Not a deep sear. The chicken should stay in pale chunks with only light colour, and medium heat is what gives that - a hot pan would brown it. The 165F is separate from the colour and is the only part measured.
The broccoli
3 minutes covered with a SPLASH of water, until BRIGHT GREEN.
Steamed, not simmered, and in the same pan rather than a second one. Three minutes under a lid sets the colour; left in the sauce for the whole cook it would go olive and soft. Then 1 1/2 cups of FROZEN sweetcorn and 2 garlic cloves for 2 minutes - frozen is right here, and it needs no more than that.
The sauce
1 cup cream to 1/2 cup broth, simmered GENTLY to a THIN WHITE cream.
Twice as much cream as broth keeps it white; the broth is what keeps it thin. Simmered hard instead of gently it reduces, and a reduced cream sauce with cheese in it would be a different dish.
The finish
Chicken returned only to WARM THROUGH, sauce KEPT FLUID.
Step 4 states the negative directly: do not reduce it into a cheese sauce. And step 5 lists what may not go in - cheddar, Parmesan, cream cheese, bacon, pasta and rice. The sweetcorn is what makes this one its own dish.
Success Tips
- Keep the heat at medium; this chicken is not meant to take colour.
- Three minutes under a lid, then uncover — longer and the broccoli dulls.
- Stop while the sauce still moves. Reduced further it stops being what this dish is.
Serving Ideas
Four servings straight from the pan, the pale chicken chunks with bright green broccoli and loose yellow sweetcorn in the thin white cream sauce, flecked with red pepper and herbs.
Frequently Asked Questions
Should I stir cheese into the sauce?
No — step 5 leaves out cheddar, Parmesan and cream cheese. This is a cream sauce, not a cheese sauce.
Fresh, frozen or canned sweetcorn?
Frozen is what this recipe uses. It goes into the pan straight from the freezer and needs two minutes.
Can I serve it over pasta or rice?
Not with this recipe. Step 5 leaves both out.
