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When I write this bruschetta chicken recipe, we have an abundance of perfectly ripe, perfectly delicious tomatoes in Wisconsin. We love tomatoes in my household, so we’re always trying to figure out ways to incorporate them into our meals when they’re in season. Inevitably, a lot of meals involve bruschetta as a side dish. Then one day, we decided to incorporate the bruschetta into the entree and boom – we have bruschetta chicken!
Now, this probably isn’t the most original recipe ever, but I did make an innovation that I think makes this recipe extra delicious that I haven’t seen anywhere else on the internet: I hasselbacked the chicken to get more gooey cheese onto the chicken! Yes, that’s right. More. Cheese.
Mozzarella cheese is delicious with bruschetta – I love a round of fresh mozzarella on toasted bread topped with bruschetta – and the melted mozzarella makes this recipe comforting and delicious. By hasselbacking the chicken (this means you slice it halfway through so there are gaps in the chicken), the mozzarella cheese has more space to melt into the chicken to add flavor. It’s a glorious way to get even more cheesiness into this bruschetta chicken recipe, and who doesn’t want that?
At Lake Geneva Country Meats, we have rather large chicken breasts available, so hasselbacking also helps the chicken cook faster. Since our chicken is so big, you’re probably going to want to serve individual slices of chicken, not whole breasts, and hasselbacking gives you a good slicing guide. However, if you cook smaller sized chicken breasts, you can serve an entire breast to each person and the hasselbacking will help the bruschetta get into every nook and cranny of the chicken!
Before we get to the recipe, here are the answers to 3 quick questions, we think you may have about this bruschetta chicken meal.
When we made this recipe, we used our Italian Romano marinated chicken breast instead of a plain chicken breast. This marinade has zesty Italian dressing flavor with a hint of romano cheese – really it’s the perfect flavor combo for our bruschetta chicken. If you’re a LGCM customer, you could also use our Garlic Parmesan chicken as a base chicken breast flavor – it would be awesome as well.
If you don’t have access to LGCM’s convenient and delicious marinated chicken breasts, I would recommend that you marinate a plain chicken breast before you use it in this recipe. Just put your chicken breasts in a sealable plastic bag and then dump your favorite Italian dressing all over it. Rub the dressing into the chicken, and let it sit in the refrigerator for 1 – 24 hours. You should be good to go then!
We recommend having toasted baguette slices (crostini) with this dish to put your “extra” bruschetta on alongside this chicken. That is a must. We highly recommend the baguettes from Simple Bakery in Lake Geneva for your bread, if you’re in the area! Just make sure you get a good quality of bread from a local bakery – it’s key to enjoying this meal!
In addition to the bread and additional bruschetta, we had sautéed spinach with our bruschetta chicken. It was a lovely vegetable to enjoy with this meal! The mild bitterness of the spinach was the perfect accompaniment to the richness of the cheese and tomato on top of the chicken, and we would recommend it 100%.
This recipe is inspired by Italian flavors, so it has to have a wine pairing, and you may be slightly surprised by my #1 recommendation: lambrusco! Yep, the slightly sweet, slighty fizzy Italian red wine is the perfect wine to enjoy with this meal. It’s light and fruity to not overwhelm the chicken, has enough acidity to stand up to the bold tomato flavors, and is a great wine to enjoy al fresco if you’re eating this meal on the patio, enjoying summer. Seriously, get a bottle of lambrusco to go with your bruschetta chicken and let me know what you think. I bet you’ll love it!
That’s all we have for this recipe, but if you like this bruschetta chicken recipe, we think you may also like a chicken and pesto recipe! If so, you may want to try our Pesto Chicken Bake recipe. The Pesto Chicken Bake is another Italian themed recipe with tomato and mozzarella, but also pesto, which adds just another layer of delicious flavor.
What do you think of our bruschetta chicken recipe? Did you make any tweaks or have any substitutions? We’d love to hear your feedback, so leave us a rating and comment below with your thoughts. Enjoy!
Hasselback your chicken breast by following these procedures:
Place the spatchcocked chicken breast on a parchment paper lined sheet pan and put the sheet pan into an oven preheated to 400ºF. Cook for about 20 minutes.
After 20 minutes, remove chicken from oven and then speed shredded mozzarella on top of the chicken, making sure to get the chicken in the slits you cut when you hasselbacked the chicken!
Place the chicken back in the oven, and cook for an additional 5 – 10 minutes, until the cheese is golden and bubbly, or the chicken reaches 165ºF.
While the chicken is baking, assemble the bruschetta by mixing the tomato, fresh basil, garlic, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar together in a mixing bowl. Set aside in the refrigerator while the chicken finishes cooking.
When the chicken is done cooking, remove from oven and let rest for 5 minutes. If you have large chicken breasts (like LGCM sells), cut the chicken into individual slices and serve with a spoonful of tomato bruschetta on the top of the chicken. If you’re using smaller chicken breasts, you can serve an entire breast with a spoonful of the bruschetta on top.
Optionally, you can garnish with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar, more fresh chopped basil, or a sprinkling of grated parmesan cheese.
Serve with crostini, more bruschetta, and your favorite vegetable on the side. Enjoy your chicken bruschetta!
