Italian Stuffing Chicken, An Easy Weeknight Meal
Between a long commute and even longer work day, I barely have time to get anything decent on the table during the week. Surely, I am not alone in this? One of my main strategies is to make a good and rather large dinner on Sunday night, so we can nosh on leftovers Monday night. Somehow, knowing I’m coming home with dinner ready to go makes facing Monday a bit easier. The rest of the week its literally a hodge podge of meals that can be made pretty quickly. And I’m always on the hunt for a good, easy weeknight meal. Something to spice it up from our usual routine.
When I stumbled upon this one dish meal on AllRecipes.com, it peaked my interest enough to give it a go. The result was indeed an easy and quick meal that lasted two nights. I wasn’t necessarily wowed by it, even with a few of my adjustments, yet we kept going back to put more on our plates. Maybe it’s the homey texture of chicken and stuffing, but with a few more tweaks I think we might have ourselves a week night winner. Even just as it was, our plates were definitely clean!
After cutting chicken breasts and placing them in the baking dish, I sprinkled on a layer of mozzarella.
Only to be followed by a sprinkling of fresh basil.
Next up is a layer of the tomato and stuffing mixture.
A little more cheese before hitting the oven…
and voila! Dinner is served!
I’ve included the full recipe that I used below. Although I would love to hear how you would spice up this dish? I think next time I will use fresh mozzarella chunks and perhaps some red pepper flakes. Thoughts?
Ingredients
- 1 ½ pounds skinless, boneless chicken breast halves – cubed
- 1 (15 ounce) can diced tomatoes
- 1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
- ½ cup water
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- 1 (6 ounce) box chicken-flavored dry bread stuffing mix
- 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
- 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
- I/4 cup minced basil
Directions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray a 9×13-inch glass baking dish with cooking spray.
- Place the chicken in a layer into the bottom of the baking dish.
- Stir together tomatoes, tomato paste, water, garlic, and stuffing mix in a large bowl; set aside to soften.
- Sprinkle cheese on top of the chicken, then sprinkle with the Italian seasoning and basil. Spread the softened stuffing mixture on top and sprinkle with any leftover cheese.
- Bake uncovered about 30 minutes.
