Caprese Hasselback Chicken
Juicy chicken breasts are sliced into pockets, filled with tomato, mozzarella, and pesto, then baked until golden and bubbling. Served with crispy ciabatta and a drizzle of balsamic cream, this is an easy yet impressive weeknight dinner.
- Prep20 min
- Cook30 min
- Total50 min
- DifficultyEasy
- Servings4
This recipe takes the classic caprese salad and turns it into a warm, comforting main dish. By cutting slits into the chicken breast and stuffing them with tomato, mozzarella, and pesto, every bite is packed with flavor.
Baking everything together in one dish means the cheese melts into the sauce, and the ciabatta is perfect for soaking up every last drop. It's a simple, satisfying meal that looks like you spent hours in the kitchen.
Ingredients
Servings
Converted amounts are rounded.
Method
- Preheat the oven to 350°F with top and bottom heat. Have a baking dish ready.
- Wash the Roma tomatoes, pat them dry, and cut them crosswise into thin slices. Set aside.
- Drain the mozzarella well and slice it thinly as well.
- Rinse the chicken breast fillets under cold water and pat them dry with paper towels.
- Make several crosswise cuts into each chicken breast, about 5 mm apart, without cutting all the way through, so the fillet opens like a fan.
- In a small bowl, mix the pesto with the finely chopped garlic.
- Place the slashed chicken breasts in the baking dish. Using a teaspoon, put a little of the pesto-garlic mixture into each slit.
- Then fill each slit with one slice of tomato and one slice of mozzarella.
- Season the stuffed chicken breasts generously all around with salt and freshly ground pepper.
- Slide the baking dish into the preheated oven and bake the Hasselback chicken for about 30 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through and the mozzarella has melted nicely.
- During the last 8–10 minutes of baking, place the ciabatta on a rack in the oven to crisp up. Once done, slice or tear it into pieces.
- Meanwhile, wash the basil, shake it dry, and roughly tear the leaves.
- Remove the baking dish from the oven. Sprinkle the chicken generously with the basil leaves and drizzle the balsamic cream decoratively over the chicken and, if you like, over the ciabatta as well.
- Serve the chicken straight from the dish with the crispy ciabatta, so everyone can dip into the flavorful sauce and melted pesto-mozzarella mixture.
💡 Tips
- For extra flavor, let the chicken marinate in the pesto-garlic mixture for 30 minutes before stuffing.
- If your mozzarella is very wet, pat it dry with paper towels to avoid a watery sauce.
- You can use any crusty bread instead of ciabatta.
Inspired by a recipe from Kitchen Stories