Margherita chicken is a simple dinner idea that features pan-fried chicken breasts topped with melted mozzarella, fragrant pesto, and fresh tomatoes, creating a dish that looks amazing and tastes delicious. This recipe is perfect for a quick weeknight meal yet elegant enough to impress guests at a dinner party!
Ingredients
Below you will find information about the ingredients and how to prepare the recipe. For the measurements and detailed instructions scroll down to the printable recipe card.
Here’s what you need to make this easy recipe:
- Boneless and skinless chicken breasts.
- Mozzarella – I prefer fresh mozzarella in brine for this recipe but it will also work with low-moisture mozzarella (the yellow kind).
- Pesto – use your favorite kind of green pesto. For this recipe, I used a basil parsley almond pesto (you will find the recipe for that below), but you can also use traditional Italian basil pesto, basil walnut pesto, celery leaf pesto, arugula pistachio pesto, parsley pesto, or ramp pesto.
- Cherry tomatoes.
- Garlic powder and Italian seasoning to flavor the chicken.
- Flour – is optional but dredging the chicken in flour is my go-to method for pan-frying chicken. It creates a crispy coating on the chicken and prevents moisture release, making the chicken perfectly moist and juicy. No dry chicken when using flour coating!
How to make it step-by-step
If you’re making homemade pesto, start with that, you will find the recipe below, or use store-bought pesto.
(1/3 cup basil pesto)
Cut mozzarella into slices and tomatoes into smaller pieces.
(2 small balls of fresh mozzarella, 8oz/230g)
Prepare the chicken: if you have small chicken breasts, simply pound them slightly in their thickest part (when a piece of meat is more uniformly sized, its thinner part won’t be overcooked). If you have large chicken breasts, place them on a chopping board and cut them horizontally in half – now you should have two thinner fillets. You will need 4 chicken fillets for this recipe.
(2 large chicken breasts or 3-4 small)
Season the chicken: Pat dry the chicken with paper towels. Season the chicken on both sides with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and Italian seasoning. Dredge in flour on all sides.
(1 1/2 teaspoons Italian seasoning, 1 teaspoon garlic powder, 2 tablespoons flour)
Cook the chicken: heat 2 Tbsp oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Cook chicken on one side until well-browned then turn over. Place mozzarella slices on top of the chicken and cook until the chicken is cooked through and the cheese melted (if the cheese is melting too slowly, you can close the pan with a lid, if using thin slices of low-moisture mozzarella – it’s enough for the cheese to melt to just place the cheese at the end of the cooking time on the hot chicken).
Take the chicken off the pan, spread with pesto, and top with chopped cherry tomatoes. Season tomatoes lightly with salt and pepper.
Enjoy!
Homemade pesto
Homemade pesto is really easy to make and elevates every recipe to another level.
For this recipe, I made basil parsley almond pesto but you can also use other pesto recipes from my website, like this traditional Italian basil pesto, basil walnut pesto, celery leaf pesto, arugula pistachio pesto, parsley pesto, or ramp pesto.
Basil Parsley Almond Pesto:
3-4 loosely packed cups or 2 well-packed cups leaves of basil and parsley (45g in total)
1 clove garlic
zest grated from 1 lemon
1/2 cup (45g) grated parmesan cheese
1/4 cup whole almonds (35g)
6 tablespoons (90ml) olive oil
salt and pepper, to taste
Method: Add all the ingredients except olive oil into a food processor container. Blend until all the ingredients are finely chopped. Start adding olive oil slowly in a thin stream blending at very low speed or using the pulse button until you have a sauce (it should not be smooth, but slightly chunky, don’t blend olive oil at high speed or it will be bitter). Season to taste with salt and pepper.
More easy chicken dinners
- Mushroom Stuffed Chicken Breast
- Chicken Quesadilla
- Greek Chicken Bowls
- Creamy Tuscan Chicken with Gnocchi
- BBQ Chicken Wrap
Below you will find information about the ingredients and how to prepare the recipe. For the measurements and detailed instructions scroll down to the printable recipe card.
Margherita Chicken
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons frying oil
- 2 large chicken breasts or 3-4 small
- 1 1/2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- salt and pepper to taste
- 2 tablespoons flour
- 2 small balls fresh mozzarella 8oz/230g, low-moisture mozzarella will also work
- 1/3 cup basil pesto see notes for recipes, homemade is best!
- small handful cherry tomatoes
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Instructions
- If you’re making homemade pesto, start with that. In the recipe notes you will find a recipe for basil parsley almond pesto, and many other kinds.
- Cut mozzarella into slices and tomatoes into smaller pieces.
- Prepare the chicken: if having small chicken breasts, simply pound them slightly in their thickest part (when a piece of meat is more uniformly sized, its thinner part won’t be overcooked). If having large chicken breasts, place them on a chopping board and cut them horizontally in half – now you should have two thinner fillets. You will need 4 chicken fillets for this recipe.
- Season the chicken: Pat dry the chicken with paper towels. Season the chicken on both sides with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and Italian seasoning. Dredge in flour on all sides.
- Cook the chicken: heat oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Cook chicken on one side until well-browned then turn over. Place mozzarella slices on top of the chicken and cook until the chicken is cooked through and the cheese melted (if the cheese is melting too slowly, you can close the pan with a lid, if using thin slices of low-moisture mozzarella – it’s enough for the cheese to melt to just place the cheese at the end of the cooking time on the hot chicken).
- Take the chicken off the pan, spread with pesto, and top with chopped cherry tomatoes. Season tomatoes lightly with salt and pepper.
- Enjoy!
Notes
- For this recipe, I made basil parsley almond pesto but you can also use other pesto recipes from my website, like this traditional basil pesto, basil walnut pesto, parsley pesto, arugula pesto, ramp pesto, or celery leaves pesto.
- Basil Parsley Almond Pesto:
- 3-4 loosely packed cups or 2 well-packed cups leaves of basil and parsley (45g in total)
- 1 clove garlic
- zest grated from 1 lemon
- 1/2 cup (45g) grated parmesan cheese
- 1/4 cup whole almonds (35g)
- 6 tablespoons (90ml) olive oil
- salt and pepper, to taste
- Method: Add all the ingredients except olive oil into a food processor container. Blend until all the ingredients are finely chopped. Start adding olive oil slowly in a thin stream blending at very low speed or using pulse button until you have a sauce (it should not be smooth, but slightly chunky, don’t blend olive oil at high speed or it will be bitter). Season to taste with salt and pepper.
- Basil Parsley Almond Pesto:
- Calories = 1 serving (1/4 of the recipe). This is only an estimate!
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