***THIS DISH IS MY CLAIM TO FAME!***Like so many, I love french onion soup (click here to make mine). It’s easily in my top three favorite soups ever.
And like so many, I also love chicken. Especially since there are countless ways to dress and serve it up.
And I’ve already shown you how both these things are cooked to perfection in the Instant Pot. So I officiated a marriage between the two and let me tell you, I never cried tears of joy this much (maybe it was the onions?). It was also the CHEESIEST wedding I’ve ever been to (maybe it was the Swiss?). Regardless, a match made in FOODIE HEAVEN!
So I think the time has come to combine the two into something beyond your wildest french onion soup loving dreams.
What if we took some delicious chicken cutlets, layered on top of some buttery-garlicky Texas Toast and COVERED them in a thick, rich french onion soup sauce topped off with a layer of gooey, melted Swiss cheese?
Well, no more “What ifs.” This is happening RIGHT. NOW.
Here’s How I Made It:
We’ll begin with two Vidalia (sweet) onions…
..and slice them up into strands.
Then we’ll prepare a quick and easy flour mixture.
Let’s take some thinly sliced chicken breasts/cutlets…
…dredge them in the flour…
…and set aside.
Now we’ll add some EVOO to our Instant Pot and heat it up on “Sauté”…
…and then add our chicken, in batches, to quickly brown…
…on each side for about 1 minute.
When all the pieces have been lightly browned, set aside. Most of the oil should have been absorbed by the chicken and you can keep what’s left of it in the pot, but you can also remove the excess by carefully pouring it out/discarding if you wish.
Now we’ll add some butter to the the pot and melt it. Deglaze (scrape) the bottom of the pan to get some of the chicken/flour remnants up and mixed in with the butter.
And then add in our onions, toss with the butter and let cook down for 10 minutes, occasionally stirring.
After 10 minutes, the should become lightly browned and softened up a bit.
Next, we’ll take two cans of French Onion Soup (or you can make half of my onion soup recipe)…
…and add them to the onions in the pot (if using condensed, like Campbell’s, you’ll need to add 2 cans of water as well – the cans will specify). Give it a stir.
And now add back our chicken to the soup and onions.
Don’t press down hard to shove everything under the soup, just lightly so that the chicken is submerged. We want it to be a little loose in there. Secure the lid and cook on high pressure.
While magic is happening in the pot, make a cornstarch slurry by adding equal parts cornstarch and water…
…and prepare our next ingredient: TEXAS TOAST!
Take about 6 slices and cook according to instructions until nice and toasted…
…and layer them side-by-side in a casserole dish.
Once the chicken is done, quick release and remove the lid.
Carefully remove the chicken with some tongs (it will be tender so do it delicately)…
…and set aside on a plate for a few moments.
Now we’ll make that french onion soup into a french onion soup SAUCE! Hit “sauté” on the pot and add in the cornstarch slurry…
…along with a packet of french onion soup mix.
Stir it all together very well…
…and let it boil for a minute or two and then turn off the pot and let it rest. This is what will make the soup become a thicker sauce!
While the sauce is resting and thickening up, take the chicken and layer over the Texas Toast…
…so it looks all PURDY and stuff.
Now that the sauce has rested for a few and thickened a bit, we’re going to take a spoonful…
…and generously ladle it over our chicken and toast!
But it wouldn’t be a TRUE french onion soup chicken without some Swiss cheese! Layer about 10 slices over our chicken…
…and then top with a little more sauce! Now you can either let the heat of the chicken and sauce melt the cheese…
…OR you can pop it in the oven and broil it for 3-5 minutes…
…until the cheese is slightly bubbly and browned!
Take a spatula and slide it under that Texas Toast (makes for SUPER easy/mess-free serving and easy portion control) …
…transfer to a plate and serve!I am telling you: LIFE. CHANGING.
Instant Pot French Onion Chicken
So picture the perfect French Onion Soup, but then we turn it into a sauce and cascade it over tender chicken laying on garlic toast and then smother it in melty cheese. The result is French Onion Chicken and it put me on the map and earned the trust of millions.
Ingredients
- 2 pounds of boneless/skinless chicken breasts, sliced about 1/4″ thick
- 1/2 cup of all-purpose flour (with a few pinches of onion powder, garlic salt and black pepper mixed together), for dredging
- 2 Vidalia or sweet onions, sliced into strands
- 1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil
- 1.5 tbsp of salted butter
- Two 18.5 oz cans of ready-to-eat French Onion Soup (I used Progresso. OR you can use two 10.5 oz cans of Campbell’s condensed and just add water per the can’s instructions. OR you can make half the recipe of my French Onion Soup and just use that!)
- 4-6 slices of Texas Toast (any variety is fine, I used a garlic parmesan – you can find this in most frozen food sections. If not, garlic bread works just fine too!)
- 1 packet of Onion Soup mix
- 3 tablespoons of cornstarch + 3 tbsp of water
- 10 slices of Swiss cheese (can get either in the deli section or they usually come in a packet of 10 slices in the dairy section)
- Crispy fried onions, for topping (optional)
Instructions
- Coat the chicken in the flour mixture and set aside
- Add the olive oil to the Instant Pot, hit “Sauté” and “Adjust” to the “High” or “More” setting. Wait for it to read “Hot.”
- Add the chicken in batches and lightly brown for about 1 minute on each side. Remove, set aside and repeat until all chicken is lightly browned. Chicken should be lightly browned like in the video for reference. Most or all of the oil will also have been absorbed by the chicken while browning so if there’s a little left you can just keep it in the pot or carefully pour it out – your choice
- Add the butter to the pot and, once melted, add in the onions. Cook for about 10 minutes until they soften and become a bit browned (but not burned). While the onions are cooking, let them sit for a few minutes before stirring and deglaze (scrape) the bottom of the pan a couple times from any remnants that may have stuck
- Now you’ll add in the Canned Onion Soup (if using condensed soup, you’ll need to add 2 cans of water to go with it. If you’re making my french onion soup instead, just halve that recipe and make it now). Stir it up with the onions.
- Add the chicken back into the pot. Secure the lid, hit “Keep Warm/Cancel” and then hit “Manual” or “Pressure Cook” High Pressure for 5 minutes. Quick release when done
- While the chicken is cooking, make the Texas Toast (or garlic bread) according to package instructions. When done, line the toast in a casserole dish
- When the lid comes off the pot, remove the chicken with some tongs and set aside on a plate (but leave sauce in the pot). Hit “Keep Warm/Cancel” and then hit “Sauté” again
- Add the cornstarch slurry to the mixture right away along with the Onion Soup Mix packet and stir/whisk in VERY well and bring to a bubble. Allow for about 1 minute of bubbling while stirring constantly and then turn the pot off. The sauce is going to thicken very nicely after a few moments of cooling down
- Layer the chicken over the Texas Toast, cover with sauce, layer each piece with the cheese, add a little more of the sauce and either let the cheese melt on its own from the heat of the chicken and sauce OR pop it into the oven for about 5 minutes on broil so it bubbles and browns. Feel free to sprinkle on some crispy fried onions for topping to go even more onion crazy!
- Take a spatula and slide it under a piece of Texas Toast (this makes for SUPER easy/mess-free serving) and plate it up
- Enjoy!
Jeffrey's Tips
“But Jeff! We are already using a few cans of french onion soup in there! Why do I need to add in MORE onions?” An excellent question! And you don’t NEED to (and if you don’t, you can skip step 4) – but I certainly suggest it. The reason we do this is because the onions in the canned soup are not very prevalent in body and texture and we want this to have even MORE onions. It may seem like a lot of extra onions once you chop them, but believe me, even the additional two Vidalia onions will cook down and this will leave you with the PERFECT ratio of onions to the sauce.
Don’t care for the canned soup shortcut? Make 1/2 of my French Onion Soup recipe instead for the sauce at Step 5.
Don’t feel like broiling the cheese at the end? That’s fine! The heat of the chicken and sauce will melt the cheese within a few minutes. But I DO suggest broiling it if you want that bubbly, super gooey cheesy touch!
Don’t care for Swiss cheese? Use Mozzarella, Provolone or even Cheddar instead!
Rather not layer the Texas Toast under the chicken, sauce and cheese? (It WILL get a little soggy while retaining some of its crunch – BUT that’s exactly how it is in a great french onion soup). Well, no problem! Serve it on the side and use it to lap up the chicken and the sauce!
Fran Taitel
I just got an instant pot and found you while searching for cookbooks on Amazon (I bought yours). This was the first recipe I made…my family LOVED it! I’m making your sausage and spinach soup tomorrow and your potato latkes on Saturday (we had to wait for all the kids to come home to celebrate Hanukkah). Thanks for all the great information and recipes! And Happy Hanukkah!
Hazel
This. Was. FABULOUS!! Oh my goodness. Yuuum! I’m an Instant Pot newbie and this was so easy to make. I doubled it for my family of 8 and everyone absolutely loved it! This recipe is a keeper. Thank you!!
Jeffrey
FABULOUS, indeed! Thrilled you enjoyed! 🥰
Janis
Wow, looks and sounds delish….I worry about all the salt intake (I have heart stuff) and wonder how to lessen the impact of the canned and powdered soups. Any ideas? Many thanks, J
Melanie
I just make my own french onion soup and thicken it up a bit. That way I have control over the salt. It’s really not hard to make and takes about the same amount of time as Jeffrey’s recipe.
Elyse
Looks fabulous of course. I need to figure how to do a very low sodium version. Btw, you can put pyrex under the broiler? Maybe it’s new Anchor.
SHIRLEY
HI JEFFREY,
I LOVE YOUR ENTHUSIASM FOR COOKING AND THE HAPPY WAY YOU DEMONSTRATE YOUR CREATIVITY WITH THE INSTANT POT. THE RECIPES ARE DELICIOUS. WHEN YOU START YOUR GREETINGS IN THE VIDEO I WISH YOU WOULD SAY “HEY EVERYONE” INSTEAD OF “HEY GUYS”. YOU HAVE A MUCH WIDER AUDIENCE THAN THE “GUYS”. NOT A BIG DEAL BUT THOUGHT IT MIGHT HELP YOU GAIN EVEN MORE SUCCESS…..JUST A THOUGHT! 🙂
Sandi Eichler
Hi,
As a former New Jerseyian married to a former New Yorker, I want to let you know that
in NJ and NY, “guys” is not gender specific. I’ve lived in Atlanta for over 30 years, and still use it to refer to men, women and children.
Rachael O.
Sandi, I second that! I’m a lifelong Jersey girl and I work in NYC and “guys” refers to EVERYONE. 🙂
I’m making this in a couple days. Can’t wait to try it.😋
CaroleAnn
In Hawaii we say “You guys” means everyone. Instead of You to we say You guys want to go?
Kcantu
Yup female Californian here living in Texas and “you guys” is just fine and has always been gender neutral.
Dawn W
Exactly Sandi!!!
Banjo
I’m so sorry this is happening to you.
Karen
I have lived in Ohio all my life and am 61 years old. Besides the generations ahead of me and English teachers, we use “guys” in that context to be gender neutral.
Becky W
I’m from North Dakota and we say “hey guys” all the time!!! It’s not gender specific. 🙂
Barb
Shirley,
“Hey, Guys,” or even “Hey, You Guys,” is gender neutral. I have lived in central Ohio all my life & grew up saying the above, even to a room full of girls or women. It’s just a general greeting that means, “Hi, Everyone!” or even “Can I get everyone’s attention?” Definitely not aimed at men only.
Laurie
I think the use of “Hey, guys” is generally accepted as a very friendly, all-inclusive, gender neutral greeting. Jeffrey’s success has nothing to do with how he greets his fans, but everything to do with his fabulous recipes, teaching skills and his lovable, quirky persona. Sorry if you are offended by such an innocuous greeting, but I would urge Jeffrey not to change a thing. Sign me, one of the “guys”!
Doglady
We say Hey Youse guys. We even make the ‘you’ plural. Lol.
Aaaannddd it refers to everyone.
Bonnie
Live in Montana and everyone says “you guys” here also. Referring to everyone not just a specific gender. First time I’ve heard anyone complain about that in my 74 yrs of life.
Mart
Truly outstanding!! I can’t believe how easy it was to make. Thanks for creating such a great recipe.
Lori DeLand
Making this for dinner tonight! So excited!!
Donna Santos
I’m dying to make this recipe!! Went out and bought everything I need, but cannot find a can of French soup anywhere!! Is it not sold in Canada?? Please help, is there a substitute I can use?
Sabrina
Make it with the link he provides to his onion soup.
Don
You can get Knorr onion soup in a packet in Canada. Just make that per package directions and use it in place of the canned onion soup – works like a charm, recipe is still delicious with this minor modification.
Pam
If I use thighs instead of breasts how long do I pressure cook?
Todd
Would love to know this too. Have NEVER had good luck with white meat in the IP.
Karen
Generally speaking, without being sautéed, a 10 oz skinless boneless chicken breast will take between 7-8 min. and a 3 oz skinless boneless chicken thigh will take about 5-6 min.
wendy
I made this once last week and my husband asked for it again, which is good cause they doubled my chicken order at the food store when I picked it up! I did not add water to my condensed soup but now I’m making your french onion soup, wounder if it will be the same?
Adrienne
Jeffrey, I think I lost my mind! I took your recipe, did a mash up with my chicken casserole recipe and omg, heavenly. So I added egg noodles on top after having missed it all together. Pressed them into the liquid. After the 5 minutes pressure cook, qr, I added cream cheese, frozen peas, stirred till well combined. Added cheese on top and yum. You are an inspiration to me, as a NY Jewish Mother living in Virginia I love love your your recipes and hope you don’t mind my using them as a starting point
Stephanie
How do you make the flour not stick to the pot? I have done this so many times, and I feel like it just sticks and burns.
Jeffrey
Don’t worry about it happening while searing the chicken. Deglazing with the broth will help after.
Joni
Amazing!!
Marie
Hi I’m from Australia we don’t have cans of French onion soup we have pkts of dry French onion soup there about 45g a pkt how would u convert that plz
Marie
Hi we don’t sell cans of French onion soup in Australia we sell pkts of French onion soup there about 45g a pkt how would I go converting that into your recipe plz has I would love to try it
Lori
I can’t wait to try this recipe for French onion chicken and your other recipes, as well!! Yum! I just saw your segment on Rachael Ray and it has inspired me to cook in an Instant pot.
In addition, I always used the term “guys” when my kids were little, “C’mon guys,” and now they say it, too. It is gender neutral, so keep saying it. 🙂
Kelly Ann Barr
Wow. I bought your book, and follow on FB. I made this tonight, it is 108 degrees outside. Uggh. N0 oven for me. Hubby loved ii, me too. Absolutely going to be a regular with this one. Delicious. Thanks so much!
helan
Thanks For Sharing this Amazing Recipe. My Family Loved It. I will be sharing this Recipe with my Friends. Hope They will like it.
Suzanne
Yields 6 but I want half that. How should I go about it? Thanks Jeffrey
Nolyhan
This is outstanding. I made your French Onion Soup recipe first, for the broth, and loved it too. Happy there is another serving of that leftover! My husband and I loved this and will definitely make again.
Patrice Forbes
This recepe is super Super’ Cannot go wrong with the illustrations to show how. I now have all of your books Jeff. Find the ring bound one the best to use, but the other two are fine too when used with the book rest. Newbie (of 86 years) to the I.P What a revelation. Love it. Especially when I bought your book and gained confidence. Use it every day now unless I am reheating a batch cook. Thanks a million for your help.
Jdl
It’s good and we’ll make it again but will sub in egg noodles for the garlic bread and make a casserole out of it. I felt the garlic bread added nothing and turned into a soggy mess when put on the bottom of the dish. Maybe better if you make it separate and put the stuff over top of it. I also thought shredding the chicken or breaking it up into smaller pieces and adding it back in would have been better than keeping it whole. Enjoying your recipes, keep it up.
LYNN OLSON
Was looking for something different to do with chicken tonite and came across this recipe. It was AMAZING!!.I have made some other recipes of yours but this is by far my new favorite. Will make again.
Sandie Spence
Sounds great. Any suggestions for sides to serve with this dish?
Logan T
I just had some white rice and scooped some of the soup mixture over top. Was a hit!
Susan
I have had my IP for several years and was too uncomfortable to use it, but I took the plunge and did this dish. Wonderful!
Gwen
I really enjoyed this! Very delicious! I froze about a good 3 to 4 cups of the French onion soup after cooking in instant pot. If I had added it all to casserole dish, I am afraid it would have been overfill and cause French bread to be super mushy. So… Any suggestions what to use it for? Just eat as soup? Make it again with left over soup?
Logan T
First recipe I made out of Jeffrey’s orange cookbook. It was a total hit with the family. I was hoping for leftovers, but everyone went back for seconds!!
Crystal (Honey Fox Living)
This was a hit in our house. I believe I only made one slight change, which was instead of adding the whole pack of onion soup mix we added about 1 tbsp. There was a lot more sauce than in the picture, so I was worried we messed something up but it tasted great! Later we watched your video (should have done that first) and saw you had lots of sauce too, so that was good to see. Didn’t have much for leftovers, but the flavor improved while in the fridge. Thought it would decrease (read: soggy bread) but it actually got better. So that was nice! It is pretty heavy, so paired well with a fresh green salad.
Brian D. Scott
Asking again about substituting ~ 2 pounds of boneless skinless chicken thighs in this recipe. How long do I pressure cook them with the onions?
Michelle
Um wow!!! Served with fresh green beans and we tore it up!
Jeffrey
Yay!
Pam
Jeffrey the recipes are delicious but I could do away with ALL the ads. UGh!!
Jeffrey
Easy solve. Get the cookbooks 😉
Kay Hugghins
I have seen this recipe over and over, but had never tried it until tonight! Wow! Since it’s just my husband and me, I halved the recipe. As it was cooking, my husband kept going on and on about how wonderful it smelled. I cooked some mushrooms in butter, garlic,and worchestershire sauce as a side. When I pulled it out of the oven, my husband was practically foaming at the mouth! Once I plated it, he exclaimed after every bite how it tasted even better than it smelled! It was so delicious and the chicken was so very tender! We both loved it and agreed it was definitely going into the rotation!
Jeffrey
Thrilled y’all enjoyed!
Jennifer
I went to 3 different stores & couldn’t find French onion soup in a can so I had to use the packet & add 4 cups of water 🤷♀️ then, added the additional packet after the corn starch like in recipe. It’s about 5 mins from being done but, my kitchen smells soooooo good!! Fingers crossed the change up still comes out good 😂
Physiotherapy Puchong
easy and delicous
Ron
The flavor was AMAZING!! I love a good onion soup and that’s what you get, plus a protein for a complete meal. There’s just my wife and I but I made the full recipe a got multiple delicious meals from it. The next time I make it I will make 2 changes, 1) boneless chicken thighs because they tend to be juicier than chicken breasts, and 2) I’ll use toasted baguette slices instead of the garlic toast. The garlic toast was a little too thick, although it did add to the flavor of the dish. I’ll add garlic.
Jeffrey
Fantastic!
Tim
I made this tonight. Progreso French Onion soup wasn’t available at my store so I used the Campbells. I would salt the chicken prior to coating with the flour mixture or put quite a bit of salt in your flour mixture. But if you were to salt the chicken and set aside for a bout 10 minutes, you can use less salt. I also thickened with a beurre manié (equal parts flour mashed into butter) instead of the corn starch (mainly because I saw it used in another video and wanted to try it). Overall we really liked it and will make it again, the chicken needed more salt, but be careful not to over salt since the sauce is plenty salty.
Thanks Jeff for your hard work. I have several of your recipes in regular rotation.
Richard
I almost laugh out loud as I read the comments about trying to make Jeff politically correct with his “guys” reference. It’s the way he talks. Just enjoy his damn recipes and “get over it.”
Christine
I made this dish last week and it was phenomenal! I had a ton of sauce left, so I froze it to use later over baked chicken. Next time I’m going to serve the Texas toast separately so the leftovers aren’t soggy. I will definitely be making this again!
Jeffrey
Yay!
Dianne
This is THE BOMB! I’m trying to cook more and found this recipe thinking it would be a quick fix when I saw “instapot”…..ummm….I was worn the crap out after making this meal. LOLOL. It was definitely worth it. Hoping it just took longer because this was my first time making it. I know next time it will go by faster. Great job and so happy I found your page! Making the dog food recipe this weekend for my two pups. 🙂
Jeffrey
So glad you love it!