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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 looks amazing, but I live alone so was going to half the recipe. Hoe would I reheat the second piece of chicken for the next evening?
Hi Carrie-Ann! I usually reheat leftovers in a skillet over low heat, with a lid. You could also microwave it, it reheats fine both ways 🙂
I made this for dinner last night for my family and it was so good. I definitely understand what you mean about the sauce! I highly recommend this recipe. It’s super delicious yet very easy to make.
I have this in my oven right now and it smells so good! However, I just pulled it out to add the cheese and the liquid is almost all gone. Other commenters seem to be getting tons of juice/sauce and I’m wondering what I did wrong.
I followed the recipe exactly except I did sub vine tomatoes and my three chicken breasts are huge. Maybe they sucked it all up?
Hmm.. I’m stumped! Not sure why you ended up without sauce. I’ve made this with grape tomatoes, and a few other (small tomato) varieties and have always been left with lots of sauce, so perhaps it was the tomatoes that didn’t release enough juices? It could also be the oven temperature, do you use an oven thermometer to check and make sure the oven isn’t getting too hot? If it’s too hot the juices would definitely evaporate off instead of pooling at the bottom as a sauce!
Have you ever tried this with canned tomatoes? Not going to the grocery store soon but would love to make this!
This was delicious! I have always been wary of using balsamic vinegar because it is so strong, but this sauce was great! This recipe is definitely a keeper!
I’m glad you decided to try this with balsamic vinegar and that you enjoyed it, Colleen!
Checking my fridge and pantry, I have all the ingredients for this but no fresh basil (or any fresh herbs for that matter). Can I use something else such as dried basil?
Dried basil will work in a pinch! I’d use roughly half of what’s listed for the fresh basil.
How high is the recommended temperature to have the oven at?
Hey there! It’s at the bottom of step #1, you’ll want to preheat the oven to 425F
Very good. I did it with fried potatoes. Rice would have been better. Will do it again.
This has become one of my (and my family, kid included) favorite quick dinners. To make it a true one-pot meal, I like to toss some shelf-stable gnocchi or fresh cheese ravioli in the butter with the tomatoes – roasted gnocchi is *chef kiss*. I also sometimes put in other veggies like zucchini or cauliflower. It always turns out good and we always love it!
What a great idea, thanks for sharing!
This was sooo good! A perfect combination of a lot of ingredients I love. Thank you 🙂
Would this work for frozen chicken breast as this is all I have in hand? Would you marinade the same way?
Hey there! I’m a little confused by your question, so I’ll try to answer it the best I can. I would defrost the chicken first, either under cold running water or in the microwave, then just pick up the recipe from step #1. If you mean can you marinate frozen chicken, I’m not really sure. I’ve always defrosted chicken and then marinated it. I’m just worried marinating the chicken while it’s still frozen may dilute the flavor of the marinade with the excess liquid. Hope that helps! 🙂
I love dinners like this that are easy to assemble on busy evenings. FULL of flavor and sauce. Make sure you cook something to serve with all that sauce like pasta or orzo or rice. Totally delicious and both the hubs and kiddo gave it a thumbs up too!
Your blog never disappoints and this was no exception. Easy, delicious and loved by my husband and little. Thank you!
Amazing!
Loved!! a little too much juice but chicken was tender
I have to watch sodium intake and the whole recipe was
Around 1000mg because of cheese. Which is only 250 per serving!
I wanted to know the carb and fibre value to this recipe, per serve.
Hi! I don’t have chicken breasts on hand.. just bone-in chicken thighs. Do I need to change the cooking time ?
Marzia, thank you for sharing this delicious recipe. Even with me baking the chicken little longer which made it dry, my husband loved it and wanted to drink up the souse.
I was wondering if I could make it in crockpot (so I could do thiswhile kids are napping 🙂 ) and broil in the oven? IF yes, how long to cook?
Thank you!w
I served it on pasta..my breasts were large so I baked longer..you just have to check,it’s delicious!I loved it!
My family loves this recipe! I love how simple it is to make. The last time I made it I didn’t have any cherry tomatoes so I used a can of diced tomatoes and had about 3/4 cup of crushed tomatoes that were left from another recipe. I always cut the breasts into serving size pieces to make it easier to serve. The subbed tomatoes made for a thicker sauce. I saved the leftover sauce to serve at lunch over pasta. So yummy!