Garlic Basil Chicken Recipe!

My DIL found a recipe she thought she’d like to try, and once she made her own take on it she wanted to share it with us!

This Garlic Basil Chicken is delicious and super easy!  As a Mom with a toddler it can be hard to spend a lot of time making a meal that is more than hot dogs or delivery!  But, determined to make good meals plus having them be quick and easy, this was a great choice.

You could replace many of the ingredients in this recipe with processed foods, but, it’s not difficult to use fresh ingredients and then you know exactly what your family is eating and that it is healthy.   

Preparing Chicken

One of the things that you need to do in this recipe is to make sure you use deboned chicken breasts so that it will be easier to strip the meat when it’s cooked.  And while you can easily find this in the supermarket, there may be some cases where you have trouble looking for it.  In this case, you can buy bone in chicken breast and learn how to debone it when you get home.  This can even be a less expensive option than buying boneless chicken directly from the market. 

Why You Should Buy Split Chicken Breast Instead Of Boneless

You can save money buying split chicken breasts instead of the boneless and skinless option.  It’ll only take you a few minutes to debone the chicken but once you get the hang of it, you won’t take too long removing the bone from the breasts.  

Another reason is that the bones you get from the chicken breast can make a really good bone broth.  You can use the chicken stock you make for soups, casseroles, or even chicken noodles. 

You may also like: Budget Meals: How To Plan Realistic And Cheap Meals For Your Family!

What You Need To Debone A Chicken Breast

To make the task of deboning chicken breast a lot easier, you will need to have some items on hand.  This will make sure that you can quickly and successfully debone chicken.  You will need the following items:

• A sharp knife
• Cutting mat

Once you have these with you, you can go ahead and start deboning the chicken.  If you won’t be making broth, have a bag nearby so you can easily dispose of the raw chicken.  You need to be careful with how you discard raw chicken since it can be a huge risk for salmonella. 

The Right Way To Debone Chicken 

1. Place the chicken on the cutting mat.  
2. Pull back the edge of the chicken skin.  You can use a paper towel if it’s difficult to hold this part and pull it off.
3. Look for a large bone on one of the edges.  If there is none, you simply have to slide the knife beneath the bones and membrane as closely as possible.
4. You can start taking off the tenderloin once the bone has been cut away.  You will find a small strip of meat, which is known as the tenderloin.  
5. You can opt to remove the skin from the meat. 

When you’ve deboned the chicken breast, you can start preparing it for whatever dish you intend to cook.  Tomato and basil is a perfect match and it goes really well with chicken too. 

How To Make Tender Chicken Breast

There are some techniques you can use to make sure your chicken breasts cook properly.  One way you can do that is to slice them lengthwise and pounding to make them even.  Not only will this make the meat tender, it will also taste better. 

You can do this by placing the chicken breast inside a zip top bag and pound slightly with a rolling pin.

Another technique you can follow is to season chicken just before you cook.  This will make a huge difference in the taste of the chicken breast.  

This took a total of around 30 mins to prepare:  fast, easy, and delicious!

Garlic Basil Chicken Recipe:

Ingredients:

• 2 TBSP Olive Oil
• 2 boneless skinless Chicken Breasts
• 3 cups fresh chopped Tomatoes
• 1 cup whole Spinach Leaves
• 2 tsp minced Garlic
• Kosher Salt & Ground Black Pepper to taste
• 4 TBSP Cold Butter
• 1 pinch Basil powder
• Parmigiana Cheese
• Fettuccine Pasta (or pasta of your choice)

Directions:

1.  Heat Olive Oil on medium-high heat in large pot.
2.  In a different pot boil water for pasta, cook according to directions on package
3.  Add Chicken and cook 4-5 minutes on each side until cooked through.
4.  Reduce heat to medium and add Tomatoes, let them cook down a bit, 3-5 minutes
5.  Add Spinach, cook until soft, 2-4 minutes
6.  Add butter, cook until melted, stirring all ingredients well
7.  Add minced garlic, salt & pepper
8.  Cook until flavors well melded

Slice Chicken into strips and serve over Fettuccine and add parmigiana cheese to top it all off!