If you’re at a loss for “what to make for dinner tonight,” give this easy-does-it recipe for Skillet Chicken with Goat Cheese Sauce a try. It’s hearty, healthy, kid friendly, and it takes the stress out of mealtime.
I adapted this recipe from Eat, Laugh, Talk: The Family Dinner Playbook.
I love this new cookbook. And if you had to the Show Notes from my podcast this week, you can enter for a chance to win a copy. (U.S. giveaway, only.) The book was written by The Family Dinner Project, and it features tips from real families who’ve discovered the winning formula for making mealtime more meaningful. It also comes packed with 52 weeks of easy recipes, engaging conversation starters, and hilarious games designed to be played at the table. No one will want to get up and leave!
Each chapter or “week” starts with a tip like: Let Everyone Build Their Own Dinners; Put the Kids in Control; It Doesn’t Always Have to be Dinner; and Make it Snack Sized. Those strategies are then followed by recipes, fun games, and conversation starters. All in all, there are hundreds of conversation starters in the book, so if you’re ever at a loss for words, Eat, Laugh, Talk has you covered!
Leaning on a friend or neighbor to take turns shopping, prepping dinner, and host family mealtime sounds like a dream come true, and it’s easier to implement than you may think!
Yes, it’s okay to play games at the dinner table especially when it brings the focus back to that shared family mealtime experience. Talk about a fun way to make mealtime memorable for everyone.
Click the PLAY button above to listen to my podcast episode on Making Family Mealtimes Memorable.
On the show, I spoke to Bri DeRosa from the Family Dinner Project about the book, some of her best family dinner strategies, and recipes like this one.
This recipe is pretty flexible. If you don’t love goat cheese, switch to shredded mozzarella or crumbled feta. If pasta is your jam, cook up some whole wheat penne or rotini and smother it with the saucy chicken.
- 3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
- Six 4-ounce boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
- 4 cloves of garlic, minced
- One 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes Salt and pepper to taste
- 4 to 8 ounces goat cheese
- ½ cup thinly sliced fresh basil
- Heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a deep skillet over medium heat.
- Season the chicken breasts with salt and pepper. Add them to the skillet and cook for 4–5 minutes on each side until golden brown. Remove the browned chicken from the skillet and set aside.
- Add another tablespoon of oil to the skillet. Sauté the garlic for 30 seconds to a minute until fragrant, scraping up any browned bits from the chicken with a spatula or wooden spoon.
- Pour the crushed tomatoes into the pan. Season with a pinch of salt and pepper and stir. Cover and simmer for 5 minutes.
- Remove the lid from the pan and add the chicken and any accumulated juices back into the pan, nestling the chicken down into the sauce. Simmer, uncovered, for 5 minutes.
- Crumble the goat cheese over the chicken and cover the pan. Let it cook for an additional 2 min- utes or so to start melting the goat cheese.
- Remove from heat, stir, and top with fresh basil.
What’s your best tip for gathering your family around the dinner table?
Just found your blog/website. The food looks delicious. I signed up for emails. Then I took a deeper dive into the recipes, bit disappointed with the content. Would you be able to add how many servings a recipe makes in the recipe!? Not very healthy to make a recipe for 4 then 2 people eat it because they couldn’t tell how many people were supposed to be eating the dish.
Most do provide that info. Which recipes in particular are you referring to? Thanks for stopping by!