Pesto Hasselback Chicken

More About This Recipe

• Never have a boring chicken breast again!
  
  I find chicken breasts to be pretty boring, if I’m being honest. They don’t have a lot of flavor or texture, so I’m always trying to find fun ways to make them more interesting.
  
  This method, hasselback chicken, is way up there in my methods of jazzing up chicken. By making slits down the chicken breast and stuffing them with pesto and mozzarella, you turn a normal dish into something pretty darn special.
  
  While the finished hasselback chicken looks pretty awesome, it’s surprisingly easy to make. Just use a sharp paring knife to cut some slits down each chicken breast. Make them pretty deep, but be careful not to cut all the way through the chicken.
  
  Then use a small spoon to stuff each slit with some pesto! You can go heavy on the pesto here. It adds a lot of flavor.
  
  You didn’t think I’d forget the cheese, did you? Use a low-moisture mozzarella for this recipe. Slice the cheese very thin and stuff a small strip into each slit.
  
  Bake these masterpieces for 30 minutes at 350ºF. That should be plenty of time to finish the chicken, but I always recommend using a meat thermometer to test meat. It should hit 165ºF in the thickest part of the chicken.
  
  Serve it up and happy hasselbacking!
  
  Nick wants to change his last name to Hasselback! Check out his blog, Macheesmo, and follow him on his Tablespoon profile.