Easy French Onion Chicken tops juicy chicken thighs with sweet and savory caramelized onions in an easy to make, seven-ingredient, one pan dish.
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The holiday season also happens to be peak food-blogging season. While everyone is online searching for the best Christmas ham recipe, food bloggers are behind the scenes, frantically posting last-minute recipe roundups, hoping to increase their blog traffic before everyone starts their January diets. I guess you could say I’m in the same boat; I love when people stop by my little blog to check out my recipes. However, I’m fairly new to the business end of blogging (read: I do this for free). This is still my hobby, not my job. Sadly, this means I’ve only posted half of the recipes I was hoping to have by this point in the month. Whoops. Looks like I’ll be blogging for free forever.
Luckily, this post isn’t about my blogging-delinquency, though. It’s about food. Dreamy, warm, delicious food. I’ve decided to seek warmth from hearty, comforting dishes this winter. Luckily Easy French Onion Chicken is nothing but comforting, hearty warmth on a plate. Plus, it’s easy enough for any home cook to make.
Imagine, if you will, a bowl of French onion soup. Now imagine if that soup was smothering some juicy chicken thighs. That’s what this dish is all about. Sweet caramelized onion, warm and hearty chicken, all topped with some cheese (if you’d like). That’s it. Just simple yumminess.
Did we talk about how EASY this is? Let me tell you why.
- It cooks in one cast iron skillet. Yes, you need another dish or two when you flour the chicken, but there’s only one heavy cooking dish to clean.
- The recipe uses chicken thighs. With their higher fat content, chicken thighs are (in my opinion) more delicious, but also harder to overcook (read: they do not dry out easily). Sure, you can use chicken breasts…but why risk it?
- You could consider caramelizing the onions ahead to save some time on dinner night. You’d miss out on all those delicious caramelized bits on the bottom of the pan, but you’d save at least 15-20 minutes of prep when it’s go time.
- SEVEN (7) ingredients. That’s it.
What’s not to like here? Easy. French oniony. SEVEN ingredients. Simple to prepare, widely appealing to adults and kids, minimal cleanup. Don’t let the holiday madness mess up your plans to eat at home. Take a shopping break, make this dish, and revel in its glory.
Looking for more easy dinners? Try One Pan Cod and Chorizo, or Easy Stuffed Spaghetti Squash.

Easy French Onion Chicken
Easy French Onion Chicken tops juicy chicken thighs with sweet and savory caramelized onions in an easy to make, seven-ingredient, one pan dish.
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp butter
- 5 tbsp canola oil or vegetable oil, divided
- 3 medium-large onions, sliced thinly into half-moons
- salt
- 8-10 boneless, skinless chicken thighs (about 2 lb)
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- pepper
- 1/3 cup white wine
- 1 cup shredded gruyere, Swiss, or cheddar cheese (or a mix of cheeses--optional
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 375 F.
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Heat a large cast iron skillet (or another heavy, oven safe skillet) over medium-high heat on the stove. Add butter and 1 tbsp canola oil. When butter is completely melted, add the onions, and use a wooden spoon to gently separate the pieces. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally. After about 5 minutes, add a pinch of salt, and continue to cook until brown, about 15 minutes. Remove onions and set aside in a bowl.
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Lightly season the chicken pieces with salt and pepper. Add 2 tbsp canola oil to the skillet, and raise heat to medium-high. Add flour to a dish (I used a baking dish with raised sides), and gently coat each piece of chicken in the flour, shaking off the excess (use tongs to make this mess-free). Place about half of the coated pieces of chicken in the skillet, and cook on each side for about 4 minutes until browned. Remove the browned pieces to a new dish, and repeat the process with the remaining chicken pieces.
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When all of the chicken has been browned and set aside, deglaze the pan by adding the white wine, and use a wooden spoon to scrape up browned bits from the bottom. Cook for 1-2 minutes, then add all of the chicken pieces to the skillet (I had to really squish mine in there). Cook the chicken in the wine for about 2 minutes on each side. Top the chicken evenly with the browned onions, and place in the oven for 20-25 minutes until cooked through.
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If using cheese, remove the pan from the oven, spread the cheese evenly over the top, and place back in the oven for 3-4 minutes until the cheese has melted.
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Serve chicken with onions and cheese on its own, or with a side salad or another green vegetable.
Recipe Notes
Calorie data includes optional cheese. Without cheese, there are 533 calories per serving.
This sounds delicious and I like the easy part too. Thanks, I’m going to try this.
Thanks, Aletha! I’m always looking for kitchen shortcuts, so easy is the name of the game! Enjoy!
Do you have a favorite cast iron skillet? What size do you recommend as a go-to, 12″?