Yogurt Marinated Chicken Breasts
I don’t cook, I bake. Baking makes me excited, it soothes me. Cooking stresses me out. Sadly, cooking needs to be done to eat dinner so that I can eat my delicious baked treats.
I usually get by with eating take out, heating up up a precooked frozen meal, or making mac and cheese, from a box. It’s not that I can’t cook, it’s that I’d rather not. Baking is precision, with exact measurements and temperatures. Cooking is a dash of this, a handful of that, and “cook over medium-high heat”, directions I don’t always respond well to.
It’s high time that I start cooking real food for myself though, so I’m starting to give cooking a shot. My previous attempts at making dinner from scratch have turned out mostly OK—one day I’ll share my beloved Lemon Pasta recipe. Tonight I decided to give a recipe idea a shot.
The inspiration for this recipe came from my mom. When I lived at home, she’d marinate chicken in yogurt to tenderize it, bread it, and bake it. It was always quite tasty. When I cook or bake anything, I tend to take recipes as recommendations, always adapting them to fit what I want. So armed with an idea of what I wanted to make with a bit of guidance from actual recipes, I set out to make my own yogurt marinated oven fried chicken. Was it perfect? No. It cooked it a bit too long which dried it out and it could have had more spices, but at least I learned. Below is my recipe I followed, adapt it to fit what you like!
Yogurt Marinated Baked Chicken Breasts
3-4 chicken breasts, trimmed
1 7-8 oz container of plain yogurt (I used Greek yogurt)
10-15 plain crakers (I used Townhouse)
4-5 one inch slices of Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons dried oregano
Salt and Pepper
Butter
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Pat down the chicken breasts and pound them with the heel of your hand. Try to get the chicken breasts thin and even so they cook evenly. Empty the yogurt into a dish, add about a teaspoon each of salt and pepper, and stir it all together. Add the chicken breasts, cover each breast with yogurt, and marinate for at least 30 minutes, or up to an hour.
While the chicken is marinating, place the crackers, cheese, oregano, salt and pepper in a food processor, pulse until combined and the crackers form small crumbs. Pour crumb mixture into a shallow dish.
Spray a glass baking dish (I used a pie plate) with non stick cooking spray. I also put a few small pieces of butter at the bottom of the dish, to help with browning the chicken (It didn’t really do much). Grab a chicken breast and shake off excess yogurt. Dip in the crumb mixture, covering the entire chicken breast. Place in the glass baking dish. Repeat with the remaining chicken breasts. I also added another small slice of butter on top of each breast before baking which did actually help with the browning process. Bake at 350 degrees until a meat thermometer inserted in to the thickest part of each breast reads 165 degrees, about 45 minutes. Be careful to not over cook, you don’t want to dry out the chicken. Serve as you wish and enjoy!
If you have any questions or comments, leave them below!
