This braised chicken cabbage recipe makes for such an easy, light, yet filling weeknight dinner. Packed with veggies, it’s healthy, hearty, and super satisfying.

This braised chicken and cabbage recipe reminds me of home cooking at its finest. My mom used to make this all the time and contrary to a lot of kids nowadays, my siblings and I loved it and looked forward to it. Every time my mom made this dish, it was slightly different depending on what veggies were in season (mushrooms, zucchini, etc.).
I really love that this cabbage chicken dish is filling, has great flavor, is good for me, and brings me back to my childhood. It’s even reminds me of stir fry (which I also love)… it’s like a chicken cabbage stir fry! Plus, it’s super simple to make and only requires one pot!
Serving tip: Braised cabbage and chicken is filling enough to eat all on its own as a low-carb meal, but it can also be paired with a bowl of steaming white rice, quinoa, buckwheat, or mashed potatoes for a more decadent meal.

How to Make Braised Chicken & Cabbage
This braised cabbage and chicken dish calls for very simple ingredients and takes only a few easy steps — just how I like it. Below, find an overview of the recipe before you dive in and make it.
- Prep and cook the chicken: Trim and cut the chicken breast into equal-sized pieces using a sharp knife. Sauté the pieces with a bit of butter.
- Cook the veggies: Add in the diced mushrooms and cook until they soften. Then, add the carrots and onions and cook until they’re tender, too. Finally, stir in the zucchini.
- Add the shredded cabbage: Pop in the shredded cabbage and season everything with salt and black pepper to taste. Add in the remaining butter and cook for 10 minutes, or until the cabbage and zucchini soften. Garnish with parsley or other herbs, serve warm, and enjoy!
Braising pan recommendation: Looking for an awesome braising pan? My all time favorite is this Staub cast iron braiser. It rarely ever leaves my stovetop!




Tips for the Best Braised Chicken Cabbage
All the way from my grandma, to my mom, and to me — here are our tips to make this dish stand out.
- Use thinly shredded cabbage: For the best texture, use thinly shredded cabbage. Shred your cabbage with a sharp knife, a mandolin, or a box grater. You can also use a food processor but I find the other options to require less cleanup!
- Slice your chicken into even-sized pieces: Cut the chicken into similar sized pieces so they cook evenly.
- Don’t be shy with the butter: I know — ½ cup may seem like a lot of butter, but trust and believe me — it really makes this dish what it is. The loads of cabbage and veggies makes up for it!
- Braise at a low simmer: Braising requires low and slow heat to soften the cabbage and meld the flavors together. If you crank the heat up too high, you’ll end up sautéing the cabbage instead.
- Substitute as needed: I’m all about making this recipe work best for you. If that means substituting or adding more protein — do it! Add chicken thighs, sausage, and/or beef (whatever you like). You can also include different vegetables (tomatoes, celery, scallions, bell peppers) and/or substitute red cabbage for the green cabbage (just adjust the cooking time as red cabbage takes longer to cook).
Shredded cabbage hack: Most grocery stores sell pre-shredded cabbage in the produce aisle. Who doesn’t love a shortcut?
Storage & Reheating Tips
Feel free to make an extra few servings so you and your family can enjoy braised cabbage and chicken again tomorrow. Refrigerate and reheat, but avoid freezing (cabbage doesn’t do well frozen!).
- Refrigerator: Store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to a week.
- Reheating: To reheat, pop the cabbage and chicken in the microwave or heat it up in a skillet with a little butter (my preferred method!)

More Tasty Cabbage Recipes
- Lazy Cabbage Rice Stew – Super simple cabbage & rice soup
- Cabbage Salad – Cucumber and cabbage salad
- Air Fryer Cabbage – Crispy seasoned cabbage steaks
- Cabbage Roll Soup – Traditional cabbage rolls turned into soup
- One-Pan Braised Cabbage with Rice – Another delicious cabbage recipe with chicken and rice
Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 lb chicken breast
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter
- 1 lb mushrooms chopped
- 1 medium onion diced
- 2 medium carrots chopped
- 3 small zucchini thinly sliced
- 1 small cabbage head shredded (about 6-8 cups)
- 1 tbsp salt adjust to taste
- black pepper adjust to taste
Instructions
- Cut chicken into 2-inch pieces. Place chicken into a deep pot with a tablespoon of butter. Sauté until the chicken turns white.
- Add mushrooms into the pot and cook until they are softened.
- Add onions and carrots and cook until softened.
- Stir in the zucchini.
- Stir the shredded cabbage into the pot. Season generously with salt, add the remaining butter, and cook for about 5-10 minutes, or until all the ingredients are soft and easy to pierce with a fork.
- Serve while the dish is still hot. It's great alone or along with your favorite sides. Enjoy!
I made it tonight and all my picky family loved it. My one year old granddaughter ate all of hers. The only thing was when I cooked my chicken it was watery...why would that happen? It has been happening with chicken the past couple of months.
That's great, Marcia! I love when my simple recipes are loved by the littlest ones in our families! It's a win in my book, too! Regarding your chicken — that's really interesting! Has it been happening across recipes or just this one? I can imagine it may happen if your overcrowding the pan when cooking the chicken. Or, perhaps it is the chicken itself? Some brands have "water-chilled" chicken where the chicken was injected with water. Maybe try a brand that has the chicken "air-chilled" and see if that changes things?
Can I omit tomatoes from the receipts because I have ulcer. Thanks
Hey Beth! You totally can. Our boys aren’t fans of tomatoes either, so I often make it without them. Enjoy—this one’s always a hit!
I feel like there is no logical explanation for how good this is! Meat, veggies, and some butter and salt... You should see my 6 and 3 yo digging into it! Even my 1yo is eat it well! Great recipe!
That’s amazing to hear—there really is something kind of magical about how simple ingredients can come together like that! I love that your little ones are enjoying it too, even your 1-year-old! Thanks so much for sharing—makes my day to hear it was such a hit with the whole family!
I’m obsessed with air fryer roasted veggies right now so that’s how I prepared my veggies. I didn’t have zucchini or mushrooms so I just used the carrots and some onions, roasted those and cooked the chicken and cabbage in butter as per the recipe instructions. Super tasty!
Air fryer roasted veggies are such a game-changer—so quick and flavorful! I love how you made it work with what you had -thanks for sharing.
I added teriyaki due to lack of flavor and it was very wet because of the veggies. Cooked it down a bit and added cornstarch to thicken and it came out nice. Only gave a 3 because I had to alter the recipe
Hey Jeff, That's interesting that your veggies came out so wet. The veggies should be soft, but not mushy or overly wet. I'm curious if you braised them with the lid on or off? But I am glad to hear that you were able to adjust the dish to your liking and appreciate your feedback!
54% of daily sodium??
Hey Christina, We use a third party resource for the nutrition calculations. If that seems to high, you can verify it with another nutrition app, or adjust the salt amount to taste or diet preference. I hope this helps!
Absolutely amazing. I made this for St. Patrick's day as I was unable to afford a corned beef. ONLY difference I used a leftover Costco rotisserie chicken I had in fridge. I added it LAST due to it being already cooked. Everyone LOVED it. THANKS so much for this recipe.
I'm glad everyone loved it! Thanks so much for sharing! Happy St. Patrick's Day.
Made this tonight - it is delicious! When you are craving a dish with lots of vegetables, this hits the spot!
Joanne- I'm so glad you enjoyed it! Thank you for your comment.
Do you see any value to using lard instead of butter? Thank you!
Hey Larry, I always have butter on hand and use that most often. Lard is great too if that's what you prefer.
Don't have mushrooms. How many cups of cabbage is it. I was gifted two very large heads of cabbage. Hoping to have this tonight.
Hi Elaine, The mushrooms add great flavor, but if you don't have them, that's fine too. The amount of cabbage can vary depending on the size. I would suggest about 6-8 cups shredded. Enjoy!
This soup turned out delicious! So simple and wholesome!
Hi Gail, I'm glad you loved it! Enjoy. 🙂
Absolutely fabulous. Very very tasty.
What a way to use cabbage. Brilliant.
Hi Peter, I'm so happy you loved it! Thanks for sharing your feedback.
Can you substitute olive oil for butter??
Absolutely, I think the flavor will be incredible. Butter would be a great replacement. If you use salted butter, adjust salt. Enjoy
I made this tonight using leftover rotisserie chicken and I seasoned with Chinese 5 spice powder and soy sauce. Thanks for recipe.
Hi Carol, I am so glad that you loved this recipe! Sounds like it turned out absolutely delicious! Thank you for sharing your feedback with me! Enjoy!
This was wonderful! I was gifted a few heads of cabbage, the hubs can only eat so much coleslaw, so I gave this recipe a whirl…thank yo so much!
Hi there, I am thrilled that you loved this recipe! Thank you for sharing your feedback. Enjoy!
Oh my, so delicious. Sometimes "comfort food" is so terrible for our health-- but not this dish! Don't hesitate. Don't skimp on the cabbage, either; it cooks down quite a bit.
Hi Jen, I loved reading your review! Thank you for that tip, it will be helpful for our readers! Enjoy!
This was a yummy dish with one caveat. The salt amount is WAY too high, it looked high to us, so we put in 1 TBSP instead of the 2 as listed in the recipe. In future, would try 1 tsp only. Otherwise, the ingredients work well together.
Hi Marti, depending on the brand of salt, you should adjust it to taste. We use pink salt for most cooking and it has more of a mild flavor. Thanks for pointing this out, it will be helpful to others.
Good recipe. I served it with mashed potatoes as you suggested. I made an extra large pot of it since I included an extra zucchini and 4 extra carrots, fresh banana peppers, additional cooked chicken that I had in the freezer that was just waiting to be added to a dish like this. ACT 2 for the leftovers, I added chicken broth, made a roux, and turned it into a hearty soup (since the mashed potatoes were gone.) It's the dish that keeps on giving!
Hi- I love that you made this recipe your own, twice! Those sound like delicious meals. Thanks for sharing 😀
Is this really meant to have two tablespoons of salt in it?
Hi Kristin- that is correct. There's a lot of vegetables in this recipe. You can adjust the salt down if you prefer less. Enjoy! 🙂
Thought you said to braise cabbage in butter— but then you don’t in this recipe
Hi Teresa- what do you mean? Butter is listed in the ingredients list and it's called for when you cook the chicken in step 1, and then the rest in step 5.
What size is the braising pot?
Hello, John. It a 3.5 quart braiser. Here is a link to my amazon storefront where I share all my favorite cooking tools, including pots and pans. https://www.amazon.com/shop/m… Hope this helps!
Do you need to add any liquid to the pot? I thought braising required liquid of a sort
Hi Kari- not in this recipe. Traditional braising does require liquid, but there is dry braising as well that does not, my recipe leans towards the latter. Enjoy!
This was super easy and so delicious! Thank you so much for this recipe! I did not have zucchini but it was very tasty none the less.
Hi Teri - Yay! So happy you enjoyed it. There's nothing quite as comforting as braised cabbage in my opinion. One of my all-time favorites. Happy New Year!
I want to make this braised cabbage. I'm going to use canned mushrooms chop them and add at the end. Problem is that I don't have any zucchini. I was thinking of using green beans and slicing them into a French style cut or using my Kitchen Aid chopper. Any suggestions as to what I can substitute for zucchini?
Hi Caprice, I love that idea or you can skip the zucchini step altogether. Hope this helps! Keep me in the loop on the outcome. 🙂
Delicious, easy, healthy, & great in so many recipes or on its own!!
Thank you!!
Delicious! I could eat this weekly & thank heavens we always have leftovers when I make this. It just seems to get better in the fridge. I love it!
I'm so glad you enjoyed the recipe, thank you for your feedback!
What a delicious and very tasty recipe. My family and I absolutely loved this braised cabbage with chicken! Such great flavor and so tasty! Can't wait to make this again!
I'm so glad you enjoyed the flavors in this recipe, thank you for your feedback!
could I use sour cream instead of butter in this recipe? And could I make this in a slow cooker?
Thanks in advance!:)
You could try but I am not sure how it turn out. I have never tried making it that way.
This dish was amazzzing! I included some diced tomatoes from a can to mine, and it turned awesome! Thank you so much for the recipe!
Wow, tomatoes would be amazing addition, sadly I am the only person that likes them. Thanks for sharingn your feedback!
Thanks for this recipe, but i was wondering if it would be the same without the fresh mushrooms. I dont have any on hand and I want to try this tonight. would canned work? or what other substitutions do you recommend? thanks a million
You can omit mushrooms or even use canned mushrooms would work. This dish can easily be adjusted to your likings.
Thank you for replying 🙂 looking forward to making this 🙂