Caprese Chicken Skillet

This summer while I am home from school, I elected to help out my family by cooking weeknight dinners. One week into summer, this task is already proving creatively difficult as I try to find and make recipes that both of my siblings and parents will find suitable. My parents and sister will eat almost anything, but my gym bro brother has an aversion to anything green and only wants to eat meat, rice, and potatoes. I found this idea of caprese chicken on Pinterest and rolled with it, never actually looking at the recipe, but adapting it to become my own.

I began by taking four chicken breasts and adding them to a bag with a super simple marinate of olive oil, salt, and pepper. I only let this sit for about ten minutes as I heated up my cast iron skillet with some olive oil. Once sizzling, I added two breasts at a time, flipping until a light crust was formed and the meat thermometer read 165 degrees Fahrenheit. Once all of the chicken was done, I laid it out on a towel and patted the excess oil off, letting it sit as I cut slices of fresh mozzarella and harvested basil from my garden. I then arranged the chicken back in the skillet, placing two slices of mozzarella on each breast, and added some water and a lid to the low heat pan, allowing the cheese to melt without further cooking the chicken. I added some Trader Joe’s bruschetta, fresh basil, and balsamic vinegar and that was it! Almost too easy!

The night I made this, my family was running every which way, so I kept the lid on the skillet, and my family members grabbed a piece when they had time to eat. This is a perfect, quick, easy dinner that features a summer flavor profile and healthy, fresh, protein packed ingredients. What more could you ask for?