Hasselback Chicken with Spinach & Ricotta Cheese

The other night, I asked my other half what he wanted for dinner and he said “chicken.” We’ve fallen into a bit of a chicken routine, usually making one of the following: roast chicken, baked chicken thighs, or baked chicken wings. Granted, seasonings change occasionally, but even then, it’s usually some variation of salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, and old bay. I’m the kind of person who likes variety and to try new things.

My other half isn’t very picky and can’t eat the same thing everyday. I cannot. I mean, if we have leftovers from the night before, that I will eat, but if you make me eat baked chicken thighs every single day for a week, that will drive me crazy. The same idea applies to preparation. I need to mix up how I cook things, otherwise, I get caught in a rut, which make me cranky.

So, knowing that I was going to make chicken for dinner, I consulted my TASTY app for a recipe. Just a side note --- FULL DISCLOSURE: I DO NOT WORK FOR TASTY, I JUST REALLY LIKE THEIR APP. After browsing many chicken recipes, I decided to give their “Hasselback Chicken” recipe a go.

I really enjoyed this dish. Prep was pretty fast and easy, assembly was also pain free (although I did accidentally slice too deep into the chicken breast at one point), didn’t take too long to cook, and it tasted delicious! The recipe I share with you is my adaption of the original Tasty recipe https://tasty.co/recipe/hasselback-chicken). The cooking directions are basically the same – the only slight difference is in the ingredients.

Ingredients for 2 People:

2 chicken breasts

1 tbsp olive oil

1 plastic container of spinach (if you think this is too much, feel free to use less. I love spinach and since it shrinks in size when you cook it, I like to have more)

½ cup part-skim ricotta

Salt, pepper, onion power, garlic powder – to taste

Sliced cheese of your choice – I used sliced Colby jack since that’s what we had

Directions:

1.       Preheat your oven to 400F.

2.       Heat olive oil in a frying pan and sauté spinach until it has wilted. Add ricotta cheese and mix well. Season with salt, pepper, onion powder, and garlic powder.  Left mixture cool.

3.       While the spinach and ricotta cheese filling is cooling, prepare the chicken breasts. Season both sides of your chicken breasts with salt/pepper/garlic powder/onion powder and/or whatever other seasonings you like. Once seasoned, carefully cut slits into the chicken, about ½ in apart, but be sure you don’t cut all the way through! Only about ¾ of the way down. You want your breast to be in tact on the bottom and have slits on the top.

4.       Once your chicken is prepped, fill the slits with the spinach and ricotta filling.

5.       Let the chicken bake in the over for about 20-30 minutes. This will depend on the size of your chicken breast. Larger breasts will require longer bake times.

6.       After the breasts are done, place sliced cheese on top and return to over for an additional 5 minutes.

7.       Plate up for dinner and enjoy!