To make this quick-cooking skillet meal, we turned the delicious flavors of Caprese salad into a cozy and comforting Easy Caprese Chicken bursting with mozzarella, tomatoes, and basil.
Table of Contents
- This recipe is…
- Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Caprese Chicken Recipe Ingredients
- Chicken Caprese Recipe Variations and Modifications
- How to Make Chicken Caprese
- Recipe Tip
- How to Serve
- How to Store and Reheat
- Frequently Asked Questions
- More of Our Best Italian Recipes
- Easy Chicken Caprese Recipe (One Skillet) Recipe
This recipe is…
Caprese salad is so wildly popular for a reason: the combination of fresh mozzarella, ripe tomatoes, and fresh basil drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar is pretty impossible to beat.
So we took this crowd-pleasing favorite and turned it into a main dish where the classic Caprese flavor trifecta gets layered in a skillet with tender boneless chicken breasts and baked until it’s perfectly browned and bubbly. Best yet, it’s a one-pot meal that bakes up in just 30 minutes, so you don’t have to dirty up a bunch of dishes or spend much time cooking up this easy, flavor-packed dinner.
It’s a complete meal meal on its own. Or, you can serve it alongside more Italian favorites like our basil pesto slathered on grilled bread, Italian or arugula salad, or lemony garlic-parmesan pasta.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- All the delicious flavors of a Caprese salad + chicken in a delicious skillet meal
- Easy weeknight option, with only 5 minutes of prep and 30 minutes total
- Makes fantastic leftovers!
Caprese Chicken Recipe Ingredients
Fresh + high-quality is the name of the game when it comes to this skillet. 7 ingredients (plus salt + pepper,) is all you need for this tasty Caprese chicken skillet! Find ingredient notes (including substitutions and swaps) below.
- Chicken – you’ll need about 2 pounds of boneless, skinless chicken breast for the skillet. Feel free to use boneless, skinless chicken thighs if that’s what you have or prefer.
- Extra-Virgin Olive Oil – we love using a really flavorful high-quality olive oil for this dish. The flavors really shine through!
- Balsamic Vinegar – as with the olive oil, we opt for a thicker, high-quality balsamic.
- Lemon Juice – half a lemon’s worth of juice coats our chicken (along with the EVOO + balsamic) to add some brightness to the dish. We recommend freshly squeezing your lemon juice — it really makes such a big difference.
- Cherry Tomatoes – a pint of cherry tomatoes get added to the skillet right before it goes into the oven. The tomatoes burst once roasted and are seriously drool-worthy!
- Fresh Mozzarella – what’s better than fresh mozz?! Browned, bubbly, just-out-of-the-oven mozz! Sneak a bite of the fresh while you’re cooking, and enjoy the browned + bubbly mozz in this skillet for dinner.
- Fresh Basil – the hallmark of caprese salad is a must in this chicken skillet!
A full ingredient list with exact amounts can be found in the recipe card below.
Chicken Caprese Recipe Variations and Modifications
Here are some easy ways to make this recipe your own:
- Tomatoes – we call for cherry tomatoes here, but you could use other fresh, small tomato varieties like pear, large fresh tomatoes coarsely chopped, or canned or jarred tomatoes too.
- Basil – if you don’t have fresh basil on hand, you could use a tablespoon of the dried herb, or add a few dollops of pesto at the very end.
- Chicken – this recipe calls for breasts of chicken, but you can substitute chicken breasts tenders or boneless, skinless chicken thighs instead.
How to Make Chicken Caprese
This caprese skillet is so easy, and so incredibly tasty! Here’s how you’ll make it:
Step 1: You’ll start by seasoning the chicken, then searing it on the stove on both sides. We decided to add this step instead of placing the chicken directly in the oven to bake because searing the chicken truly adds so much flavor.
Step 2: Once the chicken is browned on both sides, but not fully cooked through yet, add the tomatoes to the pan and lay the mozzarella slices over top.
Step 3: Bake the skillet for 15 minutes, until the chicken is fully cooked, the cheese is melted, and the tomatoes have burst.
Finally, sprinkle fresh basil over top, garnish with balsamic vinegar, and serve!
Recipe Tip
Make extra! – this recipe makes fantastic leftovers, so you may want to make double. Use the leftovers as-is, or use to make a chicken Caprese salad with arugula, over lemony garlic-parmesan pasta, or on a toasted hoagie to make a chicken Caprese sandwich.
How to Serve
This would be great with a big green salad (think: a simple lemon sea salt arugula salad), a side of rice, roasted potatoes (think: roasted rosemary butter potatoes or rosemary sea salt hasselback potatoes), or some simple roasted veggies to round out the meal.
How to Store and Reheat
Store any leftovers you may have in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Stored this way, it’ll last for up to 5 days. To reheat, simply pop the Caprese-style chicken in the microwave or back on the skillet (over medium heat) until warmed through.
Frequently Asked Questions
If you’re wondering “What is Caprese?”, “What’s in a Caprese salad?”, or how to make a Caprese salad, here’s a quick primer.
First off: What does Caprese mean? The word refers to the gorgeous Italian island of Capri, in southern Italy. “Caprese” simply means “in the style of Capri” or “Capri-style.” Whether or not the now-famous Insalata Caprese of tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil actually originated on the island is up for debate, but it’s most likely from somewhere within the Campania region of southern Italy where the island is located.
Part of the popularity of Caprese salad is how easy it is to make: slices of tomatoes get layered with thin rounds of mozzarella and basil leaves. Then it gets drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.
Any ripe and meaty, medium or large sized tomatoes will work well for Caprese salad.
But for this entree-sized spin on the classic Caprese, we call for smaller cherry tomatoes since they’re more bite-sized.
Large balls of cow’s milk mozzarella are what you’re most likely to find in U.S. grocery stores. (In Italy, it’s also commonly made with buffalo milk, but that’s harder to find in the States).
As always, fresh is best. So if you see them, opt for the large balls of cheese you see wrapped in plastic that are fresh-made daily in upscale grocery stores.
But any large ball of mozzarella will do — including the ones in tubs sitting on refrigerated grocery shelves. Just avoid the smaller, bite sized mozzarella balls. This recipe calls for slices of mozzarella to be layered over the top of the chicken, which gets browned and bubbly in the oven. If you use small mozzarella balls like bocconcini or ciliegine, you’ll want to halve or chop it before adding it to the skillet.
More of Our Best Italian Recipes
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Easy Chicken Caprese Recipe (One Skillet)
Ingredients
- 2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breast
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, divided
- 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 3/4 teaspoon coarse sea salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 pint cherry tomatoes
- 4 ounces fresh mozzarella cheese, sliced
- 1/4 cup thinly sliced fresh basil
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 F.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the lemon juice, vinegar, and 1 tablespoon olive oil, then add the chicken, salt, and pepper and toss to coat.
- Add the remaining tablespoon olive oil to a skillet over medium high heat. Once hot, add the chicken and sear for 3-4 minutes, until browned, then flip the chicken and sear for an additional 2-3 minutes, until browned, then turn off the heat.
- Add the tomatoes to the pan, then top the chicken with the mozzarella cheese, and bake for 15 minutes, until the cheese is browned and bubbly and the chicken is fully cooked.
- Garnish with fresh basil and serve!
Nutrition
I just loved this recipe! My husband accidentally added the fresh basil before it was put in the oven. Actually was really good that way. Thanks for a great, fresh, and healthy recipe.
We are so glad to hear that, Elise! Thank you for taking the time to share with us. -Melissa
Delicious dinner. The whole family loved it (including my two year old). I didn’t have sliced mozzarella so used shredded instead. Turned out great—thank you for a simple supper.
This dish was easy to make AND packed full of delicious flavor. It made for great leftovers the next day. I paired mine with lemon pasta. Thank you for a keeper!
So yummy, right?! I love this one! Thank you for sharing this with us, Laurie!
The entire family loved it! After I grilled it I pulled the chicken off, chopped it in large bite sized pieces for kids, and took it out a little early so the chicken wouldn’t dry out due to copping. Thanks another family favorite!
I’m so glad it was a hit, Doreen!
Well, that looks delicious! I think I’ll try this for dinner tonight!
Can’t wait to hear what you think, Stephanie!!
Easy and delicious!
I made this last night, and it was really yummy! I left it in the oven an extra
10 minutes and my tomatoes never did burst and the mozzarella was just beginning to show some color. But the flavors were still great. This was super easy to throw together and requires very little actual attention. I recommend!
This was delicious and SO simple! Thanks for sharing!
So glad you liked it Courtney!
Thanks for sharing! Unfortunately I am getting an error message when I try to PIN the recipe 🙁
Am I missing a step? Why do we need to preheat the oven to 400?
Once you put the cheese on you’ll bake it for 15 minutes!
Would you marinate the chicken in the seasoning?
Yes, you can season it right beforehand or marinate overnight if you’d like!
Looks delish! Do you pound the breasts thin beforehand? How thick should the breasts be? I have an awful time cooking chicken breasts to where they’re cooked enough but not overdone. Thanks!
Good question! I’d say you’re looking for the breasts to be around 1-1 1/2 inches thick, so if you wind up buying large ones you might want to pound them before hand or cut them in half.