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Stuff the classic elements of a pepperoni pizza into some chicken and you’ve got yourself a crowd-pleasing weeknight dinner! This Pizza Stuffed Chicken is easy to make, using just a few simple ingredients and pairs well with so many dishes.
Baked Pizza Chicken
We just love our pizza inspired recipes! Previously we’ve done Pizza Meatloaf Muffins, Breakfast Pizza, and Pizza Stuffed Peppers, but this Baked Pizza Chicken might just be our new favorite! Chicken breasts are simple sliced open, seasoned, stuffed with cheese and pepperoni, and then baked up in a store-bought pizza sauce to make for the ultimate weeknight dinner everyone is going to love. Keep it low-carb and serve with a salad or roasted veggies or make it a family-friendly meal and serve it over pasta.
The chicken cooks in about 30 minutes or so, and it’s simple to get the chicken ready to go, so this definitely can be achieved on a weeknight! And we have a feeling, once you try it, it might be on a weekly rotation.
Pizza Stuffed Chicken Ingredients
- Chicken Breasts
- Pizza Sauce
- Mozzarella Cheese
- Olive Oil
- Herbs + Spices
- Pepperoni
- Fresh Basil
How to Butterfly Open a Chicken Breast
In order to “stuff” this chicken breast, it needs to be butterflied open. Which basically just means nearly cut in half except the very edge. Then it can be opened up like a book.
But first, before you butterfly it open, we recommend one small step: pound out the meat to an even thickness with a meat mallet (or a rolling pin). This ensures the chicken is perfectly cooked throughout, instead of having some parts of the chicken overcooked because they are thinner. We realize this is an extra step though, but it’s an optional one. If you have the time, go for it!
Then, place your hand on top of the chicken breast and using a sharp knife, slice through the chicken horizontally, stopping about ½ an inch from the end. Open up the chicken breast so it’s flat.
This recipe then calls for seasoning the chicken breast with spices, salt pepper and a splash of olive oil. This is done so that the chicken is seasoned all over, instead of just on the top, to infuse the seasoning throughout.
How to Stuff a Boneless Chicken Breast
It may sound complicated to stuff a chicken breast, but we’ve simplified the steps to make this a super easy and approachable way to add flavor to a weeknight dinner staple.
- Pound out the chicken to an even thickness, though this is optional. A small step you can take that goes a long way to making perfect chicken is to pound out the meat to an even thickness with a meat mallet (or a rolling pin). This ensures the chicken is perfectly cooked throughout, instead of having some parts of the chicken overcooked because they are thinner. We realize this is an extra step though, but it’s an optional one. If you have the time, go for it!
- “Butterfly” the chicken breast. This means to slice the chicken horizontally through the middle just up to the edge and then open it up like a book.
- Season it. Now that the chicken breast is opened up, go ahead and season the chicken all over. If you have the time, let the chicken sit like this for 10 minutes. Even that short amount of time will make a difference in the flavor of the chicken.
- Next add in the stuffing. We’re adding in mozzarella cheese and pepperoni here. But feel free to get creative here if you want to add other pizza toppings or veggies. Roasted red peppers, spinach or mushrooms could be nice here!
- Close the chicken back up. All you have to do is fold it over. We didn’t feel it necessary to secure it with toothpicks.
- Place the chicken in the prepared baking dish (with pizza sauce on the bottom) and then top with a bit more sauce, cheese and additional pepperoni.
- Bake!
What to Serve with Pizza Stuffed Chicken
The easiest way to serve this meal up is with a simple side salad, especially if you are trying to keep this meal low-carb. If you are serving it to a family with kids, over a bed of pasta is a great way to serve this! Everybody will be happy.
A few other recipes that will pair well with this main dish:
- Mediterranean Quinoa Salad
- Easy Cucumber Salad with Lots of Herbs!
- Tomato Cucumber Salad with Crispy Chickpeas (& Green Yogurt Dressing)
- How to Make Cauliflower Rice
- How to Cook Spaghetti Squash
- Oven Roasted Vegetables
Watch the video here:
If you like this baked chicken recipe, check out these others:
- Baked Maple Dijon Chicken
- Sun-Dried Tomato and Artichoke Stuffed Chicken
- The Best Baked BBQ Chicken Breast
Pizza Stuffed Chicken
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil divided
- 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
- 2 teaspoons italian herbs
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1-1/2 cups pizza sauce divided
- 1-½ cups shredded mozzarella
- 24 pepperoni slices
- Fresh basil for garnish
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400ºF and rub a 9x13” (or a similar sized) baking dish with 1 tablespoon olive oil and set aside.
- Place chicken breasts on a steady flat surface. We recommend pounding out the chicken to an even thickness by placing the chicken between two sheets of parchment or plastic wrap. Using the flat side of a meat mallet or rolling pin, pound each to an even thickness. This is an optional step.
- Place your hand on top of the chicken breast. Using a sharp knife, slice through the chicken horizontally, stopping about ½ an inch from the end.
- Coat the chicken breasts all over with the remaining olive oil. Season the coated chicken breast with italian herbs, salt, pepper and garlic powder.
- Open the chicken breasts and add to each ¼ cup mozzarella and 4 slices of pepperoni. Close the chicken up.
- Add 1 cup of pizza sauce to the bottom of the baking dish, and place the closed chicken breasts on top. Spread the remaining pizza sauce on top of the chicken, and then sprinkle the remaining cheese and pepperoni on top.
- Bake in the middle rack until the chicken is nearly finished cooking through, to 160ºF, about 30-35 minutes. If desired, you can broil the top of a minute or two.
- Remove the chicken from the oven and loosely cover the chicken with aluminum foil to let it rest for 5-10 minutes.
- Slice and serve with your favorite sides.
This was delicious!! Super easy to make, I followed the instructions to a tee…with the addition of some sliced pancetta stuffed inside as well as the pepperoni. WOW!! The chicken has amazing flavour, and cooked perfectly…not dry at all, so moist, WOW again Lexi!! Kid approved, easy to make, most of the time is hands off as the chicken cooks. I served it with some crusty homemade GF sourdough bread to dip into the sauce….can you tell we’re Italian over here?! LOL ANOTHER WINNER!!
Made this recipe for a weeknight dinner for my family and everyone loved it!! I let the chicken sit with the seasoning for 5-10 mins as Lexi suggests and the chicken was so tasty and moist. Served it with a side of garlic bread for hubby & the boys and a big green salad for myself. Super quick, easy & tasty dinner that all the family loved!!
Both my 5 year old and 3 year old loved this dinner! So easy and delicious!
This was so good and easy! And I think for the first time for me the chicken breast wasn’t dry.
Where is the nutrition information?
Should be back up!
Lexi, as usual another great recipe. Made this Friday night and we all loved it!
Where’s the nutrition information?
I made 6 breasts total. Nothing survived! My 8 year old cleaned his plate and came back for more!
I prepped it and set the oven on delay bake and when we returned home after swim team, the house smelled heavenly and dinner was ready!
SO so happy it was a hit!
As soon as I saw this I knew I had to make it for dinner tonight and it’s delicious! It was super easy to make. I used turkey pepperoni and served it over cauliflower rice.