Busy, busy, busy! That is my life right now since school started. I keep trying to tell myself what life was like 5 months ago during “quarantine” when I was wishing things were just normal and busy. I do thrive when life is busy and that is why I wear so many different “hats!” Cooking is my stress reliever and my favorite hobby as y’all know. However, when I’m crazy busy, it can be a frustration. Why does my family have to have dinner EVERY night?!? Ha! Times like this are when my easy “go to” meals come into play. My Baked Caprese Chicken Risotto is one of those dishes that sounds fancy but is so so simple!
This beautiful, tasty dish has just eight ingredients! Seriously! Arborio rice is the kind I use for this but it would probably work with jasmine rice. Sometimes arborio is hard to find. It is a short grain rice and is the kind that you use for making traditional risotto. If you use jasmine rice and it works let me know!
The rice is baked with tomatoes, butter, chicken broth, and salt. Then you just toss in cooked chicken, mozzarella, and fresh basil. We love the taste of fresh tomatoes in ours so if you prefer that, then add the tomatoes in with the chicken at the end. It’s great either way! Serve Baked Caprese Chicken Risotto with a simple side of green beans or a salad for a complete meal. It’s the easiest dinner that everyone in your family will gobble up!
Sponsored post for Lee’s Marketplace. Items on sale the week of September 15-21: chicken breasts, chicken broth, mozzarella, butter
Baked Caprese Chicken Risotto
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2 1/2 cups chicken broth
- 1 cup uncooked Arborio rice (short grain)
- 1 cup cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
- 1/2 cup yellow onion, diced
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3 cups cooked chicken (see notes)
- 8 oz mozzarella, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
- 1/2 cup fresh basil, chopped
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400° F.
- Place butter in a 9×13 baking dish. Bake 5 minutes or until melted. Remove from oven.
- Add rice, tomatoes, broth, onion, and salt. Stir to combine. Cover with foil and carefully place back in oven.
- Bake for 30-35 minutes. While rice is baking, warm chicken and prepare mozzarella and basil.
- Remove rice from oven and fluff with a fork. Add warmed chicken, mozzarella, and basil. Toss to combine. Serve immediately.
Notes
- Arborio rice is the only kind I’ve tried for this recipe. Jasmine rice might work if you can’t find it. Do not use instant rice.
- For the chicken, you can use rotisserie chicken or pre-cook chicken breasts. To cook chicken breasts, I prefer using a slow cooker. Season with salt, pepper, onion powder, and garlic powder plus a cup of water. Cook on low for 7 hours or high for 4 hours.
- For the mozzarella, I prefer to use the fresh kind that is usually found near the deli.
- If you like your tomatoes fresher, just toss in at the end with the chicken.
Hi!! I made your sheet pan buttermilk pancakes this morning and they are so so good! It did take longer to bake them than what you said. and the, what I call a regular sheet pan, was way too small so I had to transfer it into a larger pan. Also, I’m wondering if this can be used for regular pancakes as well? Have you done that? Kind of defeats the purpose but just curious. Could you tell me what size pan you used? You said standard, what size is standard? The second sized pan I ended up using was the size of a half sheet cake. And, as I said above, it took closer to 10 minutes or more before it was completely done. I will freeze what we didn’t eat. Thank you for this recipe it will be one I will be using and sharing with my daughters. L Lauber. PS. How do I search for the recipe? I went to GTU to find. Thanks.
I think it’s 18 x 13 inches. Yes it can be used for traditional pancakes. It’s the same batter that I use! I am going to get the recipe on my blog soon sorry! If you Google the recipe name and my name together, my GTU segment should come up. Thanks!
This was really delicious and even though I didn’t make it myself it sounds easy. Definitely deserves a higher rating but someone gave it four stars literally a few minutes after Charlotte posted it. Not cool!