I’ve developed some of my best recipes when I decided to combine mish-mashed and leftover ingredients in my fridge. That’s where this delectable, and oddly fancy seeming dinner came from. I’d ordered some chicken thighs on instacart, made some italian recipes earlier in the week, a small portion of spinach that wasn’t enough for a salad and had just two potatoes I didn’t know what to do with. I pulled out all of this, then saw the cream cheese and remembered a creamy garlic herb cheese stuffed chicken my mom used to make and I was inspired. This recipe is a great bang for your buck when it comes to impressing your guests or family. It serves up looking super fancy, rolled up neatly and stuffed with delicious cheesy filling over a beautiful rainbow of vegetables. Chopping up the ingredients is the hardest part, aside from waiting for it to bake in the oven!
Italian Pepperoni Chicken Bake
Ingredients
- 1-1 1/2 Pounds skinless boneless chicken thighs (roughly 7 or 8 thighs)
- 1 15 Oz can diced tomatoes
- 2 Medium white potatoes
- 1 Cup spinach
- ½ Cup diced yellow onion
- ¼ Cup sliced black olives
- 4 Oz Cream Cheese
- ¼ Cup chopped fresh parsley and basil
- 1 5 Oz package sliced pepperoni
- ¼ Cup parmesan cheese
- 2 Cloves of garlic
- 1 Teaspoon Italian seasoning
- 1 Teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ Teaspoon paprika
- Salt and Pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- Prepare a square baking dish for the chicken by lining with foil coating with non-stick cooking spray, set aside. Set an additional medium sized baking dish aside for the vegetables
- Begin by finely chopping the spices, garlic, spinach and onions
- Wash the potatoes and cut into ½ to 1 inch cubes
- Dice up the package of pepperoni and slice the olives if not sliced
- In your second, ungreased baking dish combine the can of diced tomatoes, potatoes, onions, olives, chopped fresh herbs, spinach, garlic, Italian seasoning and half the chopped pepperoni. Stir to combine and cover the dish with foil
- Place the dish in the oven and allow to cool for 45-60 minutes until the potatoes are fork tender
- While the pepperoni vegetable mixture begins to cook in the oven prepare the chicken thighs
- In a small bowl combine the cream cheese, garlic powder, parmesan and the remaining peperoni
- Lay out each of the chicken thighs, they should look like thin chicken breasts. Spread a portion of the cream cheese and pepperoni mixture evenly on each of the thighs and roll them up with the cream cheese mixture on the inside.
- Place each of the rolled up thighs, seam side down in the foil lined baking dish. It should make two rows of 3 or 4 thighs, just filling the pan. Season the outside of the thighs with the paprika, salt and pepper. Add a dash of garlic powder as well if desired.
- Cover the pan with foil and place in the oven with the pepperoni and veggie mixture.
- Bake covered for 25 minutes
- After 25 minutes remove the foil from the chicken and cook another 10-15 minutes until slightly golden and cooked through to an internal temperature of 165 degrees
- The pepperoni and vegetables should finish cooking around the same time, with the potatoes being fork tender. The pepperoni and veggies can be finished with the foil on or off.
- Once cooked remove from the oven
- Serve a portion of the pepperoni and veggies with a chicken thigh on top and a sprinkle of fresh grated parmesan
