A classic sauce for chicken strips starts with a roux: melt butter, stir in 30 to 50 g of flour, add stock, and you have a carb bomb. We do it differently. In our low carb chicken strips with the Thermomix®, crème fraîche binds the sauce almost entirely on its own, with just 20 g of flour across four servings. That works out to 5 g per plate instead of the usual 10 to 15 g.
We have been making this recipe regularly for years whenever we are hungry in the evening and do not want a heavy pan of cream sauce. At 533 kcal and 11 g of carbohydrates per serving, the chicken dish is light enough for low-carb weeks, yet filling enough that one plate is genuinely enough. And the sauce does not taste like diet food. It tastes like a proper chicken sauce. That comes down to technique, not deprivation.
Low Carb Chicken Strips with the Thermomix®
Ingredients 0 / 11 ✓
- 600 g chicken strips
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 1 red pepper
- 200 g mushrooms
- 600 g vegetable stock
- 1/4 bunch flat-leaf parsley
- 20 g plain flour (type 405)
- 150 g crème fraîche
- 50 g butter
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
Instructions 0 / 6
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1
Season the chicken.
Place the chicken strips in the Varoma dish and season with salt and pepper.
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2
Prepare the pepper and mushrooms.
Wash the pepper and cut into strips. Clean the mushrooms, quarter them, and place with the pepper in the Varoma tray.
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3
Cook the chicken.
Pour the vegetable stock into the mixing bowl. Place the Varoma on top and cook for 25 min / Varoma / speed 1. Remove the Varoma.
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4
Pick the parsley.
Meanwhile, wash the parsley, shake dry, and pick the leaves.
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5
Make the sauce.
Add the flour and crème fraîche to the mixing bowl and blend for 5 sec / speed 8, then cook for 3 min / 100°C / speed 2.
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6
Serve.
Add the chicken strips, mushrooms, butter, lemon juice, and parsley to the mixing bowl and combine for 1 min / reverse direction / speed 1, then serve.
Tip: Using green pepper instead of red pepper saves a few extra calories. We used red pepper in this recipe because it tastes sweeter.
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Nutrition per serving
Why 600 g of stock and only 20 g of flour are enough
A classic chicken sauce binds via two mechanisms: starch from the flour and protein from the cream, which collapses and thickens as it cooks. We cut the starch right back. Instead of 30 to 50 g of flour, we use 20 g, which is 5 g per serving. The crème fraîche handles around 80 per cent of the binding. It has 30 per cent fat and a high protein content that thickens at 100°C in the mixing bowl without splitting.
The trick is to blend the flour cold with the crème fraîche first. Five seconds at speed 8 is enough. That way there are no lumps, because the flour is immediately enclosed in the fat and protein matrix. Only then does heat come in: 3 minutes at 100°C at speed 2 is enough to bind the sauce. If you stir the flour into hot stock, you either get lumps or you have to make a proper roux. We want neither.
The 600 g of vegetable stock is not a soup base but the cooking liquid. It evaporates in Varoma mode, gently steams the chicken from above, and provides the flavour foundation for the sauce later on. If you fry the chicken strips in a pan in the usual way, you get a tough exterior and dry interior. From the Varoma, the meat comes out tender and juicy, and the stock below becomes a rich chicken-infused base as the juices drip down. One step, two effects.
Why the Varoma makes the difference for the chicken
Frying 600 g of chicken strips in a pan takes at least 12 minutes and almost always means the first strips are already tough while the last ones are still releasing liquid. In the Varoma, the meat cooks evenly for 25 minutes at around 100°C steam temperature. The proteins do not contract, and the juices stay in the chicken. We season directly in the Varoma dish beforehand with 1 tsp of salt and 1 tsp of pepper, mixing the strips with our hands.
The red pepper, cut into strips, and 200 g of quartered mushrooms go onto the Varoma tray. Both cook in the same batch. Frying mushrooms in a pan usually draws out too much moisture and makes them rubbery. In the Varoma, they cook gently, keep their bite, and absorb the warmth from the meat and stock below. Meanwhile, the stock simmers away in the mixing bowl, collecting the dripping flavour. Three components at once, one machine, no extra pot.
It is important to spread the chicken loosely in the Varoma, not in a clump. Where strips overlap, the steam cannot penetrate and you get an undercooked patch. We take 30 seconds to pull the strips apart individually. That is the only point in the recipe that needs attention.
What can go wrong at the crème fraîche stage
Crème fraîche splits when it gets too hot for too long. At 100°C for 3 minutes, that does not happen, because the 30 per cent fat content stabilises it. With classic soured cream (24 per cent) or sour cream (10 to 20 per cent), the sauce splits quickly. If you use soured cream, drop the temperature to 90°C and cook for only 2 minutes. We stick with crème fraîche because it is reliable and gives the sauce the slight tang that works so well with chicken.
The second point: when we add the chicken strips, mushrooms, butter, lemon juice, and parsley to the finished sauce, the Thermomix® runs on reverse direction at speed 1 for 1 minute. No longer, and no faster. Reverse direction stops the chicken strips from being shredded. Speed 1 is enough to combine everything without turning the mushrooms to mush. Anyone who uses speed 2 or 3 ends up with mushroom paste instead of mushroom pieces.
The 50 g of butter at the end is not just a flavour carrier but a gloss agent. It melts at the residual heat of around 70°C and binds the sauce further as the butterfat emulsifies with the crème fraîche sauce. That makes it silky rather than just thick. The tablespoon of lemon juice adds the acidity that balances the richness of the fat. Without it, the chicken dish tastes flat.
What to serve alongside the low carb chicken
Classic sides such as rice, pasta, or Spätzle would undo the low-carb effect entirely. Instead, we use our Low Carb Cauliflower Rice with the Thermomix®. It cooks in 8 minutes in the Varoma in parallel if you adjust the order of steps, and has only 4 g of carbohydrates per serving. That puts us at 15 g of carbs per plate, including sauce and side. A standard chicken dish with rice is 60 to 70 g.
If you want something even fresher, pair the chicken with courgette spaghetti or a green salad. Our fresh Thermomix® salad as a green side salad works particularly well because the cold acidity cuts through the warm sauce. That said, it is worth being honest: courgette spaghetti are not a pasta substitute. They release moisture that thins the sauce. If you want to avoid that, salt the courgette 10 minutes ahead and press out the liquid.
If you are not worried about low carb and just want a great meal, pair the chicken with our Thermomix® Spätzle or tagliatelle. Works just as well, though it is no longer low carb. More main courses with chicken can be found in our Thermomix® main course collection.
How to push the carb count even lower
Leave out the flour entirely. The 20 g of flour contributes 5 g of carbs per serving. If you drop it, increase the crème fraîche to 200 g so the sauce still binds. It works, but the sauce will be slightly thinner.
Green pepper instead of red. Red pepper has around 6 g of carbohydrates per 100 g; green has only 3 g. We still use red because it is sweeter and gives the sauce more depth of flavour. If you are counting every gram, go with green.
King oyster mushrooms instead of button mushrooms. King oyster mushrooms have a stronger flavour and compensate well for leaving out the flour. We use them whenever the market has them. 200 g sliced thickly, cooks in the same 25 minutes in the Varoma.
Add more fresh herbs. Instead of 1/4 bunch of parsley, use half a bunch plus a few tarragon leaves. Tarragon is one of the best herbs with chicken and makes the dish more aromatic without adding a single calorie.
How to handle leftovers
In an airtight glass container in the fridge, the chicken dish keeps for 2 days. When reheating in a pan, do not let it get hotter than 70°C or the crème fraîche sauce will split. We add a splash of stock or water because the sauce thickens in the fridge. The microwave works too: 600 watts for 3 to 4 minutes, stirring once halfway through.
Goes well with: tagliatelle.
Freezing is only partially suitable for sauces made with crème fraîche. When thawed, the fat separates from the liquid and the sauce looks like cottage cheese. The flavour is still fine, but it no longer looks good. If you want to freeze it, leave out the sauce and freeze only the chicken and vegetables. Make the sauce fresh when you reheat.
More low carb main courses and classic chicken dishes with the Thermomix® can be found in our main course collection and under our salad range.
