The Olive Backyard Hen Margherita is a straightforward hen recipe to make and it’s good for a weeknight dinner. Tender hen breasts topped with mozzarella and pesto with a buttery lemon garlic sauce and tomatoes is actually an unbelievable Italian dish.
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About Olive Backyard Italian Kitchen Restaurant
Folks love the Olive Backyard with its home-style Italian meals. In actual fact, the vast majority of Individuals will inform you they like to “mangia italiano” — or eat Italian. I’m wondering in regards to the minority – they only don’t know what they’re lacking!
When you’ve eaten on the Olive Backyard, you’ll at all times crave the restaurant’s freshly made pasta sauces and its well-known breadsticks.
Enjoyable Truth: Somebody has estimated that Olive Backyard serves about 700 million breadsticks per 12 months. Their signature starters are baked in a whole lot of batches every day and delivered recent to each Olive Backyard restaurant; the breadsticks, just like the chain’s soups and sauces, are by no means frozen.
Do you know you can make Olive Backyard’s well-known breadsticks at residence? Get the Olive Backyard breadsticks recipe.
Olive Backyard Hen Menu
The Olive Backyard caters to everybody’s love of hen by serving up a number of scrumptious hen dishes. Olive Backyard’s Hen Margherita combines grilled hen breasts with a pleasant medley of mozzarella cheese, recent tomatoes, basil pesto, and a lemon garlic butter sauce. It’s served with Parmesan garlic broccoli.
This dish is so pleasurable as a result of it combines many shiny and vibrant flavors. Full your meal with a facet serving of pasta.
Why do they name it Margherita? Right here’s the Story
Legend has it that in 1889, Queen Margherita, whereas staying in Naples, grew uninterested in the French connoisseur meals that was the usual delicacies served to European royalty on the time. The queen summoned the well-known pizza-maker, Raffaele Esposito, and instructed him to bake her three pizzas with totally different toppings.
She wasn’t eager on the one with garlic (pizza marinara) or the one with anchovies (pizza Napoli). Nonetheless, she completely liked the pizza with tomato sauce, mozzarella, and a sprig of basil.
Esposito instantly named his invention after the queen – and the now-famous Margherita pizza was born. This dish has the elements of the pizza mixed with hen for a flavorful entree.
What Makes This Recipe So Distinctive
The grilled Hen Margherita Olive Backyard serves relies on the traditional pizza recipe of the identical title. It’s possible you’ll suppose this dish is only a lighter model of Hen Parmesan, but it surely has a taste all its personal.
What Makes This the Recipe for Hen Breast You Should Attempt
It’s the freshness of this dish that basically stands out. The mix of shiny flavors from the ripe, juicy grape tomatoes, Italian dressing, lemon juice, and basil pesto sauce performs off the richness of the mozzarella splendidly.
The style is somewhat sophisticated however bringing the dish to the desk isn’t. With a complete cooking time of solely half-hour, it is a good weeknight recipe so as to add to your rotation.
Elements You Will Want for Grilled Hen With Mozzarella
To make Hen Margherita, you’ll want:
- Hen breasts
- Italian salad dressing
- Olive oil
- Basil
- Pesto – store-bought or home made
- Garlic, minced
- Butter
- Lemon juice
- Mozzarella
- Contemporary Grape tomatoes
For home made pesto you’ll want:
- Contemporary basil leaves
- Garlic cloves
- Pine nuts
- Further virgin olive oil
- Salt
- Grated parmesan cheese
- Grated romano cheese
Ingredient Notes
Use skinless and boneless hen breasts for this recipe.
Sliced mozzarella cheese works positive on this dish, however utilizing recent mozzarella will provide you with higher taste.
Grape tomatoes are preferable for his or her candy and tangy taste, however you should utilize any ripe tomato you have got readily available.
How To Make Hen Margherita
To cook dinner Olive Backyard grilled hen with tomatoes and cheese:
- Gently pound the hen till it’s a good thickness. A great way to do that with out making a multitude is by placing one hen breast at a time inside a sealing bag and utilizing the flat facet of a meat tenderizer to pound it.
- After flattening all of the hen, return the breasts to the bag and add the Italian dressing. Seal the bag and provides it a very good shake to coat the hen. Marinate for about thirty minutes after which take away the hen and pat dry. You are able to do the primary two steps as much as the day earlier than and maintain the marinated hen coated with plastic within the fridge.
- Preheat the oven to 350 levels F.
- Place a forged iron skillet over medium-high warmth. Earlier than including the olive oil, wait a couple of minutes for the skillet to get sizzling.
- Pat the flattened hen breasts dry with a paper towel and saute them till flippantly brown, about 7 to eight minutes per facet. Switch the hen to a baking dish and put it within the oven.
- Whereas the hen is cooking, soften the butter over low warmth in a small pan. Add the garlic and cook dinner for 30 seconds earlier than turning off the warmth. Stir within the lemon juice.
- When the hen is cooked, put it within the skillet with the lemon garlic butter sauce. Cowl the hen with one or two slices of mozzarella cheese, and add the tomatoes to the pan.
- Return the hen to the oven till the cheese melts and colours barely.
- Whereas the hen is cooking, thinly slice the basil.
- Take away the hen from the oven and canopy it with pesto.
- Garnish the grilled hen with sliced basil and serve.
The best way to Make Basil Pesto
It’s straightforward to make pesto in a meals processor. Listed here are the steps:
- Place basil, garlic, pine nuts, olive oil, salt, parmesan, and romano cheese within the meals processor bowl.
- Course of till you have got a easy pesto. It ought to solely take a few minute.
What to Serve with Hen Margherita
The restaurant serves this dish with parmesan garlic broccoli. This dish additionally goes nicely with a easy salad, roasted greens equivalent to asparagus or inexperienced beans, and mushy breadsticks.
How To Retailer Leftover Grilled Hen Margherita
To retailer the leftovers, take away the garnish from the additional grilled hen and wrap it in plastic. You possibly can maintain the hen breasts within the fridge for as much as three days.
Since basil will blacken over time, it’s best to throw it out, however you may refrigerate the lower tomatoes individually in an hermetic container.
The best way to Reheat Grilled Hen With Mozzarella
The easiest way to reheat Olive Backyard grilled hen is within the oven.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Place the hen on a baking tray and sprinkle water across the edges of the baking tray. The water will flip to steam and assist maintain the hen from getting dry.
- Cowl the tray with aluminum foil and bake for about 10 minutes, or till sizzling.
- Garnish with reserved or recent tomatoes and freshly sliced basil.
Extra Olive Backyard Hen Dishes
In addition to this glorious Hen Margherita, the recipe for which is given beneath, you may as well make the next Olive Backyard hen dishes at residence.
I don’t need you ever to expire of Olive Backyard hen recipes that can delight your loved ones.
Favourite Italian Recipes with Hen
Take a look at extra of my straightforward Italian recipes and the very best Olive Backyard recipes right here on CopyKat!
Copycat Olive Backyard Hen Margherita
Hen breasts, mozzarella cheese, pesto, and tomatoes make for an important weeknight dinner.
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Servings: 4
Energy: 870kcal
Elements
- 2 kilos hen breasts 4 parts
- 1 cup Italian salad dressing or your favourite marinade
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- ½ cup basil pesto
- 2 teaspoons minced garlic
- 6 tablespoons butter
- 1½ tablespoons lemon juice
- ½ pound sliced mozzarella 1 slice for each bit of hen
- 1 cup grape tomatoes
- ¼ cup recent basil leaves sliced skinny
Basil Pesto
- 1 cup recent basil leaves
- 3 cloves garlic
- 2 tablespoons pine nuts
- ⅓ cup further virgin olive oil
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup grated parmesan cheese
- ¼ cup grated romano cheese
Directions
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Preheat the oven to 350°F.
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Pound hen out between two sheets of plastic wrap. This can even out the thickness of the hen, and it’ll make the hen cook dinner extra evenly.
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Place the hen breasts right into a gallon-sized ziptop bag. Add Italian dressing marinade, and permit the hen to marinate for no less than half-hour earlier than cooking.
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Wash the grape tomatoes and set them apart.
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Warmth a few tablespoons of olive oil in a big forged iron skillet over medium-high warmth.
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Add the hen and cook dinner for 7 to eight minutes on both sides, or till the hen is sort of executed (it’s going to proceed to cook dinner within the oven), take away the hen from the skillet and place it on a plate or baking dish.
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Add butter, minced garlic, and lemon juice to the skillet. Prepare dinner till the butter has melted.
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Add the hen again to the skillet with the lemon butter sauce.
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Place a slice of mozzarella on high of the hen.
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Add the tomatoes to the skillet.
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Place the hen within the oven, and bake till the cheese begins to soften and brown. This could take 7 to 10 minutes.
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Add a tablespoon or two of pesto on high of the mozzarella cheese.
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Serve garnished with recent basil if desired.
Diet
Energy: 870kcal | Carbohydrates: 25g | Protein: 66g | Fats: 54g | Saturated Fats: 22g | Ldl cholesterol: 237mg | Sodium: 2177mg | Potassium: 1003mg | Fiber: 0g | Sugar: 19g | Vitamin A: 1990IU | Vitamin C: 10.7mg | Calcium: 362mg | Iron: 1.4mg