Spinach & Four Cheese Hasselback Chicken

On Facebook recently, I saw a video for making Hasselback chicken.  I have long struggled to find chicken breast recipes that I like, because the chicken usually ends up tough and dry, except my oven baked barbeque chicken.

For my Hasselback Chicken, I used four of my favorite cheeses - feta, ricotta, Romano, and Asiago.

I was amazed at how much flavor this dish had from the garlic, black pepper, red pepper flakes and four cheeses, and the chicken was incredibly tender.

Without a doubt, this dish is the best chicken recipe I have ever made, and my whole family loved it.

Spinach & Four Cheese Hasselback Chicken

Ingredients

4 chicken breasts - skinless & boneless
Kosher salt & coarse ground black pepper - to taste
1 T olive oil
1 tsp minced garlic
3 C baby spinach - chopped
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 tsp coarse ground black pepper
1/4 C feta crumbles
1/4 C whole milk ricotta cheese
1 tsp grated Romano cheese
1/3 C freshly grated Asiago cheese

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and cover a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Season one side of each chicken breast with salt and pepper, and place them seasoned side down on the baking sheet.  Use a sharp knife to cut 5 or 6 deep slits in each chicken breast, but do not cut all the way through.

Saute the garlic in the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat for a minute or two until it begins to brown.  Add the spinach, red pepper flakes and black pepper, and cook until the spinach begins to wilt.  Turn off the heat, and add the feta, ricotta and Romano, stirring until the cheese is melted.

Stuff the spinach and cheese mixture into each slit in the chicken breasts.  Season them with more salt and pepper, and top them with Asiago cheese.

Bake the chicken breasts for about 28 minutes, then turn the oven to broil for two minutes more to brown the Asiago cheese.

Recipe Notes

Depending on the size of your chicken breasts, you may have to adjust the cooking time.  Always make sure your chicken has reached an internal temperature of 165 degrees before serving.

I used GreenWise chicken breasts from Publix, but forgot to check the weight before I threw away the packaging.

Linked to: Gluten Free Fridays