In this video, Chef John shares his recipe for chicken Salisbury steak—a lighter take on the classic comfort food. Ground chicken patties are pan-seared until golden, then simmered in a rich mushroom and onion gravy. Served with mashed potatoes or vegetables, this dish is hearty, flavorful, and perfect for a cozy dinner at home.
00:00Hello, this is Chef John from Foodwishes.com with Chicken Salisbury Steak.
00:08That's right, I've always wanted to try our award-winning Salisbury Steak recipe with chicken instead of beef.
00:14And I thought it would be pretty good, but it was actually way better than that, which was great news to me, but even better news for the cows.
00:22And to get started, I'm going to shock the world and transfer some boneless, skinless chicken breast into a food processor instead of boneless, skinless chicken thighs, which I would normally use in something like this.
00:35But I assume most people would go with the breast, and I figured if it's good with this, it'll be even better with the fattier, tastier thighs.
00:42But either way, to this we will add some breadcrumbs, as well as some dried mustard.
00:48We will also do some freshly ground black pepper, as well as a few shakes of cayenne, just to stay in shape.
00:55And that's going to bring us to our wet ingredients, which includes a little bit of soy sauce, some Worcestershire sauce, and we'll also do one egg, which was very camera-shy this time.
01:07And then last but not least, we'll finish up with some ketchup.
01:09And once we have everything in there, we'll pop on the top, and we will process this by pulsing it on and off, until our mixture is coarsely ground.
01:19And while we don't want this super chunky, we don't really want a fine puree either.
01:24So what I'm shooting for is something that looks about like this.
01:27And once you do achieve something similar, what we'll do is transfer that into a bowl, and we'll press and pack that down with a spatula.
01:34Since I do like to put a piece of plastic on this, and then refrigerate it until it's nice and cold, which definitely makes it easier to work with.
01:43So I pop that in the fridge for about 20 minutes, which also gives our seasoning and flavors time to work themselves in.
01:48And then what we'll do is pull that out, and moisten our fingers with some nice cold fresh water, and using some nice damp hands, we'll form that into an oval patty, roughly a half inch thick or so.
02:00And as you well know, by moistening your fingers, the meat won't stick, and these patties will be a lot easier and less messy to form.
02:09And then before I head to the stove to brown these, I decided to season both sides with a little bit of kosher salt, which we could have added right to the mixture directly, but I wasn't sure if I was going to need it.
02:19And since this was an experiment, I did take a little piece of that filling while it was chilling, and I cooked it up and gave it a taste, and decided I was going to go with a little extra sprinkle of salt on the outside.
02:30And once those are set, we'll head to the stove, where we will brown these over medium-high heat in a combination of vegetable oil and butter.
02:39And what we'll do is give these about two to three minutes per side, or until we get some nice color on them.
02:44And by the way, they're going to be mostly cooked through by the time both sides are done.
02:49But please keep in mind, we are going to simmer these in the sauce to finish them, so we don't need them fully cooked at this point, and we certainly don't want them overcooked at this point.
02:58So once we have those nicely browned on both sides, we'll turn off the heat, and we'll transfer those onto a plate and reserve them.
03:06And once that's been accomplished, we'll turn our heat back on to medium-high, and we'll transfer in half a pound of sliced mushrooms, along with a nice big pinch of salt.
03:15And then we'll cook these stirring until they're as dark and browned as we want, which if you're in a hurry can just be a few minutes.
03:22But the browner you get these, the tastier your sauce will be.
03:26Plus it will also have a more beautiful color, and you can just flip them in the pan, or use a spatula to toss them around.
03:34But if you want to spend an extra minute, sometimes I'll use the tongs to flip them over individually, just to make sure most of them are browned on both sides.
03:43And once we're happy with how our mushrooms are looking, we'll go ahead and toss in some onion, which in my case are the light parts of a green onion.
03:50But anything will work.
03:53And no matter what you use, we'll cook that stirring for about a minute, just to take off the raw edge.
03:59At which point we'll grab our flour and sprinkle it in.
04:02And then we'll cook this stirring for about two minutes, which as you know is going to toast the flour, and it will lose that raw pasty taste.
04:10And yes, you are correct.
04:12We just formed a roux.
04:14R-O-U-X.
04:15And that's it.
04:16Once that's been cooked for a couple minutes, we'll go ahead and transfer in our chicken broth.
04:21And we'll stir everything together, making sure we're scraping the bottom of the pan with a spatula to ensure all that caramelized goodness dissolves into the sauce.
04:29And then what we'll do is wait for this to come back to the simmer, at which point we can add the last set of ingredients, which will be some ketchup, followed by some Worcestershire sauce.
04:40And then last but not least, the juice of half a lemon, which by the way is something I did not use in the beef version of this.
04:48But I might start, since it was really nice and added a beautiful brightness.
04:52And then once we have all that stirred in, what we'll do is cook this stirring occasionally for another four minutes or so, or until it reduces down a bit and starts to thicken up.
05:03And once we reach that point, and our sauce is looking like this, we'll reduce our heat to medium-low, and we'll transfer our chicken Salisbury steaks back in.
05:12And we'll give those a generous and thoughtful basting.
05:14And then to finish this dish, all we have to do is simmer these in the sauce, basting whenever we feel like it, for about five minutes or so, or until our chicken's heated through and fully cooked.
05:27And by the way, if you're into a thicker sauce, just simply reduce things a little further before you transfer your Salisbury steaks back in.
05:35Or if you want more sauce that's a little thinner, don't reduce it so much.
05:39I mean, you guys are, after all, the kitchen fairies of your chicken Salisbury's.
05:44And those kind of decisions are always up to you.
05:47And that's it. Once we've decided this is cooked long enough, we can go ahead and serve up.
05:52But before we do, for presentational purposes, I like to spoon most of those mushrooms up over the top of the steaks,
05:59which I think makes for a beautiful and very enticing appearance.
06:02And then you know me, if I use green onion bottoms in a recipe, I will almost always use the green parts to garnish the top.
06:11And that's it. Our chicken Salisbury steaks are ready to enjoy.
06:15So I went ahead and served one up and spooned over a little bit of extra sauce.
06:20And then I grabbed a fork and went in for the official taste.
06:23Just enjoying this as is, since my mashed potatoes were not ready yet.
06:27Oh yeah, bad time management. But we'll get to those.
06:30For now, I'm just going to focus on how surprisingly good that was.
06:35I mean, I knew it was going to taste good, but the surprising part was just how good the texture was.
06:40Since, as you saw, I went with the breast, which can often make these kind of things dry and rubbery.
06:46But I'm happy to report, the breast meat worked out beautifully.
06:50Right, my only real complaint at this point was that this was not sitting on a pile of mashed potatoes.
06:55So as soon as those were ready, I plated up another one.
06:58And I spooned over some more of that amazing mushroom pan sauce.
07:02But anyway, that's it.
07:04What we're calling Chicken Salisbury Steak.
07:06I'm not sure if this is ever going to become an iconic TV dinner.
07:10But if it does, you'll know why.
07:13But whether that happens or not,
07:15this was a fast, easy, and beautiful version of Salisbury Steak.
07:18And I really do hope you give it a try soon.
07:22So please follow the links below for the ingredient amounts,
07:25a printable written recipe, and much more info as usual.
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