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The easiest garlic butter tomato baked chicken with mozzarella. It’s a one-pan recipe that comes complete with roasted sweet balsamic tomatoes, cooked chicken with melty mozzarella, and the most fantastic sauce for your quinoa, rice, pasta, or veggies!
Tomato Baked Chicken.
We’ve got a garlic – balsamic – butter tomato situation we need to discuss. It’s a little out of control at the moment because we’re not even in peak tomato season yet and I can’t stop, won’t stop with this tomato baked chicken recipe. And yes, this is just the first of many tomato basil balsamic sauces I’ll be making. And that brings to me to a critical point I’d like to discuss; it’s not actually a sauce. But more like tomato pan gravy?
Let me explain.
It is the most delicious pan sauce slash an entire serving of veggies that would be beautiful if you were to say, mop it all up with a hunk of crusty bread? There’s also quick baked chicken breasts and tons of melty mozzarella cheese to finish the whole thing off. As if those aren’t reasons enough on their own to give this recipe a go, here’s a little more music to your ears –
You only have to clean ONE dish.
Crazy delicious! My family RAVED about this dish! Easy, healthy, memorable; a real hit that gained immediate entry into the rotation and can be made on a weekday (or for company!)
Tomato Baked Chicken Video:
This tomato baked chicken recipe is the kind of meal I love cooking for the two of us. It starts with simple ingredients that I usually have on hand and takes very little prep work to whip up. I have to say, judging from the popularity of my one skillet dinners, it’s pretty obvious, you guys prefer these kinds of meals too.
I’m going to be straight with you. Today’s tomato baked chicken recipe is a mash-up of a few different recipes I’ve already shared with you already. More specifically, my bruschetta chicken meets a Caprese salad meets my 30-minute mozzarella chicken. It’s the kind of food I think about late into the night while my head rests on my pillow just waiting to drift off to sleep. It’s a little bit of everything. You get a roasted tomato side, a spoon-slurp-worthy gravy, and of course tender chicken under a blanket of melty mozzarella cheese. A new addition to our chicken dinner recipes and I couldn’t be more stoked to share it with you!
Tomato baked chicken starts with chicken breasts. But as always, you can swap them for boneless, skinless chicken thighs as well if that’s more your thing. We’ll season them with ingredients that we’ve already got at home. A little olive oil, a splash of white wine vinegar, a few cloves of garlic and some dried seasonings. You can marinate for as little as 15 minutes and still achieve a great flavor!
I can’t get over how easy it is to put this tomato baked chicken together.
What do you need to make tomato baked chicken?
All you need are four chicken breasts to start. I had two huge ones hidden way in the back of my freezer, so I just sliced them up lengthwise. To marinate the chicken, I just tossed all the ingredients for the marinade into a ziptop bag and gave it a good shake. In goes the chicken. Give it a quick massage to distribute the flavors. If you’re cooking this right away, let it hang out on the counter or if you’re making it later, just refrigerate until you’re ready.
How to make tomato baked chicken
- While the chicken brines, we’ll toss together the ingredients for the tomato pan gravy. You can do this directly in your baking pan, I sure did! Again, humble ingredients that will yield a gourmet dinner you’ll be proud to serve dinner guests.
- You’ll need roughly three cups of sliced cherry tomatoes mixed with minced garlic, butter, balsamic, a squeeze of honey, chopped basil, dried thyme, and onion powder.
- When those tomatoes roast with the chicken you’re left with bright and sweet tomato juices that would be delicious drizzled over a bed of rice, pasta, or even some steamed veggies.
During the last 5 minutes, you’ll add shredded mozzarella to the top and pop the chicken back under the broiler just long enough for it to get warm and bubbly. You can make my tomato baked chicken recipe without the mozzarella too if you’d like. I’ve tried it in the past, and it’s still delicious. But personally, the mozzarella adds a cheesy little something to this dish!
Other cheeses that would work well here: provolone. My next best choice.
Serving Suggestions
- I serve my tomato baked chicken up with a little basmati rice and a side salad, and both Anees and I drizzled that tomato pan gravy over the rice, and I even went as far as using a bit on my salad.
I couldn’t believe my mouth when I first tried this. Could simple ingredients make this kind of dinner?
It’s bright, sweet yet acidic and it is fresh as a good spring meal should be!
If you like this recipe you might also like:
- Pesto Baked Chicken with Mozzarella
- Garlic Butter Baked Chicken Breasts (20 minutes!)
- Garlic Butter Baked Chicken with Mozzarella
Garlic Butter Tomato Baked Chicken with Mozzarella
Equipment
Ingredients
Chicken Marinade:
- 1 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
- 3 cloves minced garlic
- ¼ – ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- ½ teaspoon Italian seasoning
- 4 chicken breasts boneless skinless
Balsamic Tomato Pan Sauce:
- 3 cups cherry tomatoes halved
- 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
- 2 tablespoons melted butter
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 4 cloves minced garlic
- 2 tablespoons chopped basil
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- ½ teaspoon dried thyme
- 1½ cups mozzarella cheese shredded
Instructions
- Marinate: Add all the ingredients except the chicken breasts into a zip top bag along with 1 teaspoon of salt and ½ teaspoon black pepper. Seal the bag and shake until mixed. Add the chicken breasts, seal, and massage so the chicken is covered in the marinade, set aside for 10-15 minutes while you prep the remaining ingredients. Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 425ºF.
- Balsamic Tomato Pan Sauce: Add all the ingredients except the mozzarella to an oven-safe baking dish, along with a big pinch of salt and pepper, and stir to combine. Move the tomatoes around the edges and place the chicken breasts in the center.
- Bake: Bake uncovered for 18-22 minutes or until the chicken is almost cooked through. Add the mozzarella cheese to the chicken breasts and broil just long enough for the cheese to melt. Top with additional chopped basil or parsley and serve warm with crusty bread, pasta, rice, or steamed veggies!
Notes
- Extra points for being lazy: you can melt the butter right in your baking dish before adding the remaining ingredients (as long as it is microwave safe!)
- I suggest shredding your own mozzarella for this recipe. Pre-shredded mozzarella didn’t yield such great results for me, unfortunately!
- You can marinate the chicken for up to 4 hours! Feel free to do this earlier in the day if you’d like.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Like This? Leave a comment & rating below!
This was excellent ! We all loved it.
Only thing I would suggest is add to the baking time. The recipe says bake 18-22 minutes and I knew as soon as I read that , that it was going to take longer. It took 45 minutes for the chicken to be fully cooked. Unless the chicken is pounded paper thin, there is no way it would be done in the stated time in the recipe.
Agree – similar cook time. I think a lot of supermarkets cut and package chicken breast tenders in a way that makes them look like small chicken breasts, and this cook time would be appropriate for that. With full-size chicken breasts, my chicken was still half-raw at 22 minutes.
We absolutely love this recipe. Do you have a rough calorie count for this?
Excellent. I will make this again.
One of the most flavorful chicken recipes I’ve ever made!!! Fantastic-passed it on to all my family and friends!!
Really like this recipe. I will definately make it again. It was a very light weight healthy meal.
Loved the full on garlic and pepper taste.
This was an amazing recipe I kinda just made my own sauce because the sauce isn’t sweet enough for me but it was amazing. making it for the 2nd time time?
This is so incredibly delicious! I made it last weekend when I was on my own for dinner one night and tonight I’m making it again for my husband. I’m excited to have it again, since I picked up fresh cherry tomatoes and a zucchini (for zoodles!) from the day farmers market yesterday!
I made this and it was fantastic! I plan on making it again but was wondering can I marinate chicken the night before?
I wouldn’t marinate it that far in advance as the acid in the marinade will actually start cooking the chicken. I think 8 hours would probably be the max if you really wanted to do it further in advance!
This recipe is AMAZING…the tomatoes should be bottles and sold…I can’t rave enough about this recipe…Enjoy!
I just made this for myself and my mom tonight. It was honestly one of the best dinners I’ve ever made. I mixed to tomatoes and sauce together with some pasta and it was unreal. I’m already excited to make it again!
This was delicious, I didn’t have a few items so I used white rice vinegar instead of white wine vinegar and Mexican cheese blend instead of mozzarella. I also used boneless skinless thighs because they’re cheap and in my opinion much more flavorful. I’ll definitely be making this again!
What harm comes of marinating it for more than 4 hours?
The acid will start to cook the chicken and it will have a very unpleasant texture.
Delicious recipe! My only complaint was that the ‘gravy’ was too watery.. maybe from the breakdown of the tomatoes when they cooked? Have you used a balsamic glaze instead? Just looking for a way to get a richer sauce.
I was wondering the same thing from reading the recipe. Wonder if the chicken is sort of poaching in all that cooking liquid?
I made this tonight and it was super yummy! I didn’t have any red pepper flakes so I used a teaspoon of chili garlic sauce that I had in the pantry. I also added a half of an onion to the tomatoes and no basil because we didn’t have any. I didn’t see the note about mozzarella until after I had already went shopping, but I used part skim shredded mozzarella cheese and it all came together beautifully. The dish was really delicious!
Greetings from South Africa! OH MY WORD, this recipe is so good. I made a few adjustments to suit what i had on hand; used jam tomatoes cut into the same size as the cherry tomatoes (which i had less of),
used 3/4 tsp of garlic powder per garlic clove (coz i’m lazy like that), added some thickly sliced onions and served it with steamed unseasoned pumpkin ( to cut down on the carbs. the tomato juice had plenty of flavour for the pumpkin).
I just loved how lightly flavoured this dish was and it all married together *drool*
Really good recipe. Added some mushrooms and olives. Was really yummy!! Will definitely repeat.
I don’t see that this chicken has butter in it???? Am I missing something?
The butter is mentioned under the ‘balsamic tomato pan sauce’ section in the ingredients. You’ll add it with the other ingredients in step #2.
Hi
Would I be able to use boneless skinless chicken thighs in this recipe.
Yes, boneless, skinless thighs would work. I think there’s a note about it in the text as well 🙂
So easy and so much flavor. Loved it. Served over quinoa and it was delicious. Definitely making it again and again
Is the pan sauce 2 tablespoons each of balsamic vinegar (chicken breast)? So a total of 8?
2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar total for the pan sauce, same for the butter ?