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Looking for a quick and flavorful dinner with little hands-on cooking? This Baked Chipotle Chicken Breast recipe is perfect for any night of the week, and can even double as meal-prep for lunches. Plus, we’re sharing our best tips for cooking chicken breasts in the oven, too!
Chipotle Chicken Breast Recipe
Juicy and with a bit of sweet heat, these Baked Chipotle Chicken Breasts are your answer to a quick and delicious weeknight dinner. The chicken is pounded out to an even thickness and topped with a honey chipotle sauce and then baked to perfection. And keep scrolling to read all our tips to make sure you get the juiciest chicken possible! Serve this alongside sweet potato fries, mashed potatoes, cauliflower rice or on top of a big salad and dinner is served!
Plus, this chicken is awesome to add to a lunch-time salad, so make a big batch for dinner tonight and lunch later in the week!
Ingredients Needed
- Boneless + Skinless Chicken Breasts
- Apple Cider Vinegar
- Chipotle Chili Powder
- Salt, Pepper and Spices
- Olive Oil
- Honey
- Canned Chipotle Peppers
Substitution Suggestions
Chipotle Powder: Substitute regular chili powder if you don’t have it!
Sweetener: We don’t suggest omitting the honey on this, as it helps mellow out and compliments the heat from the chipotle pepper.
Chicken: Feel free to use this on chicken thighs, though the cooking time will change.
How to Make Perfect Juicy Baked Chicken
The secret to getting juicy and flavorful chicken is ultimately about not overcooking it. That is the single most important step of cooking chicken breasts, which are lower in fat than their dark meat counterparts and are prone to drying out quickly.
Pounding out the meat to an even thickness with a meat mallet (or a rolling pin) is a small step you can take that goes a long way to making great chicken. This ensures the chicken is evenly cooked throughout, instead of having some parts of the chicken overcooked because they are thinner.
In addition, if you had the extra time on your hands you could prepare the chicken breasts with the chipotle sauce ahead of time to let the meat marinate. This isn’t essential, but it does bump up the flavor a bit. You could do as little time as 30 minutes or even overnight. The recipe calls for a quick dry marinade of 15 minutes with the spices on it, but if you don’t have that time, you could ultimately skip it.
However, the most important step is to take the chicken from the oven right before it has officially reached the correct temperature of 165ºF. As all meat does, the chicken will continue to cook after it has been removed from the oven. We always suggest using an instant-read thermometer to check the temperature of meat, and chicken breast should be removed from the oven at about 160º. Once the chicken has been pulled out, cover the pan with aluminum foil and allow the chicken to rests. This lets the chicken finish cooking to 165º and lets the chicken rest so all the juices stay within the chicken breast.
Using this Chicken for Meal Prep
This chicken is awesome for lunch meal prep, especially on a salad. Serving it over a big leafy green salad with a ton of veggies is maybe my favorite way to eat this chicken. So bake up a big batch on Sunday and slice and save for meal prep for the week. This chicken will last about 3-4 days in the refrigerator.
Watch the video here:
Serve this chipotle chicken up with your favorite sides. Here are some of ours:
- Oven Roasted Vegetables
- Baked Sweet Potato Fries
- Classic Mashed Potatoes (Paleo + Vegan)
- The Best Rice Ever (Stove Top and Instant Pot)
- Maple Roasted Brussel Sprouts with Bacon
- Avocado and Corn Salsa
If you like this chicken breast recipe, check out these others:
- French Onion Chicken Bake
- Chili Garlic Chicken Satay Skewers
- Instant Pot Balsamic Chicken
- Chopped Antipasto Salad with Chicken
Baked Chipotle Chicken
Ingredients
- 2 lbs. boneless skinless chicken breasts
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon chipotle chili powder or regular chili powder
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 2 tablespoons canned adobo sauce
- 1 teaspoon minced chipotle peppers optional, this is hot
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400ºF.
- Place chicken breasts on a steady surface 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.
- Place chicken inside a 9x13”, or similar sized baking dish. Pour the apple cider vinegar over the chicken and rub on the chili powder, salt, pepper and garlic powder on both sides of the chicken. Pierce the chicken lightly with a fork all over. Let the chicken marinate for 15-30 minutes at room temperature.
- Whisk together oil, honey, adobo and minced chipotle peppers in a small bowl. Pour over the chicken and cook until the chicken is nearly finished cooking through, to about 160ºF, about 30-35 minutes.
- Remove the chicken from the oven and loosely cover it with aluminum foil. Let it rest for 5-10 minutes while the temperature of the chicken continues to cook from residual heat. It will rise to above 165ºF during this time.
- Slice and serve with your favorite sides.
I’ve made this recipe 3 times in the past two weeks for dinner and meal prep lunches! I’ve been looking for a new way to cook chicken and this is soo good! Such an easy recipe but the chicken is super flavorful and juicy!