Goat Cheese and Dill Hasselback Chicken is an easy and delicious way to cook chicken breast. It’s perfect for a weeknight meal or a fancy dinner. Serve with salad, rice or even pasta with light cream sauce. Juicy and delicious. Great for meal prepping also.
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This recipe originally appeared on Imagelicious on July 13, 2017. It is now updated with more tips, related informations, photos, and instructional video.
I came up with this recipe because one day my hubby brought chicken breast home as it was on sale. I am not a big chicken breast fan. In fact, I rarely buy chicken breasts.
My brother in law was coming over for dinner and I had chicken, goat cheese, and dill in the fridge and not much more. It felt a shame to use chicken breast for my chicken and chickpea stew. So, I mixed goat cheese with chopped dill, added some mayo to make the mixture more spreadable and stuffed chicken with it before baking. It turned out delicious!
So much so that hubby asked me to make it again the next day. I made this Hasselback Chicken with Goat Cheese and Dill many times. I served it with Israeli couscous, buckwheat, rice, and also pasta with a light cream sauce. The notoriously dry chicken breast gets really juicy and flavourful.
This Goat Cheese and Dill Hasselback Chicken as well as Cheesy Onion Chicken Breast recipe from my cookbook, The Ultimate One-Pan Oven Cookbook, are the only chicken breast recipes I make if I happen to buy chicken breast.
What Hasselback Means
Hasselback (actually Hasselbacken) is the name of a Swedish restaurant. They came up with a recipe for Hasselback Potatoes in 1950s and that dish became very popular. They cut the potatoes into an accordion style and cooked them that way.
Since then, the way of cutting food that specific way is often called Hasselback. There are many recipes for Hasselback Potatoes, Hasselback Chicken, Hasselback Carrots, Hasselback Apples.
Even if you are not familiar with any of those recipes, you most likely have already used or seen this technique in garlic bread. It is very common to take a loaf of Italian bread and almost slice it through but still leaving the bottom crust intact before spreading garlic butter in between slices.
How to cut for anything hasselback
Cutting any food to make it into a Hasselback style isn’t difficult at all.
- Place whatever you want to Hasselback onto a cutting board.
- Start slicing the first slice but do not slice all the way through.
- Stop slicing the first slice before the knife reaches the cutting board, thus keeping the bottom intact.
- Continue almost slicing all the way through for the length of the food you are slicing.
So, at the end of this cutting technique, you should still end up with only one piece of food that is held together by the bottom crust.
What can you hasselback
Hasselback not only refers to the technique of slicing the food in the accordion-style way but also cooking it. Most often the food sliced like this is baked or roasted or even just pan-fried until crispy.
However, I’ve seen even uncooked recipes that are called Hasselback. So, I think it is up to you if you want to use that name or not.
Once you cut anything in this Hasselback style, you most often will want to add stuffing in between slices. It could be some vegetables, creamy cheeses, mayo, herbs. It could be other meats like slices of ham, for example. For dessert style recipes, you could add berries, nuts, chocolate, or nut spreads.
Here are a few foods you can hasselback:
- Chicken breast (obviously)
- Pork tenderloin
- Potatoes (the original Hasselback)
- Parsnips, carrots
- Zucchini
- Eggplants
- Onions
- Dinner bread rolls
- Apples
- Peaches
- Bananas
Ingredients to make Goat Cheese and Dill Hasselback Chicken
- Chicken breasts
- Salad dressing for marinading chicken (you can use your favourite kind or make a homemade marinade or omit altogether)
- Goat cheese
- Mayo
- Dill
- Seasoning
- Cheese
How to make Hasselback Chicken with Goat Cheese and Dill
The recipe is easy to prepare and looks quite impressive too. My only note is the baking time. I use a small sheet pan or a small roasting pan when making this chicken, so it almost braises in its own juices. Packing chicken breasts (or thighs) so close together in a small roasting pan means that all the juices that ran stay right around the chicken and become almost like a natural braising liquid.
If you are using a bigger roasting pan or even just a baking sheet then the air will circulate better and the chicken will cook a little bit faster. In any case, no matter what your preferred way of baking the chicken is please check the internal cooked temperature to make sure it’s at least 165F. I love this digital meat thermometer. It’s very accurate.
I also very highly recommend using a good oven thermometer. And when I say good, I don’t mean expensive. I went through 3 or 4 oven thermometers, some fancy and expensive, before finally doing a research and buying this kind. It is perfect!!
Using a good oven thermometer is essential! I used to not understand why my chicken breast took 1.5 hours to cook instead of 30 minutes. It turned out I kept putting it into a barely preheated oven.
I talk in length about cooking in the oven in my cookbook, The Ultimate One-Pan Oven Cookbook, so you can read a lot of explanations there.
How to make Hasselback Chicken
- Marinade the chicken in salad dressing for 20-30 minutes if possible.
- Mix the goat cheese, mayo, seasoning, and dill together.
- Cut the chicken breasts in accordion style.
- Stuff the chicken with the goat cheese mixture.
- Arrange the chicken breasts on the baking sheet or a roasting pan and sprinkle with shredded cheese.
- Bake until it reaches internal temperature of 165F.
Ingredients and Variations for Goat Cheese and Dill Hasselback Chicken
- Chicken breast
- You don’t have to Hasselback the chicken breast. You can just make a pocket and do a more traditional style stuffed chicken.
- You could do this recipe with boneless and skinless chicken thighs as well, but you’d need to stuff and roll them and either use toothpicks to hold together or lay them seam down onto a sheet pan.
- Salad dressing
- I use either Italian dressing or (as in this recipe video) Greek dressing.
- You can use your favourite store-bought or homemade dressing.
- You can omit marinading the chicken altogether but you might need to season it with salt and pepper instead.
- Goat cheese
- Goat cheese tastes amazing in this recipe but if you aren’t a goat cheese fan then you can use other creamy cheeses also.
- Try to use ricotta, cream cheese, or really creamy feta instead of goat cheese.
- Mayo
- I like Mayo in this filling, it adds a nice savoury note to the filling.
- You can use plain yogurt or sour cream instead.
- Dill
- I love combination of goat cheese and Dill together. I use it often, you can even see my recipe for Tomatoes with Goat Cheese and Dill Appetizer.
- You can use your favourite herbs instead or a combination of them: parsley, cilantro, basil, chives, tarragon, etc.
- You can use dried herbs also.
- Seasoning
- I use Mrs. Dash Original No Salt Seasoning Blend a lot in my cooking, especially when I make something really quick on a weeknight. It is a delicious blend of spices.
- Feel free to use your favourite spices instead.
- For example, garlic powder, dried onion, paprika, dried parsley, cayenne pepper, all will be good in this recipe.
- Cheese
- I am a big proponent in grating cheese by hand as prepackaged shredded cheese usually has anti-clamping ingredients, however, this is one of those recipes where I don’t mind using the bagged stuff. It just makes my life easier and this recipe so much more convenient and faster.
- Feel free to use your favourite melty cheese, such as mozzarella, cheddar, Monteray Jack, Edam, etc.
How to meal prep Goat Cheese and Dill Hasselback Chicken
This Goat Cheese and Dill Hasselback Chicken is great for meal prepping also. It has stuffing and cheese, so it keeps juicy and flavourful even after reheating. I also like to scoop up some of the juices from the pan and drizzle them over the sides I am using. This way when the whole meal prep bowl is heated up, the juices flavour the side and make it seem that the meal just came out of the oven.
I like to serve this Goat Cheese Hasselback Chicken with buckwheat or Israeli couscous. But it is also perfect with rice, mashed potatoes, or even pasta.
I use these glass containers for my meal preps exclusively, both round and square/rectangular versions.
TIP: If you are like me, then you’d only need Half of one chicken breasts with grains and vegetables for a filling meal. So, 4 chicken breasts would make 8 meal prep bowls.
More meal prep recipes:
- Steak and Mushroom Salad (with meal prep tips)
- Sheet Pan Fish Cakes with Vegetables
- Instant Pot No Peel Hard Boiled Eggs
More sheet pan recipes:
- Sheet Pan Gnocchi and Eggs
- Easiest Full Sheet Pan Breakfast
- Sheet Pan Ricotta-Crab Biscuit Ring Dip
- Sheet Pan Mini Meatloaves with Vegetables
Goat Cheese and Dill Hasselback Chicken
Ingredients
- 4 chicken breasts (about 2 pounds)
- 1/4 cup Italian dressing (optional)
- 1 small log goat cheese (200 g)
- 1/4 cup mayo
- 1/2 cup chopped dill
- 1 teaspoon Mrs. Dash seasoning
- 1/2 cup grated cheese
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450F.
- In a large bowl, pour the dressing over the chicken breasts, mix to coat, and let stand for 30 minutes. This step is optional. You can omit using the dressing if you'd like.
- In a medium bowl, mix together the goat cheese, mayo, dill, and Mrs. Dash seasoning until well combined.
- Place each chicken breast flat on a cutting board and make cross cuts like if you were to slice chicken into short strips but without fully cutting all the way to the cutting board, leaving about 1/4 inch of chicken at the bottom intact. Repeat those cuts every 3/4 inch thus turning the chicken breast into an "accordion". See video for more details.
- Transfer the chicken breasts to a small sheet pan or roasting pan and season with salt and pepper if desired.
- Stuff each slit in the chicken with goat cheese mixture.
- Sprinkle grated cheese over the chicken breasts.
- Bake in the oven for 30-35 minutes or until the internal temperature of the chicken breasts reaches 165F.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
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