If you love sun dried tomatoes you are going to love this Creamy Sun Dried Tomato Chicken recipe! It takes all the delicious flavor of sun dried tomatoes and combines them with smooth, creamy, cream cheese to smother tender chicken breast for a perfect easy and delicious week night dinner. With only 5 ingredients and one dish, this meal doesn’t get much easier to make or clean up!
Creamy Sun Dried Tomato Chicken Recipe
Sun dried tomatoes are one of those foods that you either seem to love or hate, and I love them! If you landed here I am hoping that you love them too, and if that is the case, I think you will really enjoy this easy dinner recipe! It has all the basics that I think are mandatory in a great weeknight meal:
- Easy to make
- Filled with flavor
- Not too messy (no one has time to spend all night cleaning up)
- Adaptable to special dietary needs or picky eaters (my case is the later)
Since you just grab one dish and a handful of ingredients for this dinner it is not surprisingly super easy to make, but surprisingly delicious and extra packed with flavor. The clean up is simple since you only used a handful of things, and you can serve it in many different ways so that if you have one kid that won’t eat rice (and I do) you can pair it with something else without having to make too much effort to change the meal up for them.
How to Serve Creamy Sun Dried Tomato Chicken
This Creamy Sun Dried Tomato Chicken is a touch sweet and tangy with the classic sun dried tomato flavor, and a hint creamy, with the mellow flavor of tender chicken breast. With that in mind, there are several ways to serve this dish that make a great, well rounded meal:
Traditional serving options
- With a grain– Consider rice, quinoa, farro etc
- With a potato– These Garlic Smashed Potatoes are one of my favorites, or a bed of mashed potatoes, or even a baked potato
- With garlic toast– or go a little crazy and make it garlic cheesy toast.
Low Carb serving options
- With a side of sautéed greens- I love sautéed spinach most, but kale or others work too if you prefer!
- With a side salad
- With a side of veggies– These sautéed green beans are delish, but you can do brussel sprouts, broccoli, or other veggies too!
- With Cauli rice– You can even make and freeze cauliflower rice to make it quick and easy!
I like to combine 2-3 options from the two lists above to make a well balanced meal that gives everyone choices they enjoy. If you have another way you serve this dish that I missed, please let me know in the comments. I would love to try it!
How to Make Creamy Sun Dried Tomato Chicken
I am going to walk through the recipe with you here step by step to give you all of my notes and tips for making this recipe. If you have any questions, hopefully this will answer them, but if not feel free to drop me a note in the comments and I will try my best to get back to you! If you just want the quick version of the recipe, you can skip down to the full printable recipe card below.
Creamy Sun Dried Tomato Chicken- Ingredients
- 2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breast- This is about 3-4 chicken breasts normally, however if the chicken is thick, I recommend cutting it in half to create two thinner pieces. This will help it cook more quickly and evenly.
- 8 oz cream cheese, softened- I use regular Philadelphia cream cheese in this recipe. You could also use the lower fat cream cheese, but don’t use fat-free cream cheese as it doesn’t melt the same way.
- 1/2 jar (8.5 oz) julienned sun dried tomatoes, drained- I used julienned sun dried tomatoes that were marinated in italian herbs. If you can only find halves and/or they don’t have herbs, don’t worry about it! The real flavor of the dish is carried by the tomato itself, so as long as you find the jarred tomatoes that should be packed in some sort of oil, you are golden. If you don’t know where to find these, check near the olives, in the vegetable section or in the specialty foods section of your local grocery store.
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded- This will be the block or pre-shredded kind, not the fresh mozzarella
Creamy Sun Dried Tomato Chicken – Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375˚F.
- Chop the sun dried tomatoes roughly until they are in easy, bite sized pieces. You don’t have to be super exact, but since sun dried tomatoes can be a little hard to chew, chopping them smaller helps to make the dish all around more easy, and this is really helpful when you are feeding the dish to kids.
Mix cream cheese and garlic with the sundried tomatoes until they are well combined. It is important that your cream cheese is softened. If it isn’t this step will not work well. If you forgot to take it out of the fridge, just pop it in a bowl and microwave it for 15-30 second increments, stirring in between, until it is smooth and soft. - Lay the chicken breast flat in a baking dish and spread the cream cheese mixture evenly over the chicken. Top with the mozzarella cheese. Make sure to use a baking dish roomy enough that you can lay everything flat. When it is all packed in too tightly it makes the cooking take significantly longer.
- Bake for 20 minutes, then loosely cover with foil and bake another 15-20 minutes or until the chicken is done (165˚F internal temperature.) . You may want to keep an eye on it the first time you make the dish since every oven cooks differently, but just make sure the top cheese and the sun dried tomatoes don’t get too browned. You don’t have to cover at exactly 20 minutes, but just when you start to notice the top getting browned. If you don’t think it is too brown, you can leave it uncovered the whole time so excess liquid can continue to cook off.
- Garnish with fresh parsley and serve with your choice of sides. Enjoy!
How to store leftovers of Creamy Sun Dried Tomato Chicken
If you have any leftovers remaining from this delicious dinner, then you can store them in an airtight container and place them:
- in the refrigerator for 3-4 days -or-
- the freezer for up to a month
I really hope that you enjoy this recipe as much as our family did! It is such a treat to have a meal that is both easy to make and really delicious to eat. If you do get a chance to try it, I would love it if you let me know! You can leave me a comment below, or if you post a picture on Instagram, make sure to tag me @easyfamilyrecipes so that I can see what you are cooking up! It makes my day to see others enjoying the recipes that I share!
Creamy Sun Dried Tomato Chicken
Ingredients
- 2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breast, (about 3-4 chicken breasts)
- 8 oz cream cheese, softened
- 4 oz jarred julienned sun dried tomatoes, drained
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded
For Garnish
- Fresh parsley, chopped
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375˚F.
- Chop the sun dried tomatoes roughly until they are in easy, bite sized pieces. Mix cream cheese and garlic with the sundried tomatoes until they are well combined.
- Lay the chicken breast flat in a baking dish and spread the cream cheese mixture evenly over the chicken. Top with the mozzarella cheese.
- Bake for 20 minutes, then loosely cover with foil and bake another 15-20 minutes or until the chicken is done (165˚F internal temperature.)
- Garnish with fresh parsley and serve with your choice of sides. Enjoy!
Recipe Notes
- You can cut the chicken in half, chunks, or use chicken tenderloins in lieu of full chicken breasts to make serving easier. Cooking time may be reduced.
- Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container for 3-4 days in the refrigerator or in the freezer for up to a month.
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