Hasselback Chicken Recipe

This Hasselback chicken recipe transforms simple ingredients into a beautiful and satisfying dish.

What Is Hasselback Chicken?

You might think the name has something to do with the chicken’s back, but it doesn’t. The name is derived from a similarly prepped dish named ‘Hasselback potatoes’, a staple of a Swedish restaurant in Stockholm called ‘Hasselbacken’.

To make their staple, chefs thinly slice potatoes, but not all the way, to keep the base intact. They are then seasoned and baked. The end result is golden brown perfection on the outside and cooked through evenly on the inside. They also seem to ‘bloom’ in the process, making them pleasing to the eye with their delicate look.

Chicken Hasselback is similarly prepped, but the slices are thicker, and in between each is a ricotta-spinach filling and large bacon slices. Sometimes cherry tomatoes are used as well to lend a nice juicy addition, just as we have in this recipe.

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Is This Recipe Healthy?

This dish is quite healthy, giving you plenty of protein necessary for body growth. It also includes some spinach, a good source of fiber, iron, and other micronutrients.

Still, healthy eating requires a moderate intake of not just calories, but also sodium and saturated fats. As the breasts are packed with lots of ricotta, bacon, and salt, those amounts can exceed the daily recommendations.

We tried our best to use the optimum amount of these ingredients so the dish still tastes as it should but is more health-friendly. Eventually, we hit on the right combination to have something both delicious and with a good-looking nutritional profile:

• 489 calories
• 7.7 g saturated fats
• 567 mg sodium

If you want to learn more about these numbers, our dietary guidelines have all you need.

Main Ingredients

1. Chicken Cut

Chicken breasts are the usual choice for this dish, and the only appropriate one as well. Some people choose a skin-on cut so it turns crispy once cooked, but we just prefer the skinless version.

Also, you will want to pick a large chicken breast, something that weighs around 6 ounces, as it presents better on the plate. If you can’t find any this size, two small ones (3 ounces each) would be fine.

2. Filling Ideas

First, let’s talk cheese: you want something that’s creamy, soft after baking, but not too runny that it gets everywhere. The following tick these boxes: cheddar, mozzarella, cream cheese, ricotta, provolone, and probably more, but we picked ricotta and with good reason.

Ricotta has the perfect texture and aroma to go with spinach. The soft texture of cooked spinach takes the cheese filling to the next level.

In between the slits are also bacon slices, which yield amazing smoky pork flavors. We use raw bacon, as it gets cooked later in the oven, and cut the rashers into large rectangles that fit the chicken.

Finally, we half some cherry tomatoes and have them stuffed, too. There’s the creaminess from spinach-ricotta and the chewiness from bacon, so a juicy element just rounds it off nicely.

3. Seasoning

We gave our chicken a basic flavor blend: onion powder, garlic powder, salt, pepper, paprika, and some Italian seasoning. It’s not an Italian staple, but we just love the fragrance of these herbs so much.

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Complementing Roasted Vegetables

Rich, fulfilling dishes like this one should be lightened with some cooked veg (or salad). We thought potatoes and broccoli would do, so we tossed them with oil and oregano, microwave them first, then put them in the oven to bake away.

For dense root vegetables that might take more than 15 minutes to cook, we often microwave it before baking to save time. You can also achieve this by boiling or steaming the veg but convenience wise, the microwave always wins out.

How to Store, Freeze and Reheat

You can store Hasselback chicken in the fridge for 5 days, but as with dishes made of chicken breasts, we don’t recommend having leftovers. Reheated chicken breast has a dry, tough texture that can be disappointing.

Instead, you can prepare the ingredients beforehand: make the ricotta mixture, slice the tomatoes and cook the bacon. Keep all of these in the fridge and the chicken in the freezer. Once you’ve partially thawed the chicken, the assembly will take just a few minutes, and during the 25 minutes of baking time you have a chance to do other things.

What to Serve With

We round off the beautiful flavors of this dish with a fresh, simple Greek salad and a glass of tangy, aromatic pineapple cucumber juice. They can be put together and ready in about 25 minutes; exactly what your chicken needs in the oven.

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Other Golden Chicken Recipes

Chicken and potatoes, a popular combo that has been well-loved for as long as we can remember. They’re super easy to cook with and pair deliciously together.

These rosemary chicken thighs taste just like they look: savory, chewy, and fragrant. The meat, potato wedges, and asparagus all cook on a single lined sheet, making cleanup a breeze.

Hasselback Chicken

5 from 1 vote

This Hasselback chicken recipe creates exactly what you're looking for in 45 minutes, 25 of which are hands-free. It can fit perfectly into your schedule and put a smile on your face.

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• cook TIME 40 mins
• prep TIME 5 mins
• total TIME 45 mins

• COURSE Main Course
• CUISINE Swedish
• SERVINGS
  4

  servings
• CALORIES 489 kcal

INGREDIENTS

1x2x3x

• 24 oz skinless boneless chicken breasts (about 4 whole)
• 12 oz potatoes (cut into 1-inch cubes)
• 8 oz broccoli (cut into florets)
• 1 1/2 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 tsp dried oregano
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp onion powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• 1/2 tsp Italian seasoning
• 2 oz spinach
• 1 ice bath (1 cup ice, 2 cups water)
• 6 oz ricotta cheese
• 2.5 oz raw bacon (cut into rectangles 1” x 2”)
• 4 oz cherry tomatoes (halved)
• 2 tbsp parsley (chopped)

INSTRUCTIONS

Image instructions

1

In a bowl, toss 12 oz potatoes and 8 oz broccoli with 1 tbsp olive oil and 1/2 tsp dried oregano. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and microwave for 5 minutes. Preheat the oven to 450°F.

2

While they’re cooking. Cut slits in each chicken breast (4 whole in total) with a knife, each 1.5” apart, like so:

3

Rub the chicken with the remaining olive oil (1/2 tbsp) and seasonings: 1/2 tsp garlic powder, 1/2 tsp onion powder, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp ground black pepper, 1/2 tsp paprika, and 1/2 tsp Italian seasoning.

4

Boil some water and blanch 2 oz spinach for about 1 minute, then scoop it out and place into an ice bath. Squeeze to remove excess liquid and give it a rough chop, like so:

5

Mix the spinach with 6 oz ricotta.

6

Stuff this mixture in between the slits on the chicken.

7

Place into each slit 1-2 pieces of raw bacon and 1 half of a cherry tomato. Save the leftover tomatoes in the fridge.

8

Line a baking sheet with parchment. Arrange the stuffed breasts and microwaved vegetables like so, and bake for 20 minutes (at 450°F).

9

Garnish with 2 tbsp parsley and enjoy.

NUTRITION

Nutrition Facts

Hasselback Chicken

Amount Per Serving (1 serving)

Calories 489Calories from Fat 207

% Daily Value*

Fat 23g

35%

Saturated Fat 8g

50%

Polyunsaturated Fat 3g

Monounsaturated Fat 10g

Cholesterol 157mg

52%

Sodium 569mg

25%

Potassium 1347mg

38%

Carbohydrate 22g

7%

Fiber 5g

21%

Sugar 3g

3%

Protein 49g

98%

Vitamin A 2376IU

48%

Vitamin C 72mg

87%

Calcium 163mg

16%

Iron 3mg

17%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.