Sunday, June 21, 2009

Baked Chicken Breast with Tomato n Cheese

tomato chicken
This dish (although it looks like a gluggy mess in the photo) is fast becoming a favourite with me because it is so easy to make. It is a little like chicken parmigiana, but unlike chicken parmigiana, which is first breaded, fried and then baked, this dish is just baked - which means you throw all the ingredients into an oven-safe dish, and plonk it into the oven. Done!

Chicken breast works well in this dish - because it is baked in the tomato liquid, the chicken remains juicy and does not dry out.

Method:
Preheat your oven to 200 degrees C.
Place a raw chicken breast into a shallow medium size oven-proof dish and season with a little salt and pepper. Open a 400g can of chopped tomatoes in their natural juices (I use Waitrose brand) and pour over the chicken. Top the chicken with some shredded cheese (I use a mix of parmesan and cheddar cheese, you can also use mozarella). Bake the chicken for 30 - 40mins until the chicken is cooked (the juices will run clear). 

(If you happen to have a convection oven, you can decrease the cooking time by using a combination bake and microwave function)

Serve with vegetables and pasta or potatoes. Shorter pasta such as spiral, macaroni or ravioli works well because you can coat the pasta with the excess tomato and cheese sauce.

Tip: For this dish, I like to buy ready-made pasta like ravioli stuffed with roasted vegetables. It's a slightly more expensive alternative, though...but a nice treat...

4 comments:

Bento Pet said...

I love recipes like these. No fuss and versatile!! Thanks. Might try it out for dinner tonight!!

Claudia said...

Hi Bento Pet! Thanks for your comment. I love no-fuss recipes, too (obviously!). I hope you enjoy the recipe :)

Danielle said...

I loved this recipe which I made a couple of nights ago with some easy pasta I'd found online! Great stuff and so easy! The chicken came out so tender!

Claudia said...

Hi Danielle,
Fantastic! Am really glad the recipe turned out well for you :)