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Chicken Béchamel

Chicken Béchamel

Pretty as a picture and indulgently rich, chicken Béchamel makes a lovely weekend meal. Brown the chicken, bake in Bechamel sauce, sprinkle cheese on top, broil and voila!
Course Main Course
Cuisine Personal
Keyword Bone-in chicken
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 45 minutes
Marinating 8 hours
Total Time 8 hours 55 minutes
Servings 4 people

Ingredients

Chicken

  • 1 kilogram chicken thighs (2.2 pounds)
  • 2 tablespoons lemon pepper seasoning (we make our own but you can use store-bought)
  • 2 cups cooking oil
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 1 onion chopped
  • 1 bell pepper diced
  • ½ cup sweet peas
  • salt
  • pepper

Béchamel sauce

  • ⅓ cup butter
  • ⅓ cup all-purpose flour
  • 3 cups milk fullfat milk was used here
  • salt
  • pepper
  • nutmeg

To bake

  • 3 to 4 cups Béchamel sauce
  • 125 grams shredded cheese

Instructions

Marinate the chicken

  • Wipe the chicken thighs dry with a kitchen towel.
  • Place the chicken thighs in a bowl, add the lemon pepper seasoning and toss thoroughly.
    Seasoning chicken thighs
  • Transfer the chicken to a covered container and marinate in the fridge overnight.

Cook the Béchamel sauce

  • In a saucepan, melt the butter.
    Melting butter and adding flour to make roux
  • Add the flour, all at once.
  • Stir the butter and flour mixture until smooth.
    Mixing melted butter and flour to make roux
  • Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, for five minutes to make a blonde roux.
  • Pour the milk in a thin stream, mixing as you pour (don’t worry if the mixture turns out something like mashed potato at this point).
    Thinning out roux with milk
  • Keep pouring the milk, and stirring, until all the milk has been fully incorpotated.
    Adding milk to roux to make Bechamel sauce
  • Season the Béchamel sauce with salt and pepper.
    Making Bechamel sauce at home
  • Stir in a pinch of grated nutmeg.
    Bechamel sauce sprinkled with grated nutmeg

Brown the chicken

  • Preheat the oven to 375F.
  • Heat the cooking oil in a pan.
    Browning chicken thighs
  • Brown the chicken thighs in hot oil, in batches if your frying pan is not very large, flipping them over for even coloring.

Assemble the chicken Bechamel

  • In an oven-safe frying pan, melt the butter.
  • Saute the onion until softened.
    Sauteeing onion, bell pepper and peas
  • Add the bell pepper and peas. Season with salt and pepper.
  • Cook the vegetables for half a minute.
  • Stir the Béchamel sauce into the vegetables.
    Adding browned chicken to Bechamel sauce in pan
  • Arrange the browned chicken thighs on the Béchamel sauce.

Bake and broil the chicken Béchamel

  • Bake at 375F for about 15 minutes or until the sauce is bubbly. The chicken should be cooked through at this point.
  • Take the pan out of the oven.
  • Turn up the heat to 400F and turn on the TOP heat.
  • Place a mound of shredded cheese on top of each chicken.
    Sprinkling shredded cheese over chicken in Bechamel sauce before broiling
  • Put the chicken back in the oven and cook until the cheese is browned and lightly crisp.
  • Optionally, sprinkle snipped greens (scallions or parsley) over the chicken Béchamel before serving.
    Chicken Béchamel