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The flavor was so good! I loved the balsamic reduction with the basil and the sun-dried tomatoes. This was one of my favorites!
Nichole Kreatschman
Well, I guess chicken and sun dried tomatoes with melty cheese with balsamic drizzle and fresh basil served with a mile-high stack of golden crispy little potato smashers is at least a step in the right direction, right?
These are trying times, and cooking dinner feels, well, maybe to you it feels easy? But to me it feels like it requires monumental effort, physically and mentally and dishes-ly. Easy, minimal, and delicious is the three-way target I’m looking to land on.
Let me give you a brain break. Let me show you a cheat code. Let me present an idea that feels about 10x more fancy than it actually is.
It is called caprese chicken with smashed potatoes.
Here’s how you make it:
You sauté chicken. You top it with sundried tomatoes and cheese and put it in the oven. You garnish it. The end.
For the overachievers among us, or honestly, the people who kind of cannot stop with golden crispy potatoes (PRESENT), I would like to suggest the second most trickster thing in this post after the fake-fancy chicken which is SMASHED POTATOES.
Ideally these work best with the tiny potatoes that can be contained once smashed. But I understand, these are weird times, you might not have tiny potatoes on hand.
In which case I would suggest the exact same method with regular potatoes – with just slightly slower expectations for how they will look. Larger potatoes just want to fall apart a bit more. But does a hungry, tired, semi-moody person care about “falling apart a little bit”, or do they only care about the golden brown salty crispy part? I will leave you to decide as I eat the falling apart remnants of my golden salty crispy potatoes off the baking sheet.
Round out the experience, please. Pour yourself a nice drink in a pretty glass – anything from sparkling water with a squeeze of lemon to a proper glass of red wine – because THE LITTLE THINGS ARE THE BIG THINGS. Always, and especially right now. Let’s make a moment out of this.
Caprese chicken and smashed potatoes and fake-fancy dinner… here you have it. A little pep for your step.
Check Out Our Video For How To Make Caprese Chicken:
Click here to see the step-by-step web story instructions for this recipe!
This recipe was inspired by a super yummy recipe I made a few years ago from Local Crate, a Minnesota-based meal delivery service. ♡ This is my version of it!
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Caprese Chicken with Smashed Potatoes
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 2–4 (I’d suggest 1 chicken breast and 2 potatoes per person) 1x
Description
Seriously good Caprese Chicken with Smashed Potatoes! Chicken and sun dried tomatoes with melty cheese, balsamic drizzle, and fresh basil served with a mile-high stack of golden crispy little potato smashers.
Ingredients
For the Smashed Potatoes:
- 10–12 small red or gold potatoes
- olive oil, garlic powder, salt, and pepper
- fresh parsley or chives
For the Chicken:
- 1 lb. chicken breasts (I like to cut 2 breasts lengthwise into thinner pieces to make a total of 4 pieces)
- olive oil, salt, and pepper
- 6-ish roasted or sun dried tomatoes
- 2 ounces havarti cheese, in small slices (any cheese works – be flexible)
- fresh basil
- balsamic reduction (see notes)
Instructions
- Cooking the Potatoes: Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Cover potatoes with water in a pot. Bring to a boil. Once boiling, set timer for 10 minutes. Remove, drain, and allow to cool slightly.
- Smashing the Potatoes: One at a time, cover the potatoes with a clean dish towel. Mash gently it with your hand, holding it together so it doesn’t fall apart completely. Transfer to a baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle with garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Bake for 10-15 minutes.
- Cooking the Chicken: In an oven-safe skillet, heat a little oil in a skillet over medium heat. Sprinkle the chicken with salt and pepper. Brown on both sides (but it doesn’t have to be cooked through). Top with the sun dried tomatoes and cheese slices. Transfer the pan to the oven and bake for 8-10 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through and cheese is nice and melty.
- Serve: Top the chicken with basil and balsamic reduction. Serve with potatoes. Don’t forget your fancy drink BECAUSE YOU JUST MADE A MOMENT. Yum!
Equipment
Buy Now → 
Buy Now → Notes
The balsamic reduction can be made by simmering about a cup of balsamic vinegar over medium heat in a small saucepan. When the liquid has reduced significantly and coats the back of a spoon, you can remove it from the heat. Voila! Balsamic drizzle for ya.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 35 minutes
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Bake
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition Facts
- Daily value: 22% Total Fat 14.5g
- Daily value: 31% Cholesterol 92.5mg
- Daily value: 35% Sodium 836.4mg
- Daily value: 23% Total Carbohydrate 70g
- Daily value: 31% Dietary Fiber 7.8g
- Sugars 6.7g
- Daily value: 75% Protein 37.7g
- Daily value: 3% Vitamin A 49.1µg
- Daily value: 63% Vitamin C 38mg
Keywords: caprese chicken, chicken and potatoes, smashed potatoes, roasted potatoes, chicken recipe
One More Thing!
This recipe uses a non-stick skillet (a total kitchen essential)! Check out our other kitchen basics here!
Made the smashed potatoes for my parents for Easter. Pre-boiled and smashed them and then drove them to Arizona and baked them for Easter dinner. Parents loved them so much they asked for recipe. Thank you! Super easy and yummy!
oh i want to try this . . . can potatoes be boiled ahead of time and then baked later? Traveling 5 hours to make dinner for parents and trying to do as much prep work ahead of time. Thanks! You’re recipes are always amazing!
My husband thought I had made a gourmet meal last night. We devoured this!! I love the smashed potato idea and they get SO crispy in the oven!
The only semi-odd thing here for me was the flavor of the potatoes with the balsamic reduction. The meal overall pairs well together, but the reduction ran into the potatoes which had garlic seasoning on them…just didn’t work well IMO.
Other than that, we’ll be making this again!!! Next time with baby gold potatoes and havarti (we used mozz).
I tried these dishes last night and they were delicious! The only thing that didn’t come out quite the same for me is my smashed potatoes didn’t have the brown crispiness on top as yours appear. I did turn on the broiler briefly to crispy them up a bit. They were still wonderful! Thank you!
I just made this for dinner tonight and everyone is in love with this dish! So delcious!!
Apologies for the duplicate post. When I hit “post” the first time, the site said I had already posted (which I did not).
So, I rewrote and posted, thinking it was a first-time posting…it wasn’t.
This sounds delightfully delicious! I do have a couple of questions:
(1) Will goat cheese dollops on chicken work well in
baking?
(2) In the balsamic reduction directions, about how
long until the simmering vinegar is ready?
(3) My husband is not a fan of balsamic vinegar.
Is there anything I can sub for the balsamic?
(4) In what order do I do all three (chicken, potatoes
and reduction).
BTW, can you tell I’m a novice “chef”? 😉
This sounds delightfully delicious! I do have a couple of questions:
(1) Will goat cheese dollops on chicken work well?
(2) In the balsamic reduction directions, about how
long until the simmering vinegar is ready?
(3) My husband is not a fan of balsamic vinegar.
Is there anything I can sub for the balsamic?
(4) In what order do I do all three (chicken, potatoes
and reduction).
BTW, can you tell I’m a novice “chef”? 😉
Goat cheese will work just fine! It won’t melt over the chicken, but the cheese will soften and still be delicious! The balsamic reduction should simmer around 10-15 minutes. We’re not sure of a good substitute for balsamic vinegar, but this link might be helpful: https://www.mashed.com/203818/heres-what-you-can-substitute-for-balsamic-vinegar
As for the order, we’d suggest working on the potatoes first. While the potatoes are in the oven, start cooking the chicken. And while the chicken is in the oven, you can make the balsamic reduction. Enjoy!
The flavor was so good! I loved the balsamic reduction with the basil and the sun-dried tomatoes. This was one of my favorites!
So glad to hear this, Nichole!
I made a grilled Shrimp Caprese, same recipe they use at the Olive Garden. My wife got me this cookbook for an early fathers day present. Great blog by the way!! Love your recipes. Here is the link to that cookbook.
https://05345a-xw54l1y6zder53kcr6q.hop.clickbank.net/
This sounds super yummy and I can’t wait to try it! We need a date-night meal around here and this sounds like it will fit the bill! About how many pounds of potatoes do you use for this recipe? And by “small” do you mean the bag of baby potatoes “
small or just the smallest cuties from the you-pick potato bin? Thanks for the idea!
You could do either. We’d guess this would be about 2-3 pounds of baby potatoes or you could pick out 10-12 small red or gold potatoes individually.
So, so good! I’ve made it twice since this recipe was posted and still get requests to make it!
Glad to hear it, Liz!
Jamie Oliver Gad this 2 years ago..
It’s my go to.
Oh this was hilarious. My yellow potatoes were probably a bit bigger so 10 minutes wasn’t long enough to soften then up enough to smash. The first one I tried shot across the kitchen! The skins and counter top made it slick I guess?! I ended up cutting them smaller to go in the oven. Not quite smashed but still very good!
Flying potatoes! 😂 Glad you enjoyed this, Carly!
I just made the chicken (with a different side) and substituted with mozzarella cheese and normal tomatoes for one person who prefers them to the sun-dried I used on the rest. And it was a hit! Everyone loved plus honestly so simple. Thanks!
Glad you enjoyed it!
I would definitely need more than two of those delicious little potatoes! Perhaps a typo? This looks amazing, love all your recipes Lindsay!!
We’d say 2 is about one serving, but we always approve of seconds or third helpings of these potatoes. 😉
can you use sundried tomatoes in oil
Sure!
It has been 9 days since you posted this recipe and we have had the smashed potatoes twice!! These are the best potatoes I have ever had. The whole family loves them and we have been fighting over who gets the leftovers. Thank you for giving us something to look forward to during our lock-down!
Haha! So happy to hear this, Kim!
I needed new recipes to get through
Social Distancing! First time trying your recipes after a friend recommended your site. This was fabulous! Got approval from the entire family-a rarity! Only change was I didn’t have sundried tomatoes on hand and don’t really love them so I roasted a red pepper for the chicken and it turned out great! Thanks!
Roasted red pepper sounds yummy here! Thanks for the tip, Jen!
Made this last night. Grocery store didn’t have any sundried tomatoes so I had to compromise with roasted peppers and the few sundried tomatoes we had left in the house. The whole meal was delicious! Loved the crispy potatoes too! I don’t think there is a recipe of yours I’ve tried and not loved! Thank you!!
So glad you enjoyed this, Hilary!
What a Great Thought! This is a great option for some vegan company I’m having this weekend.
smashed potatoes 🙂 slurrppppppp. I love smashed potatoes but never tried at home before. I am going to try this for sure. and chicken looks awesome too.
Enjoy!
Making this for dinner tonight and going to use mozzarella cheese. Do you suggest soaking the sun-dried tomatoes first?
You should be okay without any soaking.
This is maybe dumb question, but where does one find sun dried tomatoes at the store? Not a thing I have ever looked for but this sounds so yummy!
It depends on the grocery store, but we’ve usually found a jar in the canned vegetables aisle.
Love the mini video for each step! What an awesome new feature!! This sounds delicious and simple. Can’t wait to try it! And oh, those smashed potatoes! Yum!
Enjoy!