The other day while surfing cooking blogs, I came across a recipe on Steamy Kitchen that intrigued me. It was basically a Caprese salad on top of a chicken breast. Unfortunately for me, the tomatoes at the grocery store were more orange than red and were probably not going to have the delicious, juicy sweetness of a ripe summer tomato. I did pick up a carton of grape tomatoes and those are almost always tasty and sweet.
I modified the recipe a little by brining the chicken for a few hours. For those of you who don’t have to watch your sodium intake, brining is a wonderful way to enrich the juiciness and flavor of a boneless, skinless chicken breast. I have the details of how to do it here. After brining, rinse the chicken in cold water to remove the excess brine. If you don’t brine, that’s fine (I made a rhyme!) too, just omit that step. I really should be watching my sodium, but for goodness sakes, I can only take so many changes at a time.
The Weight Watchers point count is 10, but that can vary depending on your chicken size. The chicken breasts I bought were huge, with one almost weighing in at a pound! I took a puny one and cut it down to 7 ounces and that was plenty.
What you’ll need:
- A chicken breast, brined if you can afford the sodium intake
- 1 tsp olive oil
- 1 ounce fresh mozzarella
- sliced tomato or grape/cherry tomatoes sliced
- basil, but in my case, I used sauteed spinach and red pepper
- minced garlic
- pepper to taste
Preheat the oven to 375. Rinse brined chicken in cold water and pat dry with paper towels. Season chicken with pepper, it shouldn’t need any more salt. In an oven safe skillet, heat 1 tsp olive oil on medium high heat until it shimmers. Place chicken breast smooth side down and leave it alone for 3 minutes, once it gets nice and brown, turn it over and sear the other side. Rub the smooth side of the chicken with minced garlic, then cover the skillet and place in the preheated oven for about 15-20 minutes to finish cooking. My chicken took the full 20 minutes (there were two 13 ounce breasts along with mine). Remove the chicken from the oven and uncover. Pour out juices and reserve for other use, if you like. Top the chicken with sliced tomatoes and mozzarella slice and place under a broiler for a minute or so until the cheese melts slightly. You can then drizzle a little balsamic vinegar on the top, if you like. Serve with the vegetable of your choice or a small salad. Thanks for visiting!