Pan-fried chicken thighs in a creamy bacon sauce with a touch of lemon! Quick and easy recipe for skin-on, bone-in chicken thighs. Low-carb and gluten-free dinner recipe.
If you want an easy chicken recipe with a delicious creamy sauce, with everything cooked in one skillet, these pan-fried chicken thighs in a creamy lemon sauce with bacon is a perfect recipe for you!
Chicken thighs are cooked right in the skillet: first, they are pan-fried skin-side down to get that nice brown color on the outside, then you simmer them in a lemon-chicken broth with bacon for about 20 minutes until they are completely done and cooked. Finally, you'll add cream and even more bacon. So good!
What makes this chicken recipe KETO friendly
- This meal contains a high amount of fat from heavy creamy, chicken thighs, and bacon. All these ingredients have high fat, low sugar content.
- Chicken thighs are high in protein but low in carb, which makes them a fantastic choice for the KETO diet.
As it usually is the case with chicken thighs, they are best eaten right after you cook them. I find they get soggy as leftovers, even though they will still be pretty tasty! Just ate some left-over bacon chicken thighs for dinner, and I am not complaining!
Other KETO friendly recipes
- Make low-carb chicken breasts that taste like comfort food: Broccoli Bacon Cheddar Chicken Bake
- Another delicious and comforting chicken bake that is high-protein and low-carb: Bacon Cream Cheese Cheddar Chicken
- Pork chops are always a great choice for KETO friendly recipes: Bacon and Mushroom Smothered Pork Chops
- Deliciously creamy Low Carb Creamy Pork Chops in Parmesan Sauce
Pan-Fried Chicken with Bacon Cream Sauce
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 5 chicken thighs
- salt and pepper
- 3 garlic cloves minced
- 1 cup chicken stock
- 8 strips bacon , cooked, fat drained off, and chopped into small chunks - divided
- 1 lemon thinly sliced
- ⅔ cup heavy cream
- 2 green onions chopped
Instructions
- Heat olive oil in a large skillet on medium-high heat. Generously season chicken thighs with salt and pepper - make sure to season under the skin too. Add chicken thighs skin side down to the hot skillet. Cook for about 5-7 minutes on high-medium heat, covered, skin side down, without flipping, checking occasionally, until the skin side is very well browned.
- Remove chicken from the skillet.
- Add minced garlic and a small amount of chicken stock to deglaze the pan and cook the garlic for about a minute. Add the remaining chicken stock (1 cup). Add half the bacon (cooked, fat should be drained off, and chopped into small chunks).
- Add chicken back to the pan, on top of bacon and in the chicken broth. Arrange 5 thin lemon slices around chicken thighs - and cook, simmering, covered, for about 20 minutes, until chicken is done and is no longer pink in the center.
- After chicken is cooked, remove it from the skillet. Remove lemon slices from the skillet - it's very important that you remove them now, do not leave them in for the sauce otherwise it will be too sour. Add ⅔ cup heavy cream to the skillet. Bring to boil and mix everything well, scraping from the bottom. Immediately reduce to simmer, add chicken thighs back to the skillet and reheat.
- To serve, spoon some of the sauce over the chicken thighs, and sprinkle with remaining chopped bacon and chopped green onions.
Notes
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.
Roger
If using boneless, skinless chicken thighs, what alterations would you recommend?
Julia
The boneless, skinless chicken thighs usually cook faster than bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs, so I would watch the cooking times, and possibly reduce the amount of time to cook the chicken to make sure it's not overcooked.
Kathy
I am making this tonight for dinner. I can't wait. The pictures look so good!!
Julia
Enjoy!
Tyson
Very good the only I did was add sun dried tomatoes with the lime and used coconut milk is dead of heavy cream came out amazing.
Julia
So glad you liked it! Good to know that this recipe worked with coconut milk!
Sheila Bouch
Made this tonight using chicken legs and breast. Absolutely delicious! Served with steamed green beans and put some of the gravy on the beans. Skipped the green onions too. Will definitely make this again! Thankyou for sharing!
Julia
You're very welcome! Glad you liked it! 🙂
Piper
This was awesome and I’ll definitely make it again but I think next time I will drain some of the fat and leave the lid off as it simmers, otherwise the skin doesn’t stay crispy. I think it would also help the sauce be a little thicker at the end, it was a little too runny for me.
Julia
Thank you, Piper, for your feedback! I am glad you liked the recipe. 🙂 I cooked the chicken covered to make sure that the chicken thighs are cooked through. If you want a crispier skin, you might also try baking the chicken thighs separately from the sauce in the oven.
Ketolicious
I thought the flavors were quite good, I especially enjoyed the way the flavor of the lemon kind of permeated the chicken, but the sauce ended up being a lot heavier than I had anticipated. I paired this with a spinach salad and was extremely glad I went with something light and fresh as a side to kind of contrast the heaviness of the sauce/chicken. Tasty though! Will probably make it again, and after reading the comments, maybe try draining the chicken fat before I start the sauce to see if the thinner sauce is more to my taste.
Julia
Yes, this is a quite rich dish, so your choice of spinach salad was excellent! I prefer to serve a dish like this with something green, such as cooked spinach, cooked Swiss Chard, or something similar. I am glad you liked it overall, and yes, you can drain most of the chicken fat before starting the sauce.
Toya
This looks delicious, and will fit perfectly into my keto diet! One question, though- is the nutrition information given for the entire recipe, or one serving? I think that 7g of carbs seems high per serving, given the low carb ingredients.
Julia
Yes, the calorie count is per serving. I checked how the carbs are calculated in this nutrition label, and while almost all the ingredients in this recipe have small quantities of carbs to them, the majority of carbs comes from lemon and chicken stock.
Shelby
Oh my gosh! This is definitely a keeper!
Julia
Thank you! 🙂
Tessa
What sides did u serve woth this delicious chicken. ?
Julia
I would serve this with something green: cooked spinach, steamed asparagus, green beans, etc. It will also be great over basic pasta.
Danielle
Or spaghetti squash
Julia
Yes, that's a great side dish suggestion!
CPGS
A lot of fat after browning chicken-I'm assuming it should be drained before making sauce? tasted good but sauce thin. is that because the fat was drained?
Julia
I didn't drain the fat out of the skillet after browning the chicken. I just added the rest of the sauce ingredients back to the skillet with the chicken fat. Draining the fat might have something to do with the thin sauce. But even if your sauce is thin - simmer it longer with the heavy cream in it, until it reduces to the desired thickness.
Gretchen
Holy cow, this was awesome!!!
Julia
Thank you, Gretchen!
Lee
Very tasty!
Julia
Thank you!
donna
Sounds great. Would love the nutrition info.
APeelingThing
I'm cooking this right now, is it me or are the instructions for the heavy cream and green onions not in the instructions?
Julia
You add heavy cream in step 5 and green onions in step 6 (as garnish).
Lisa
Was actually tasty - I'm just not a fan of thighs. I know for Keto thighs are preferred but I will make it again with chicken breasts. 🙂
Julia
Thank you, Lisa, I am glad you liked it! 🙂