Easy Baked Italian Chicken

When I’m looking for a really easy dinner that’s still healthy and tasty, I turn to this recipe.  Honestly, I feel kind of fraudulent calling it a recipe because it’s so easy.  I usually have all of the ingredients on hand, and you don’t even have to thaw out the chicken!  You literally take a couple of frozen chicken breasts, pour on a couple of cans of Italian diced tomatoes, and bake them for an hour.  As the chicken bakes in the tomato juices, it becomes very flavorful and turns out extremely moist and perfectly cooked through.  I pair this with some simple whole wheat pasta tossed with some pesto and a vegetable.

 There are so many different flavors of diced tomatoes, you could mix it up with whatever kind you like.  I’ve used the kind with green peppers, celery, and onion, and I’ve also thrown in one can of tomatoes with green chiles for some spice.  If you are only making two chicken breasts, you can just use one can of tomatoes, but I like a lot, so I use two.  You could easily make 3 pieces of chicken with two cans also.  Just do whatever you like!   At the end I melt some cheese on top of the baked chicken breasts, because well, I am a cheese freak.  I usually use shredded mozzarella or Italian mix, but this time I happened to have some “real” Parmesan, so I shaved some of that on top.  Delicious, as always!

Easy Baked Italian Chicken

Ingredients:

2 Frozen boneless skinless chicken breasts

2 Cans of Italian diced tomatoes (with basil, garlic, and oregano)

Mozzarella, Parmesan, or Italian mix cheese

Garlic powder

Salt and pepper

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Sprinkle both sides of two frozen chicken breasts with salt, pepper, and garlic powder.  Put in glass baking dish and top with two cans of Italian diced tomatoes.  Bake for one hour.   After the chicken has baked for an hour, top with cheese of your choice.  Put back in the oven until cheese melts.

Serve with pasta if you wish.  Here you see it with whole wheat pasta tossed with some pesto and sauteed zucchini.  Enjoy!