Chicken Thighs with Creamy Bacon Mushroom Thyme Sauce - this is one of the best chicken thigh recipes I ever made. Easy, delicious, and perfect for bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs! This is KETO friendly, high-fat, low-carb, gluten free chicken recipe.
Chicken thighs are baked to perfection and then complemented with flavorful creamy mushroom and bacon sauce with lots of fresh thyme. Pure comfort food - chicken dark meat is always delicious in a creamy sauce!
What makes this chicken recipe KETO friendly
- This meal contains high amount of fat from heavy creamy, chicken thighs, and bacon. All these ingredients have high fat, low sugar content.
- Mushrooms are extremely low-carb and a great way to add flavor to keto recipe.
- This recipe contains foods that are high in protein but low in carb, such as chicken thighs.
Fresh thyme is key in this recipe. I used about 5 sprigs of snipped fresh thyme, and also a couple of sprigs more for garnish, on top of chicken thighs and mushrooms:
How to cook bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs:
Start by browning the chicken thighs in a large skillet, then bake them in the oven, for about 20 minutes until completely cooked through.
How to make Creamy Bacon Mushroom Thyme Sauce:
In the mean time, while the chicken thighs bake, start making the sauce by cooking the mushrooms and combining them with the chopped cooked bacon:
Add the cream and snipped fresh thyme to bacon and mushrooms, and make the delicious sauce:
Spoon the sauce over the cooked chicken thighs, and your dinner is ready!
Other KETO friendly chicken recipes
Broccoli Bacon Cheddar Chicken Bake
Bacon Cream Cheese Cheddar Chicken
KETO friendly pork recipes
Bacon and Mushroom Smothered Pork Chops
Low Carb Creamy Pork Chops in Parmesan Sauce
Chicken Thighs with Creamy Bacon Mushroom Thyme Sauce
Ingredients
Chicken thighs
- 4 chicken thighs , skin-on, bone-in
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- salt and pepper
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning dried thyme, oregano
Mushroom sauce
- 6 oz white mushrooms
- 5 slices bacon cooked, chopped
- 1 cup heavy cream
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 5 sprigs fresh thyme
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 F.
- Season both sides of chicken thighs generously with salt and pepper and Italian herb seasoning mix (usually a combination of dried thyme, oregano and other herbs). Heat vegetable oil on medium-high heat in a large skillet. Add chicken thighs skin-side down. Cook for about 5 minutes, on the skin side until nicely browned.
- Transfer chicken thighs, skin side up, to the foil-lined baking sheet and bake at 350 F for about 20 minutes or until chicken thighs are completely cooked through and no longer pink in the center.
- In the mean time, make the mushrooms sauce:
- Heat vegetable oil in a large skillet on medium heat. Add sliced mushrooms (without salting - to ensure the mushrooms get caramelized) and cook on medium heat for about 3 minutes flipping once.
- Add chopped cooked bacon to the skillet.
- Add heavy creamy, ⅛ teaspoon salt and snipped fresh thyme, bring to boil, stir, immediately reduce to simmer and simmer for about 2 minutes on very low heat for flavors to blend and sauce to reduce a bit. Taste and add more salt if needed.
- When chicken is done baking and chicken thighs are completely cooked through, add cooked chicken thighs to the skillet and spoon the sauce and the mushrooms on top of chicken thighs.
Video
Nutrition
Nutrition Disclaimer:
The nutritional information on this website is only an estimate and is provided for convenience and as a courtesy only. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed. It should not be used as a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
What I have been cooking in my kitchen:
3 Years Ago: Chicken Penne Pasta and Mushrooms with Vodka Sauce
4 Years Ago: Creamy Chicken Mushroom Pasta with Basil and Garlic
5 Years Ago: Banana Walnut Bread
Made this tonight and it was a hit! I used half n half (picked up the wrong stuff at store) and it was still very creamy. I did add chopped onion and parm cheese. Served it over baked spagetti squash. Everyone had seconds.
Rebecca, I am so glad you liked it! Love the addition of onion + Parmesan cheese! ❤️
This was spectacular! I did take tidbits of advice from others. Forgive my detour from the original but the recipe you posted is a keeper and has lots of variation potential. LOVE it!
1. I kept chicken in the oven for 25 minutes at 375 degrees.
2. I used a splash of white wine to deglaze the pan along with a TBSP of minced onion.
3. I used more liquid to yield more sauce (1C milk, a scoop of ricotta cheese and a big spoonful of plain, full fat yogurt). (almost 2 C total). I never keep cream in the house, so this is how I add the needed creaminess. Then I thought, why not, so I tossed in a fistful of parmesan cheese and a dash of cayenne.
4. We have all the fresh herbs growing in the house so I added 10 small sage leaves to the pan when starting the chicken. Sage is awesome.
Pauline, thank you for your detailed and thoughtful feedback - it will surely be very helpful to other people who might want to try similar changes! ❤️ I love that you used milk, ricotta cheese, and plain yogurt to make the cream sauce - I have to try that combination myself as an alternative to heavy cream. Love the addition of sage!
I made this & it was delicious! I did have to make the chicken in the oven about 10 minutes longer than suggested to make sure it was cooked through. But it’s a wonderful recipe! So good!
Toni, I am so glad you tried this recipe and loved it! ❤️ Thank you for your thoughtful feedback! ❤️
Made this yesterday for lunch. Easy and delicious. We did add a little onion and had to use dried thyme. Turned out great anyway. This is certainly a keeper.
I made this tonight for friends and it was a hit. I added red pepper flakes vegetable stock and deglazed the pan. This will definitely be made again. Served with rice.
Made it last night, it was delicious a d loved by all
Very good
Made this tonight using boneless skinless thighs. Delicious. Next time I would use more cream so that there was more sauce since we served it over rice
Sherron, I am so glad you loved this! Love that you served this over rice. Yum!
Made this tonight and added some baby spinach and red and green peppers! Delicious! Thanks for your recipe. So quick and easy. It will become one of my regulars
Jenny, I love reading comment like this! So glad you enjoyed it!
Would it be impossible to use boneless, skinless chicken thighs?
Katherine, you can use boneless skinless chicken thighs. In this case, you don't even need to use oven. Just cook the chicken thighs on the stovetop, remove them from the skillet, and make the sauce.
You can cook chicken thighs similar to this recipe:
https://juliasalbum.com/how-to-cook-boneless-skinless-chicken-thighs/
This was so good! Thank you for the recipe. I always find a recipe and then do my own twist on it. Makes me feel like a good cook rather than just following recipes lol. I browned the chicken thighs and removed from the skillet. Then browned my mushrooms and removed. I also lightly browned some onions and garlic and tossed the thyme in. I had some fresh sage so I threw a sprig of that in as well. Left them in the pan and added about 1/2 cup of white wine to deglaze the pan and added about a tsp of better than bouillon chicken base and whisked it in then added the mushrooms, bacon and chicken back in and let the chicken simmer and finish cooking and braising in the sauce on the stove. My house smelled amazing!
Amanda, I love your twist on this recipe, especially adding onions and using white wine to deglaze the pan! Thank you for taking the time to share your changes - that's very helpful to everyone who wants to try this recipe with similar twists! 🙂
My go to recipe. Love it. The only change I made was using fat coconut cream and fresh rosemary. I
Cathy, thank you for this helpful feedback about using full-fat coconut milk to make this dairy-free! So helpful to others who might want to make a similar change.
Would this work with chicken breasts?
Dale, yes, this would work with chicken breasts.
➡️ For skin-on, bone-in chicken breasts, the instructions remain the same, you might have to increase baking times slightly (depending on the size of the chicken)>
➡️ If using skinless boneless chicken breasts, you can skip the baking part. Just sear the chicken on the stove top longer, until the chicken is completely cooked through, remove the cooked chicken from the skillet, make the sauce in the skillet, add the chicken back and reheat.
Enjoy!
Soooo good!! My husband loved it!
Nancy, thank you! 🙂
I made this tonight and HOLY COW get out of here it’s so good!! Served with a side of green beans. 100/10 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Holly, I am so happy you enjoyed the recipe! Thank you for such an enthusiastic comment - love it! 🙂
Love this recipe! Great flavor. I might add a splash of sherry next time. Quick, but impressive meal for guests.
Margie, I am so glad you loved this recipe! A splash of sherry would be great in the sauce!