You are going to love this very easy chicken breast recipe! The chicken breasts are baked in the oven and are super juicy. They cook in a tomato sauce for about 20-25 min, depending on the size, and are topped with fresh tomato and mozzarella cheese towards the end of the baking time. For the chicken breasts to cook evenly, they should be similar in size. If they are very thick, I flatten them a bit beforehand. Before I season the chicken fillets, I already mix all the spices together with the herbs to create my own seasoning mix. Then the chicken fillets are rubbed vigorously with the mixed spices. It always brings me great joy to experiment with spices and herbs, and I love the different scents that fill the entire room afterward.
Delicious juicy mozzarella chicken breast baked in the oven with tomato and basil pesto
Quite often chicken breast fillet becomes dry when baked in the oven, to prevent this from happening I put the chicken breasts raw in the sauce. You do not want to choose a baking dish that is too large. In my case, the fillets are half in the tomato sauce and then cook for 20-25 minutes in the preheated oven, depending on their size. I then remove the baking dish briefly from the oven to brush the chicken breasts with basil pesto and top them with the tomatoes, basil, and mozzarella slices. The baking dish with the chicken then goes back into the oven for another 8 to 10 minutes. This ensures that the mozzarella melts nicely and is creamy. Once I’ve then taken the chicken breast out of the oven, I spread some more of the pesto over the tomato slices before serving. The result is a wonderfully tender and juicy chicken fillet
from the oven, which has been given a wonderful Mediterranean flavor by the pesto, tomato, and mozzarella.
Chicken Caprese with basil pesto, tomato and mozzarella cheese.
I like to make the delicious basil pesto myself. It doesn’t require many ingredients at all, and it just tastes so much better than store-bought. For this basil pesto, I use a bundle of fresh basil, garlic, salt, and olive oil. I purposely leave out cheese here because I use it for the chicken breast, which will be topped with mozzarella later anyway. If you want to make a pesto for pasta, you can for example use Parmesan as an ingredient. I also like pesto made from dried tomatoes or arugula and walnuts.
Juicy Mozzarella chicken breast baked in the oven with tomato
I usually serve gnocchi and a fresh arugula salad with the “Chicken Caprese”. This uncomplicated chicken recipe always pleases my children and my husband Christian very much, and in summer we often only enjoy a salad and some freshly baked bread with it. I always feel like I’m on vacation when the delicious flavors spread around the kitchen, and we eat together on the balcony enjoying a bit of sunshine. The origin of this recipe goes back, of course, to the delicious Italian appetizer salad “Caprese”.
This Italian appetizer with mozzarella, fresh tomatoes, and basil leaves is said to have existed in Italy before the First World War. The famous “Hotel Quisisana” on the Island Capri is believed to have created the appetizer, that is so popular today, as a tribute to its Italian homeland. The color combination of green, white and red is supposed to represent the Italian flag and honor beautiful Italy. It then gained real fame in 1950 after it was served to the then Egyptian King Farouk as an afternoon snack, and he declared it one of his all-time favorite dishes.
My recipe tip for you!
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Juicy chicken breasts baked in the oven, topped with tomato and mozzarella
On my blog, you can also find another delicious and super quick recipe for chicken. A super delicious stuffed “chicken breast with feta and spinach”. The chicken breast is stuffed with a mixture of feta (or optional mozzarella), spinach, and dried soft tomatoes and then roasted. If you have a question about the recipe, I’d love to hear from you in the comments and answer you quickly!
I hope you have a lot of fun reading, strolling through, and trying out my cooking and baking recipes!
Equipment
- 1 Casserole dish
- 1 blender
- 1 knife
- 1 paring knife
- 1 cutting board
Ingredients
- 800 g chicken breast
- 1 tomatoes
- 200 g mozzarella (2 balls)
- 200 g chopped tomatoes canned pizza tomatoes
- 120 ml chicken stock
- 100 ml heavy cream
- 1 bundle of basil
- 10 tbsp Olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic
- 30 g Cashew nuts
- salt
- 1 tbsp herbs de Provence
- 2 tbsp BBQ Rub Steakhouse (spice mixture)
- 1 tbsp paprika powder
- 0,5 tbsp chili flakes
- 4 tbsp grated parmesan for the tomato sauce
- 8 basil leaves
Instructions
- Prepare all ingredients and, if necessary, already measure and weigh them. Wash the chicken breast with cold water and pat them dry. Wash and dry the tomatoes as well. Purée the basil together with the cashews, garlic, a little salt and olive oil.
- Flatten the chicken fillets a bit so that they cook evenly later. Mix the spices and rub the chicken fillets generously with the spice mixture.
- Mix the chopped canned tomatoes with the chicken stock, heavy cream and about 4 tablespoons of grated Parmesan and pour into the baking dish. The chicken breast is placed in the tomato sauce and cooked for about 20 to 25 minutes at 180 degrees in a preheated oven.
- In the meantime, slice the two tomatoes and the 2 mozzarella balls. The chicken breasts are removed from the oven after about 20 to 25 minutes and a spoonful of pesto is spread on each chicken fillet. The chicken is then topped with the tomato and mozzarella slices
- And a little basil leaves, and then placed in the oven for another 8 to 10 minutes.
- Before serving, you can spread some fresh basil pesto on the finished Caprese Chicken. Serve with gnocchi or fresh oven-warm ciabatta and a nice arugula salad.
