This Chicken with Sundried Tomatoes and Spinach recipe turns an ordinary plain chicken breast into a hearty and flavor-packed meal all in itself! Serve your stuffed chicken breasts with a fresh pot of rice, over some saucy pasta, or alongside your favorite vegetables and greens.
Each chicken breast is stuffed with a mixture of cream cheese, mozzarella, sun-dried tomatoes, and baby spinach, seared, and then roasted with halved grape tomatoes in the oven to create juicy and tender chicken breast meat and a soft filling. This dish is similar to my Caprese Stuffed Chicken Breasts recipe with a few ingredient differences.
Stuffing your chicken is not only a delicious alternative to eating plain chicken breasts, but it’s also a clever way to sneak some wholesome vegetables into your kids’ diet! If you enjoy Italian-inspired dishes, be sure to try this dish served over homemade pasta, homemade potato gnocchi or alongside an Italian style salad.
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Why You’ll Love Chicken Breast Stuffed with Sundried Tomatoes and Spinach
- This creamy chicken dish incorporates classic Italian Caprese flavors that turn simple ingredients into a mouth-watering lunch or dinner.
- Pair your creamy Tuscan chicken with a variety of side dishes including roasted veggies, salad, or Olive Garden breadsticks.
- Easily double this recipe by cooking the browned chicken in a large casserole dish in the oven.
🍗🍅 Ingredients:
- Chicken breast – skinless chicken breasts
- Coarse Sea Salt – Kosher salt is preferred
- Cream cheese – soften
- Fresh Spinach – fresh baby spinach leaves, chopped
- Sun-dried tomato – I’ve used the kind that are preserved in olive oil with herbs
- Mozzarella cheese – freshly grated mozzarella cheese
- Black pepper
- Olive oil – high-quality olive oil
- Grape tomatoes – Halved. You can also use cherry tomatoes or even regular tomatoes cut into chunks.
For a full list of ingredients and their measurements, 📋 please view my printable full recipe card at the bottom of the post.
Substitutions and Variations
- You can use regular table salt too. Since kosher salt is a larger grain than table salt, you will want to use less if using table salt.
- You could even use frozen spinach, but I would recommend thawing completely first and then straining out the excess water.
- Instead of using Mozzarella cheese, you could stuff your chicken breasts with feta, ricotta, parmesan cheese, a mixture of Mozzarella and blue cheese (just don’t overpower it), or another favorite cheese you know will melt well.
- You could wrap your stuffed chicken breasts just before they go into the oven. The bacon will help to keep the stuffing and flavorful juices from spilling out and adds another layer of heaty deliciousness to the chicken breasts.
- While I’ve kept my seasoning simple, you could add your favorite dried or fresh herbs, such as basil, oregano, and thyme, an Italian seasoning mix, red pepper flakes, or garlic powder/onion powder.
- Add other marinated vegetables (like red bell pepper) to your chicken stuffing for a good dose of veggies.
- Keep this low carb and serve with cauliflower rice or zoodles (zucchini noodles).
- Although the taste is amazing, I’d refrain from using boneless skinless chicken thighs, they are too small to properly stuff.
🔪 Instructions:
Step 1: Brine the seasoned chicken breasts in a bowl of water and salt for 30 minutes.
Step 2: Remove from brine and pat dry.
Step 3: Cut each large chicken breast on the side, being careful not to cut the chicken through completely.
Step 4: Divide the filling ingredients between the chicken piece and layer the ingredients inside each chicken breast.
PRO TIP: I opted to use larger-than-average chicken breasts for this recipe since it makes stuffing them so much easier. If you are using smaller chicken breasts, then you may need to decrease your overall cooking time in the oven.
Use these cooking times as a guide:
- 15 minutes for small chicken breasts (6oz/180g)
- 18 minutes for medium chicken breasts (7 oz / 210g)
- 20 minutes for large chicken breasts (8oz/250g)
Step 5: Close up each chicken breast with a toothpick, then season each side of the stuffed chicken breasts with salt and pepper.
Step 6: While the oven preheats, add the stuffed chicken breasts to the heated large skillet (I prefer a cast-iron skillet) over medium heat with olive oil to brown on both sides. Depending on the size of the skillet, you may need to cook two chicken breasts at a time so that the pan is not overcrowded. Place browned chicken breasts on a plate to the side while browning the remaining chicken breasts.
Step 7: Return all of the browned chicken breasts to the skillet and sprinkle the grape tomatoes around.
Step 8: Add the skillet to the oven and cook the chicken for 10-15 minutes at 400°F. Allow the chicken breasts to rest for about 5 minutes before serving.
GARNISH/SLICE/SERVE: Serve warm out of the oven with a garden salad or a plate of rice.
Recipe Tips for Chicken Breast with Sundried Tomatoes:
- Don’t forget to use a toothpick to hold your sliced chicken breasts together. It will also help to keep the filling from spilling out.
- The brine used in this recipe is simply water and kosher salt (coarser than sea or table salt). While the use of the brine is optional for this recipe, I strongly suggest that you use it since it’ll help to keep moisture and flavor in the chicken while cooking. This is the same technique we use with our air fryer chicken breasts and it makes a HUGE difference.
- The internal temperature of the chicken should register 165°F on a meat thermometer. You should check for this temperature using a food thermometer to ensure that your chicken is done cooking.
- You will need to add a few more minutes to the cooking time if you are cooking 2 or more chicken breasts at a time as I’ve done.
Fun Fact
Sun-dried tomatoes are a key element in this stuffed chicken breast recipe. Did you know that sundried tomatoes were first prepared by the Aztecs in 700BC?!
Recipe FAQs
Store these stuffed chicken breasts in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
You can also store these in the freezer for 1 month. Make sure that your stuffed chicken breasts have cooled completely before storing them in the freezer or refrigerator, and if you like, you can also wrap them in plastic to keep in as much moisture as possible.
To reheat from frozen, thaw them overnight in the refrigerator and then place them in a preheated oven for 10-15 minutes with an aluminum covering to prevent burning or drying out.
A side of roasted vegetables such as potato, broccoli, carrots, or green beans would be a great option to serve with your stuffed chicken breasts.
Homemade Dinner Rolls or a light green salad would be a tasty addition to these stuffed chicken breasts.
Yes, you can! Place your uncooked stuffed chicken breasts in the slow cooker, set your slow cooker on low heat, and cook for about 4 hours. Add your grape tomatoes, and then cook for another hour till your chicken is cooked through.
If you tried this Chicken with Sundried Tomatoes Recipe or any other recipe on my website, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how you liked it in the 📝 comments below.
Chicken with Sundried Tomatoes and Spinach
Ingredients
- 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts 8 oz. each
- ¼ cup kosher salt
- 4 oz. cream cheese
- 1 cup baby spinach leaves roughly chopped
- ½ cup sundried tomatoes in olive oil with herbs
- 1 cup grated mozzarella cheese
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- ½ teaspoon coarse sea salt
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 cup grape tomatoes halved
Instructions
- Place chicken breasts in a large bowl and add kosher salt. Fill bowl with water to cover chicken breasts and stir to dissolve salt. Allow the chicken to sit in the “brine” for at least 30 minutes.
- Remove chicken from brine and pat dry with paper towels.
- Slice a slit into the side of each chicken breast being careful not to slice the chicken all the way through.
- Divide the cream cheese, spinach, sun dried tomatoes, and mozzarella between the chicken breasts and layer the ingredients inside (the order of layering isn’t important).
- Use toothpick to close up and hold each stuffed chicken breast together. Sprinkle both sides of the chicken with salt and pepper.
- Preheat oven to 400°F.
- Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Sear the chicken, browning for several minutes on each side. You may need to brown the chicken in batches so that there is space between the chicken while browning. Do not overcrowd. When the pieces are browned, remove to a plate to fit the remaining pieces in the pan.
- Return all of the chicken to the skillet. Sprinkle grape tomatoes over the chicken.
- Bake for 10-15 minutes or until the chicken is cooked all the way through and registers 165°F.
- Remove from the oven and allow chicken breasts to rest for about 5 minutes before serving.
Notes
- Don’t forget to use a toothpick to hold your sliced chicken breasts together. It will also help to keep the filling from spilling out.
- The brine used in this recipe is simply water and kosher salt (coarser than sea or table salt). While the use of the brine is optional for this recipe, I strongly suggest that you use it since it’ll help to keep moisture and flavor in the chicken while cooking.
- The internal temperature of the chicken should register 165°F. You should check for this temperature using a food thermometer to ensure that your chicken is done cooking.
- You will need to add a few more minutes to the cooking time if you are cooking 2 or more chicken breasts at a time as I’ve done.
Nutrition
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