Salsa Verde Chicken Bake

By Stina

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 to 1 1/3 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 2 cups (1 16-ounce jar) tomatillo salsa verde
• 4 ounces grated Monterey jack and/or pepper jack cheese
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro (optional)

Details

Servings 4
Preparation time 5mins
Cooking time 35mins
Adapted from simplyrecipes.com

Preparation

Step 1

This recipe is so easy, it's surprising how good it is. You just line a baking dish with chicken breasts, pour over plenty of salsa verde, bake, sprinkle with some cheese, bake some more, and presto wham-o you're there! Serve over rice to absorb the sauce. It's a little late in the season for fresh tomatillos to make the salsa verde, but it's easily available jarred (look for it in the salsa section, or Mexican food section, of your grocery store) and thankfully with our ginormous tomatillo harvest this summer, we have plenty home canned in the pantry. Many thanks to my dear friend Bruce Maxwell, who came up with this recipe and urged me to give it a try. It's perfect for a midweek meal. Enjoy!

While the chicken is cooking, prepare some rice or quinoa to serve with the chicken. You could easily make this with boneless, skinless chicken thighs as well. You may need to cook them just a few minutes longer than the breasts.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Remove the tenders from the chicken breasts and cut the larger pieces in half. You should have 4 4-ounce chicken portions plus the tenders. Line a 8x8 casserole baking dish with the chicken pieces. Try to cover the bottom as completely as you can with the chicken.

Cover the chicken pieces with the salsa verde. Cover completely, there should be no exposed chicken or it will dry out. Place in the oven for 25-30 minutes. If you have a meat thermometer, use it. The chicken should be removed from the oven when the internal temperature of the breast meat reaches 150°F.

Sprinkle cheese over the chicken, increase the oven heat to 400°F and return to the oven for another 5-10 minutes, enough time for the cheese to melt and the sauce to get bubbly.

This looks delicious and so easy to make!

I have done something very close to this. I put 2-3 chicken breasts in a crock pot along with sliced onion and jarred Salsa Verde. Put on low for 8 hours and it turns out really good. We normally then fill warmed whole wheat tortillas with this yummy goodness along with Monterrey Jack cheese. Add some black beans on the side and you are good to go!

The recipe looks great but can you tell me about the plate? Who makes it and what is the pattern?

Sounds like the bomb. As with most recipes with canned salsa verde in them, I would suggest the addition of some roasted and deseeded jalapeño or pablano. As a side note, this is my first comment on this site, but it is by far and away THE BEST food blog out there. Amazing depths of flavor, as well as a great combo of easy and more ambitious dishes.

I've always wondered how to make this... now I know!!!! Thanks for sharing :)

Salsa Verde Chicken is always a winner, but please consider utilizing the skin! Roast or crisp up the chicken breasts with the skin and deglaze to render the flavor. Remove the skin (optional) before adding the Salsa Verde. This will add depth to the flavor.

I like adding a little heavy cream to the salsa verde, it's much smoother that way and I think it elevates the dish!

This looks wonderful. I love easy recipes for weeknight meals. This also looks healthy which we are all looking for now a days. Thank you so much for the inspiration. My mind is swirling with ideas of what I can add to make this a one pot meal!

Tomatillo plants need company for pollination. Make sure you are growing more than one plant. ~Elise

I make this with half an onion roughly chopped and a clove or two of garlic. A few pickled peppers add a nice kick. Pork chops are a good replacement for the chicken too.

You have managed to combine some of my favorite things,its awesome!

I wanted to ask who ever wrote the recipe, how do you make the green sauce?, and why you pull the chicken out of the oven at 150 degrees, that chicken will not be cooked all the way, it is extremely dangerous to pull chicken at less than 165 degrees. I am just trying to prevent anyone from getting sick.

This is good good good. We make this with a whole pork butt and a quart of spicy salsa verde. Slow cook it in a dutch oven or crock pot until it falls apart. Most yummy.

I made this with pepperjack cheese and it was very good. I will definately make it again!

Mmmmmmm....simple and easy! We had three breast halves and a lot of salsa/juice leftover, so we chopped up the remaining breast half, tossed the unused rice into the salsa/juice/chicken mixture and will be stuffing whole wheat tortillas tomorrow night!

Very easy and very tasty! I used the cheese I had on hand, which was the local store brand of Mexican blend shredded cheese. Thanks for the recipe. I will definitely repeat this! :)

This took way longer than your recipe suggested, maybe because I covered the chicken breasts with a 32 oz. can of green salsa in an 8 x 8 pan, set on a cookie sheet in case of overboiling. It was just one of those nights when one of us had to get out early, and I was counting on the recipe for a couple of nights for the two of us. - Mary

Loved this recipe. Served with rice, warmed black beans in a little chicken broth and cumin, diced avocados, tomatoes, and grated cheese. Topping with the fresh cilantro makes it even better! Am wondering if you could try this with red salsa? Just looking for the easy middle of week dinners!

It's worth a try! Let us know how it turns out for you if you make it with red salsa. ~Elise

I sent this off with my newly graduated son and his buddies on a ski trip - he is now the master chef! We also found that the chicken took more like 40 minutes to get to 150'F. Really a great addition to our recipe collection.

Made this last night - it is absolutely delicious and so very easy to make. I used chicken thighs and cut it up into bite-sized pieces. Had it over your mom's spanish rice - YUMMY!! Will most definitely be making this again!

Regarding the dishware--Arabia Valencia--if you are desperate for it you can find some on Ebay, and some at those china/flatware replacement companies. It is lovely, but wow...$$$ since it's out of production!

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