Roasted Chicken Breast with Goat Cheese and Basil

I'm a little concerned that I may need to rename the blog "3,000 things to do with chicken," but this is amazing and you need to try it. I don't follow a lot of recipes and I only really own one cookbook, but this recipe from Ina Garten's "Barefoot Contessa at Home" cookbook is a must try. It really only involves a couple minutes of prep time but the flavors are amazing. This is a dish that's really simple to make for a few people or for a crowd. I don't generally buy chicken with the skin on, but for this dish the skin keeps the chicken moist, plus, you can always pull the skin off before you eat it and save yourself the extra fat and calories.

Roasted Chicken Breast with Goat Cheese and Basil

serves 4-6

Ingredients:

6 boneless chicken breasts, skin on (I couldn't find completely boneless, but the breasts with ribs worked just fine)

8-10 ounces garlic and herb goat cheese

6 fresh large basil leaves

olive oil

Sea Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Method:

1. Preheat often to 375 degrees.

2. Put the breasts on a sheet pan. Gently loosen the skin from the meat with your fingers, leaving most of it still attached. Cut the goat cheese into 1/2-inch-thick slices and place one or two slices along with a large basil leaf under the skin of each chicken breast. Pull the skin over as much of the meat as possible to keep the chicken from drying out. Rub each piece with a bit of olive oil and sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper. I also added some herbes de provence to compliment the basil and the herbs in the goat cheese.

3. Bake the chicken for 35 to 40 minutes until the skin is browned and the chicken is cooked through.