This Baked Balsamic Chicken is prepared caprese style with juicy vine-ripened tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, and finished with a touch of delicious pesto. This is so easy to make and can made ahead of time into a delicious meal prep lunch or dinner.
Can we talk easy chicken recipes for a second? Or how about easy recipes in general? Or maybe easy recipes that actually look pretty fancy? Great! Cause this baked balsamic chicken caprese-style is all that and so much more.
Like most of my recipes this baked balsamic chicken happened on a fluke. Honestly, I wish I could say I sit out around creating all these creative delicious recipes ahead of time – but I don’t. Well sometimes I do, but most of my recipes happen because those are the ingredients I had on hand.
Enter baked balsamic chicken caprese-style.
Now, I’ve prepared a couple other balsamic chicken recipes in the past. I made a slow cooker balsamic chicken and this sheet pan honey balsamic chicken – both are delicious and you should make them soon. But I was envisioning a baked balsamic chicken with tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, and some pesto. Mmmmmm doesn’t that sound amazing?
In my previous balsamic chicken recipes I made the balsamic dressing from scratch but for this recipe I wanted to keep it super simple so I used one of my favorite dressing, Newmans Own Lite Balsamic Vinegar Dressing. Honestly, this is one of the only lite dressing I enjoy.
I marinated 1 1/2 – 2 lbs of chicken breasts in about 1/2 cup of balsamic dressing. I did this on Sunday meal prep day. I prepared the chicken on Wednesday so it had a couple days to marinate. My advice is to let this marinate at least a day to get full flavor.
One the day I made this baked balsamic chicken all I needed to do was lay the chicken out on a sheet pan. I decided to include some green beans and make this a sheet pan dinner. Of course, you can use any vegetable you’d like. Broccoli would be great!
Next I covered the chicken breasts with a couple slices of tomato and sprinkled a little salt and pepper over them.
I slid the balsamic chicken into the oven to bake for about 40 minutes at 370 degrees.
Then I placed 1 ounce of fresh mozzarella on top of the chicken and tomatoes and let it cook for another 5-7 minutes, or until melted. Yum! Now, if you don’t have pesto you can certainly enjoy the baked balsamic chicken breasts just like this.
However, I had some prepared pesto in the refrigerator so I put a couple teaspoons over the top of each chicken breast. Oh mama!
Seriously, you can’t go wrong with with pesto on anything! Or fresh mozzarella. Delish!
As you can imagine one baked balsamic chicken breast is quite filling so you really don’t need much more than a salad or vegetable. I kept this on the low-carb side and simply served it with roasted green beens. However, if you need a starch then I reccomend a side of quinoa or whole grain pasta.
The great thing about this baked balsamic chicken recipe is it taste great the next day..and the day after. So, you can easily make this into a meal prep recipe. Just divide the chicken and green beans between meal prep containers and store in the refrigerator for 3-5 days. I thought the chicken tasted great cold but you can certainly warm everything up in the microwave too.
If you’re looking for an easy chicken recipe then this baked balsamic chicken recipe is it!
Baked Balsamic Chicken Caprese-style
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup Newmans Own Lite Balsamic Vinaigrette
- 1.5 - 2 lbs boneless skinless chicken Breast
- 2 medium tomatoes sliced
- 4 ounces Fresh Mozzarella
- 8 tsp s, prepared pesto
Instructions
- Marinate chicken breasts in dressing for 1-2 days.
- Preheat oven to 370 degrees.
- Place marinated chicken breasts on large sheet pan.
- Place 2 slices of tomato on each chicken breast.
- Bake for 40 minutes, or until no longer pink in the middle.
- Add 1 ounce of fresh mozzarella slices to each chicken breast. Bake for another 5-7 minutes or until cheese is melted.
- Spread 2 teaspoons of pesto on top of each chicken breast.
- Serve with roasted vegetables or a salad.
Notes
Chicken can be marinated up to 2 days ahead of time. Recipe can be made completely ahead of time and stored in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
Nutrition
Culinary School says
This Chicken Caprese is simply amazing!
Thank you, Tammy, for your wonderful blog! I often show your recipes to my students in cooking school, because your recipes are always creative and very tasty.
Tammy Kresge says
thank you.
2pots2cook says
Chicken ! Caprese ! Count me in !