What to you do when you’re craving pizza, but don’t have the ingredients? I faced this dilemma the other night and the result was a new recipe that we enjoyed so much that John and I ate the leftovers for lunch and had to make the recipe again a few nights later for supper.
This recipe has some up-front prep work, but then you pop it into the oven and let it bake away. Add a few easy vegetable sides and you have a gourmet meal without a lot of effort. That’s what I like for mid-week meals!
Instructions
Yield: at least 5 servings
Ingredients
- 5 large chicken breasts
- 24 oz. jar of pasta sauce
- 1 6 oz. can black olives
- 1 6 oz. can green olives
- 4 garlic cloves
- approx. 50 slices pepperoni
- marinara or pasta sauce
- mozzarella cheese, grated
- parmesan cheese, grated
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 350 and get a baking pan out. Roughly chop the olives and garlic and set aside. Trim any excess fat from the chicken breasts and then slice them so that they open up like a hoagie roll. Open up each breast and cover one side with pepperoni slices. Place a layer of the olive mixture on top of that and then close up the chicken breast. Repeat for each breast. Pour a thin layer of pasta sauce into the baking pan, place the chicken breast in the pan and pour the remaining sauce over the top. Place the chicken into then oven. When the chicken has finished cooking, sprinkle the mozzarella over the top and turn the broiler on for a few minutes. to melt the chicken.
- Slice the chicken before serving and then spread it out slightly on the plate so that the pepperoni and olives can be seen.
Notes:
- Cooking times will vary based on the thickness of the chicken. A meat thermometer inserted into the middle of the breasts is one way to check for doneness. According to Harold McGee in n Food And Cooking, you need to insert at least an inch of the thermometer into the eat, so you’d need to insert the thermometer sideways. The FDA recommends cooking chicken until the internal temperature is at least 165 F.
- I generally check for doneness by leaving the meal alone until it starts to smell good, and then I test for doneness by cutting into the center of a few of the breasts.
Wow. Picture looks great, and I think I can smell this cooking! Creative, indeed!
I’m trying this tonight! Using turkey pepperoni, as we don’t eat pork. Sounds yummy!!
I am making this tonight. I am going to add fresh mushrooms in place of the green olives but use black olives also. I will be using my non dairy soy mozzarella since I don’t eat dairy and using newmans own tomatoe and basil sauce. Again, no gluten or dairy. 🙂 I did pound out the chicken so its flatter and much larger, this way I can fill them with mushrooms and olives and pepperoni. I am sure the kids will love it as well.
Hi Mary Frances! This recipe looks yummy…I’m making it right now using gluten free salami instead ofpepperoni (that’s what I have in the house). Thanks for the great idea!
-Lynne
had it last night and WOW! Delicious! I added Mushrooms and sun dried tomatoes. If you pound the chicken out flat in between 2 pcs of Saran wrap you can stuff more veggies in it. 🙂 It was delicious! And I used GO Veggie Mozzarella Cheese.