Tomato & Pesto Chicken Bake

So you have a frozen chicken breast sitting in your freezer from when your mom came to visit that one time. You don’t want to use your typical marinade because it has become boring. You also do not want to eat just a plain chicken breast. What do you do? EASY- you make this. It has everything a student could want- simplicity, basil, and cheese. Oh, and toss some cut up tomatoes on there and you even have a fruit (vegetable?) component. This recipe is also great for students because it requires only one chicken breast, but makes two portions! Three cheers for saving money!! Cutting the chicken breast in half is great because it doesn’t dry out in the oven because it is evenly cut; the middle is the same width as the ends. I got this recipe from my mom (shout out to my mom!), and her version calls for Roma tomatoes, but the only ones I had on hand were cherry- so I used them. Yay for versatile recipes!

If you do not want to make homemade pesto, as the recipe suggests, you can use store bought pesto and use the leftovers as a pasta sauce on a later date. If you do want to make the pesto but have not mini chopper, I suggest this one for a student friendly budge since it also doubles as a blender. The homemade pesto should be used within three days.

The cherry tomatoes ended up working pretty nicely, but if you want a less messy version, I would stick to using Roma, or any other bigger tomato. Side note- did you know you are never supposed to refrigerate your tomatoes? Yah! They loose all flavour that way. I only learned that a year ago. Anyways, the moral of the story is, use any type of tomato you want! If you already have one, use that.

Tomato, Pesto Chicken Bake

Author: Lindsay Craven

Serves: 2

Time: 30 Minutes

Cost: $

INGREDIENTS

For the Pesto:

• ½ cup of olive oil

• 1 cup of basil (stems included)

• ¼ cup of parmesan cheese

• 2 cloves of garlic

• Salt & pepper to taste

For the chicken:

• 1 large chicken breast

• 2 tablespoons of the pesto

• 15 cherry tomatoes

• ¼ of grated mozzarella cheese

• Salt & pepper to taste

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Pesto: Peel the skin off of the garlic. Put all ingredients into a food processor or mini chopper. Pulse until desired consistency. (I like mine to be smooth, free of all chunks)

2. Chicken: Preheat the oven to 375°F. Slice the chicken in half, lengthwise so you have two thin chicken breasts. Coat each chicken breast with 1 tablespoon of pesto. Line a baking sheet with tin foil or parchment paper and place the chicken on the sheet. Put chicken in the heated oven and cook for 20 minutes. Slice the cherry tomatoes (on a clean cutting board) and grate the cheese. After the 20 minutes have elapsed, pull the chicken out and top first with tomatoes then cheese. Place back in the oven for an additional 5 minutes. Let cool for 1 min (so the cheese sets) and enjoy!

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