We love easy ideas like this for adding extra interest to some chicken fillets mid-week. Serve with warm crusty bread and green salad.
Wine Suggestion: your choice of youthful, lighter Italian red; our choice tonight was the refined and under-rated Poggio ai Ginepri Bolgheri Rosso, but almost chose a Chianti. Both would be good.
Chicken breasts with tomatoes, mozzarella & basil – serves 4
- 4 chicken skinless, boneless chicken breasts
- 6 tbsp olive oil
- 4 garlic cloves, peeled and finely sliced
- 2 x 400g tins cherry tomatoes
- 10 basil leaves, plus a few extra to garnish
- 3 x 125 mozzarella balls, drained and sliced (don’t use buffalo mozzarella for this)
Slash each of the the chicken breasts four times with a sharp knife, cutting to the middle.
Heat the oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat and gently fry the garlic and chicken for 2 minutes on each side or until golden all over.
Tip in the cherry tomatoes with the basil and season with salt and pepper.
Cook, uncovered, over a medium heat for 12 minutes, turning the chicken breasts over halfway through.
Meanwhile, preheat the grill to its highest setting.
Take the pan off the heat and put the mozzarella slices on top of the chicken breasts. Grind over some black pepper and put the pan under the grill for a minute or until the cheese starts to melt.
Pour some sauce onto each plate, top with a piece of chicken and garnish with the extra basil.
(Original recipe from Pronto! by Gino D’Acampo, Kyle Books, 2014.)
Jono & Jules do food & wine 
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