Chicken breasts with tomatoes and cheese in the oven

Step-by-step cooking

1. Step 1:

   

   Prepare all the necessary products. You will need two medium-sized chicken breasts, two small tomatoes, delicious hard cheese, ordinary table salt and ground black pepper.

2. Step 2:

   

   Rinse chicken breasts under running water. Dry with paper towels. Remove their skin, films and trim off excess fat. Leave the bone.

3. Step 3:

   

   Make transverse incisions on the surface at a distance of about 1 cm. The slits should be quite deep, but not reaching the bottom of the meat.

4. Step 4:

   

   Cut the hard cheese into small and not very thick plates. You can replace it with mozzarella or suluguni.

5. Step 5:

   

   Cut tomatoes into thin half rings. Choose juicy but dense tomatoes. Soft fruits will not retain their shape, they may fall apart when sliced, so it will be difficult to stuff the chicken with them.

6. Step 6:

   

   Salt the breasts on all sides.

7. Step 7:

   

   Pepper (preferably freshly ground) to taste. What spices can be used additionally? If you like, add dried basil, curry, paprika. Or use ready-made spices specially designed for chicken. In this case, read the composition on the package. If there is already salt in it, take this into account when you salt the meat, otherwise you risk over-salting the dish.

8. Step 8:

   

   Put slices of cheese in the slots. Try not to let them look out, so the melted cheese will remain inside the breast and will not leak out.

10. Step 9:

    

    Now put the tomato slices in the pockets. On the contrary, they may look out a little. Tomatoes will not only soak the meat with juices, giving it juiciness, but also serve as a decor, making the dish more colorful.

11. Step 10:

    

    The breasts are almost ready for baking. Chicken fillet itself is lean and not greasy. Therefore, so that the baked meat does not turn out dry, be sure to lubricate it with sauce.

12. Step 11:

    

    To lubricate the top, you can take mayonnaise. But if for some reason you don't like mayonnaise, I recommend making a quick and more healthy sauce. Mix 2-3 tablespoons of sour cream (or 70 ml of cream with a fat content of at least 20%) and 1-2 teaspoons. l of mustard. If you want, you can add 2 garlic cloves passed through a press to mayonnaise or sour cream sauce. The sauce will be more fragrant with it.

13. Step 12:

    

    Grease the top of the breasts with the prepared mixture. So it will not dry out during the baking process and the chicken will be juicy.

14. Step 13:

    

    Prepare a heat-resistant baking dish. Cover it with parchment or lightly brush with vegetable oil. In advance (10-15 minutes before the start of cooking), turn on the oven to warm up. Bake at 180 degrees for about 35-40 minutes. The time and temperature may differ from those specified in the recipe. Consider the specifics of your oven.

15. Step 14:

    

    How to check the readiness of the dish? When the chicken breasts are browned, pierce the meat with a fork or toothpick. The fork will enter the finished fillet without much effort, and the resulting meat juice will be transparent. Remove the chicken form from the oven.

16. Step 15:

    

    Serve the dish hot until it is as tasty and juicy as possible. Before serving, sprinkle it with chopped parsley. As an addition, any side dish or vegetable salad is suitable. Enjoy your meal!