Parmesan Garlic Herb Chicken – My First REAL Recipe

A couple of weeks back I had a few things in my pantry and fridge that I wanted to use up and I couldn’t think of a recipe that would work (and I didn’t want to spend a lot of time searching for a recipe). So, I decided to create my own recipe.

I think I’ve mentioned before about one night a week my fiancé comes over to my place for dinner; I thought it would be a great experiment…worst case, it would be a disaster and we order pizza. But that didn’t happen…

The experiment was a SUCCESS!

We definitely did not have to order pizza. I was very careful not to say anything about dinner or give any indication that I had just made up my own recipe because I wanted to get an honest response from my fiancé. Sure enough, a couple of bites into dinner, the following exchange occurred.

Him: “This is pretty good.”
Me: “REALLY?” (Perhaps with an overly excited expression on my face.)
Him: “Yes, why? What did you do? Did you change a recipe?”
Me: “No, I MADE IT UP!”

He liked it! YAY!

It’s a pretty simple recipe and fairly healthy (even healthier if you leave out the cheese, but the cheese surprise when you cut it open is pretty tasty).

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Parmesan Garlic Herb Chicken

(Original Recipe by Michelle)

4-5 (depending on size) boneless skinless chicken breasts (thawed)
~ 1/3 cup white cooking wine*
~ ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
¼ teaspoon dried parsley flakes
¼ teaspoon dried oregano
¼ teaspoon dried thyme
¼ teaspoon dried basil
¼ teaspoon dried marjoram
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
pinch of salt
6 garlic cloves
1-2 tablespoons reduced fat cream cheese
1/3 cup shredded parmesan

Heat oven to 375 F.

Whisk together the white wine and extra virgin olive oil in a large bowl with a lid (or in a small bowl if using a plastic bag to marinate chicken). Then whisk in the seasonings and add 2 garlic cloves. Add the chicken and place in fridge to marinate for at least one hour or as long as you like.

Chicken Marinating

Mix cream cheese and parmesan in a small bowl.

(I had one of these mini cream cheese tubs left so that is what I used for the cream cheese)

Combined cheese mixture

Remove chicken from marinade and place on plate or cutting board. With a knife, cut a slit in the side of the chicken (it’s usually best to start at the thickest part of the breast). You can make the slide just the size of the knife for just a little bit of filling or as big as you want to get more filling in the chicken.

I used my fingers to stuff the cheese mixture into the slits in the chicken. Make sure you stuff it as far back as possible and don’t fill the slit with cheese all the way to the end of the chicken or it will all just ooze out while the chicken bakes. Press together the end of the slit to try and avoid any oozing.

Place chicken in a baking dish and pour the marinade over the top. Add four more cloves of garlic (make sure they are scattered throughout the baking dish and not all in one place). Place a sprig of fresh rosemary on top of each chicken breast.

Pre-Oven

Bake for 35-45 minutes or until done.

Post Oven

Serve. I paired it with some garlic and spinach pasta in a marinara sauce, but it would also be great with veggies or rice.

*I know most people say not to use cooking wine and that you should never use a wine to cook with that you wouldn’t drink; well I don’t drink wine so I probably couldn’t tell a difference and it’s often easier to buy cooking wine at the grocery store than to make an extra trip to the liquor store and then be stuck with the rest of the bottle of wine. Also, if you don’t like to use wine in your cooking I’m guessing you could easily substitute it with chicken broth or more extra virgin olive oil; but I haven’t tried that out specifically. If you do try a substitution for the wine, let me know how it goes.

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This is my first time writing a real recipe, I’ve tried to read through it to make sure it makes sense, but if you have any questions please let me know and I’ll try to clarify the directions as needed.

Give it a try and let me know what you think! I’d love to hear your thoughts and feedback!

Enjoy!

Salsa Chicken with Tortilla Black Beans & Rice – SUPER Easy

This is very similar to my Balsamic Chicken. What can I say, I like the ease of taking something simple (balsamic vinegar, salsa, salad dressing, etc.) and using it as-is for a marinade, it’s easy and tastes good.

For this one, I usually take about one cup of salsa (depending how many chicken breasts I’m cooking, but it’s usually 1-2) and let the chicken just soak it up. Again, the longer it marinates the better, but you can get away with 30-60 minutes.

Bake at 375 degrees for 35-45 minutes (or grill if you prefer).

For the super easy and quick dinner, serve this with some Spanish rice (this is actually one version of the Uncle Ben’s Ready Rice that I’m not a fan of, but if you don’t want to try making Spanish rice from scratch there are a variety of other easy mixes or pre-made options). I usually round out the meal with a salad, or some corn or some tortilla chips…whatever suits your mood.

Or you can serve this with my new Tortilla Black Beans & Rice; which is also pretty easy!

I really like salsa, so I make sure there is plenty of salsa on top of the chicken before I bake it.

Here's the recipe for my Tortilla Black Beans & Rice; I'll also be getting this new recipe posted up on Tasty Kitchen within a couple of days if you want a printer-friendly version to download.

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Tortilla Black Beans & Rice

1 bag Uncle Ben’s Ready Rice Brown Rice (can substitute with any brown rice)
1 can low sodium black beans; rinsed and drained
1 cup (or more or less to your liking) of your favorite salsa (I used Pace Medium Salsa)
1 cup crushed tortilla chips (my favorite is blue corn tortilla chips)
Optional: low fat sour cream

Optional: 1/8 cup shredded cheese
Optional: Corn

Heat the beans up in a pot over low to medium heat. As they start warming up, add in the salsa. Cook the rice in the microwave according to package and then dump into the pot with the beans and salsa. Stir everything together and turn the burner to low heat to keep it warm until ready to serve.

Just before serving mix in the crushed tortilla chips. I actually mix the crushed chips into each serving so that if there are any leftovers the chips don’t get soggy; then I just add more crushed chips in when I reheat the leftovers.

I also like to add in a dab of low-fat sour cream and mix it all up, it adds a nice contrast to the salsa; but it is also very good without the sour cream.

I haven’t tried this yet, but you could also top the mixture with a pinch of shredded cheese just before serving or you could also mix in corn or mexicorn with the beans and rice.

Tortilla Black Beans & Rice pictured above before sour cream was added.

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I hope you enjoy!

Balsamic Chicken – SUPER Easy

This is what I made for dinner last night (and had leftovers for lunch today), I love it and it’s super easy. I don’t think it can even really be considered a recipe it’s so easy.

All I do is marinate boneless skinless chicken breast in balsamic vinegar. Just take the thawed chicken and cover it in balsamic vinegar and let it soak for at least 30 minutes (if I’m on top of things and thawed the chicken ahead of time I throw in the balsamic vinegar in the morning and let it soak all day in the fridge, but that doesn’t always happen). I don’t measure the balsamic vinegar I just make sure each piece of chicken is coated and that there’s a little on the bottom of the container to let it soak. Sometimes I add in a pinch or two of salt and pepper, but not always. Then I just dump the chicken and marinade into a glass baking dish and bake at 375 degrees for 35-45 minutes.

Chicken marinating (the holes/dots are from the fork I used to turn the chicken)

The chicken ends up being really moist and delicious. Although the delicious part might be more of an acquired taste…this is probably my second favorite type of chicken ever, the fiancé however would not rank it that high.

As the chicken cools off just a tad from the oven, I pop in some Uncle Ben’s Ready Rice into the microwave for 90 seconds. (I really like the Uncle Ben’s Ready Rice, it’s so fast and so easy. There are a lot of varieties, but I usually use the brown and wild rice mix when I’m serving it as a side to chicken or salmon.)

To round out the meal, I finish it off with a green vegetable; my favorites are asparagus or green beans.