I love fresh mozzarella in any way shape or form I can get it. I love how ooey, gooey it gets when it’s melted on top of pizza or pasta, but I also love it’s creamy, slightly chewy texture when it’s served in a cold caprese salad or let’s face it when I snag a slice on its own as I’m adding it to a dish. I’ve been seeing caprese chicken pop up on Pinterest lately and it got me thinking I should give my own version a try. One of the twists I added was grilling the tomatoes so they got a little charred, softened, and a nice roasted flavor.
It turned out to be a really tasty experiment. And a nice fancy way to dress up chicken. I don’t know about you but we eat so much chicken that it’s nice to have new ways to cook it. I loved the sweet, tangy flavor from the balsamic, the creamy, ooey mozzarella, and the charred roasted tomatoes on top of a perfectly grilled, moist chicken breast. Just thinking about it makes me want to make it again right now.
Here’s what you need:
Preheat your grill to medium-high heat. Place your grill pan on the grill when you start it so it preheats as well. Pound the chicken to an even thickness. Sprinkle both sides with garlic powder (I used Penzey’s roasted garlic powder) and kosher salt.
Prep the toppings. Slice up the tomato, as thick as you want – I used about ¼ inch slices. Chiffonade the basil (that’s just a fancy way of saying cut it into ribbons. I like to stack the leaves, roll them up, and then slice the roll). And slice the mozzarella – unless you buy one of these neat pre-sliced logs like I did. I’d say the tomato and mozzarella are about equal thickness.
Now you’re going to want to put both the chicken and the tomatoes on the grill at the same time. The chicken is going to cook for about 8 minutes total and the tomatoes about 6.
Flip the tomatoes and chicken after about 4 minutes. I realize this means the tomatoes will cook more on one side then the other but I want to keep the lid on the grill as much as possible to keep the heat in.
When there are about 2 minutes left on the chicken, drizzle it with balsamic vinegar glaze.
Top with a few slices of fresh mozzarella.
Place the grilled tomatoes on top.
Cover and allow to cook until the mozzarella starts to melt, about a minute or so.
Remove from the grill and top with basil. Serve with a salad for a light summer/early fall meal.
- 1 chicken breast
- Garlic powder
- Kosher salt
- Roma tomato, cut into ¼ inch slices
- Fresh mozzarella, 3 slices
- Balsamic glaze, for drizzling
- Fresh basil, cut into a chiffonade – about 3-4 leaves
- Preheat the grill over medium-high heat. Place veggie basket on the grill while heating
- Pound the chicken to an even thickness. Season with garlic powder and kosher salt.
- Grill the chicken and tomatoes for about 4 minutes. Flip. Grill for another 2 minutes. Drizzle chicken with balsamic glaze. Top with mozzarella slices and grilled tomatoes. Grill for another minute or two until the cheese begins to melt and the chicken is cooked through.
- Remove from the grill. Top with basil. Serve with a salad.
[…] that along the inside of my bread. All I really know about the creation this panini is that I made grilled caprese chicken the night before and happened to have leftover cheese and tomatoes which next day were just begging […]