Hasselback Chicken

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Stuffed with cheese, bacon or ham, pickled jalapenos and sprinkled with seasoning, this Hasselback Chicken recipe is a super fun and delicious way to serve chicken breasts!  Let your imagination lead the way with your choice of cheese and meat and you can even swap out the jalapenos for roasted bell peppers or sun-dried tomatoes if you prefer!

What is Hasselback Chicken?

The term hasselback originally referred to a method of preparing potatoes and was invented at a restaurant in Sweden called Hasselbacken.   Whole potatoes were sliced in thin, even layers but not cut all the way through so that the potato was still held together.  This created more surface area while the potato was baked and also lent itself to being able to stuff the individual layers with more seasonings or other ingredients.

For this recipe I’m applying that hasselback method to chicken, wherein we’re going to slice multiple layers into the chicken breasts without cutting all the way through, and then stuffing each layer with a delicious combination of cheese, bacon, and pickled jalapenos.  Then we’re going to sprinkle the chicken breasts with some seasonings and then bake them in the oven for.  Serve the hasselback chicken with a salad or veggie of choice for a fabulous low-carb meal or, if you want to bulk it up, add a carb of your choice on the side.  Great options include roasted potatoes, mashed potatoes, or seasoned rice.

Feel free to change things up with your choice of cheese and instead of bacon you can also use Canadian bacon or smoked ham.  And if you don’t like heat you can swap out the pickled jalapenos for roasted red bell peppers or sun dried tomatoes and add a basil leaf in each slit.  Let your imagination be your guide!

Hasselback Chicken Recipe

As mentioned above, feel free to change things up with your choice of cheese and instead of bacon you can also use Canadian bacon or smoked ham.  And if you don’t like heat you can swap out the pickled jalapenos for roasted red bell peppers or sun dried tomatoes and add a basil leaf in each slit.  Let your imagination be your guide!

Preheat the oven to 400 F.  Cutting at a slight angle, cut 6 slits into each chicken breast, making sure not to cut all the the way through (the breast should remain attached at the bottom by roughly a thickness of 1/4 inch).  Sprinkle each chicken breast with some salt and pepper or Seasoned Salt (see recipe for homemade) or all-purpose seasoning of choice (Creole Seasoning makes another good choice for this flavor combo).  If the seasoning you’re using doesn’t contain salt, sprinkle some salt over each chicken breast.  Cut each piece of bacon, Canadian bacon, or smoked ham (whichever you are using) in half. Place a piece of cheese into each slit followed by a half slice of the meat (folded in half to fit) and a pickled jalapeno slice (check out our recipe for homemade Pickled Jalapenos).  

Transfer the chicken breasts to a lightly greased casserole dish and bake until the an instant read thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the chicken breast registers 165 F, roughly 20-25 minutes.

Serve the hasselback chicken with a green salad or veggie of choice for a fabulous low-carb meal or, if you want to bulk it up, add a carb of your choice.  Great options include roasted potatoes, mashed potatoes, or seasoned rice.

Can You Freeze Hasselback Chicken?

Yes!  You can assemble the uncooked chicken and freeze it raw.  Then you can simply pop the frozen chicken into the oven.  No need to thaw.  To freeze the hasselback chicken place the assembled chicken breasts on a lined backing sheet and place them in the freezer for a few hours until frozen through.  Then you can transfer the chicken to freezer containers where they will keep for up to 3 months.

When you’re ready to bake them, preheat the oven to 400 F and bake the frozen chicken for about 40 minutes or until cooked through.

Enjoy!

For more delicious chicken dishes be sure to try my:

• Chicken Piccata 
• Jerk Chicken
• Chicken Paprikash
• Mongolian Chicken
• Chicken Marsala
• Pollo a la Brasa 
• Chicken Tikka Masala
• Tandoori Chicken