Simple Summer Recipe: Mama’s Tired, but this Chicken Ain’t!

 

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I’ll be the first to admit that the thought of eating baked chicken doesn’t exactly fire my panties up (thank you, Phil Robertson, for this invaluable contribution to my daily lexicon). I grew up eating baked chicken for dinner – I don’t know – I’m guessing five times per week.  Spying that big Sam’s Club bag of frozen boneless, skinless chicken breasts thawing in the sink always sapped my enthusiasm for dinnertime as I knew another soulless rubbery meal was on the horizon. I made a solemn vow to myself at the wise age of 15 that I would never, ever serve my family baked chicken. Ever.

Well, hindsight being 20/20, I now know never to say never. So here I am encouraging all my fellow mommy warriors to engage in an activity that I, in my inconceivably naive way, likened to a form of child abuse during my formative years: serve your family baked chicken for dinner. But this chicken is different from the chicken I grew up with. (Sorry Mom.)  It is flavorful; it is aromatic; it is relatively healthy, and perhaps best of all, it is really, really easy to make. Because I don’t know about you, but the last place I want to be at the end of a scorching summer afternoon is standing in front of a hot skillet or grill.

You will see that this dish requires very minimal prep work – really just slicing tomatoes. Cut a few extra while you’re at it and toss them in with some field greens to dress the meal up with a salad.  I like to serve the chicken with rotini pasta lightly tossed in olive oil or leftover pesto and loads of parmesan cheese, but if you’re really looking to have a hands-off kind of evening, you could microwave a bag or two of Uncle Ben’s Ready Rice and call it a day. However you choose to serve it, you can do so confidently knowing that – in my house anyway – this is a whole family approved meal…finicky toddler included.

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Mama’s Tired but this Pesto Baked Chicken Breast Ain’t!

  • 3 Boneless, skinless Chicken breasts
  • 8 oz package of Basil Pesto
  • 2 Medium Tomatoes, sliced thin
  • 8 oz bag of Mozzarella Cheese 
  • 8 oz package of Parmesan Cheese
  • Fresh Basil leaves
  • 2 tbs Olive Oil
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400° F.

Slice chicken breast horizontally to create 6 thin cutlets. Brush with olive oil on both sides and season lightly with salt and fresh pepper.

Place the chicken in a 3 qt (13×9) glass pan.

Bake for 15 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink in center.

Remove from oven. Generously slather tops of chicken breasts with pesto and then place 1-2 tomato slices on top of each breast. Top tomatoes with a basil leaf or two and then sprinkle (or smother) with your preferred blend of mozzarella and parmesan cheese. (I like the texture that mozzarella adds to the cheese blend but much prefer the flavor of parmesan, so I use more parmesan than mozzarella. If you’re ambivalent on the issue, you could get an Italian cheeses bag and simplify the recipe even more.)

Bake for an additional 3 to 5 minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbly.

Serve and then prepare to load totally clean plates from table directly into dishwasher, no rinsing required. Your work here is done, Mom!

Layer the baked chicken with pesto, tomatoes, basil, and cheese glorious cheese.
Layer the baked chicken with pesto, tomatoes, basil, and cheese glorious cheese.
Elizabeth
Elizabeth is a native Texan and stay at home mom to a 3-year-old human hurricane in pigtails and a 1-year-old son who is currently jockeying for the title of world’s biggest mama’s boy. She has been married to her husband, who lives in perpetual denial of the fact that he is, in fact, a Yankee, for eight long (and wonderful!) years. Together they have renovated a historical home with their own little hands (never again), braved the winters of New York (and decided they’d rather not), and discovered a profound and binding love of travel (travel without the children, that is). They currently reside in Fair Oaks Ranch where they are surrounded by family and deer.

1 COMMENT

  1. I can vouch for this delicious recipe, having been lucky enough to partake. It was a lovely mid-week meal, appealing to both eye and palate and enjoyed by all ages. Yum!

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