Who loves pepperonis? My kids and my husband love them in our house! I like them, but I wouldn’t say that I love them 🙂 However, I like making food that my kids will eat and my husband will enjoy. While I was pregnant with Azalea, I had a craving for a pepperoni pizza, but I didn’t have all the ingredients for a pizza crust. I DID have pepperoni though! I also had chicken, cheese, and marinara. Thus, the Pepperoni Stuffed Chicken was birthed from a pregnancy craving!
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You will need some chicken breasts cut into strips (I use chickens strips, but I’ve also used chicken breasts also). Next, I like to let mine marinate in Italian dressing just to add a little sour flavor to the chicken. I let them sit in a bag in the fridge for 10-15 minutes in the dressing. You can easily omit this part though!
While those marinate, we can prepare the casserole dish. I like to use an 9×9 because I normally only make three large chicken strips, and those will fit perfectly in the dish. Take some marinara sauce and pour just enough in to coat the bottom of the casserole dish. That’s it! Now, you can preheat the oven to 365 degrees!
When it’s time to start cooking the chicken, I take a sharp knife and cut slits on the back of the chicken strips. This is like a hassle back cut! Next, I take pepperonis and fold them into the chicken slits with my fingers. Then, place the chicken in the casserole dish, sprinkle with seasoning salt, and spoon some marinara over the tops of the chicken. After that, put some mozzarella cheese on the tops.
Once the oven is preheated, place the chicken in the oven for 20 minutes. Wah-lah! You have Pepperoni Stuffed Chicken! It’s a meal my kids love, and it’s simple! If you’d like to add a little more to the chicken, I like to stuff some peppers and onions into the slits with the pepperonis (I’ll do that for my own piece).
Side Dishes
Because the chicken has marinara on it, I like to serve the chicken on top of some spaghetti pasta with marinara sauce. Then, I’ll serve salads and breadsticks along side of that so we get our greens in there too! I’ve also served carrot sticks on the side too when I didn’t have lettuce or tomatoes!
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Pepperoni Stuffed Chicken
Equipment
- 1 8×8 casserole dish
Ingredients
- 3 strips Chicken
- 1 Dash Seasoning Salt
- 1 package Pepperonis I use the turkey pepperonis
- 1-2 Cups Marinara Sauce Kroger's is my favorite
- 1/2 Cup Mozzarella Cheese
- 1/2 Cup Italian Dressing Optional
Instructions
- Pour Italian dressing on chicken to marinate for 10-15 minutes in the fridge. During that time, pour enough marinara sauce at the bottom of your casserole dish to coat the bottom. Use a spoon to smooth it out.
- Preheat the oven to 365 degrees.
- Remove chicken from the fridge. Use a knife to cut slits on the back of the chicken. While the chicken is laying vertically, you will be cutting small slits horizontally on the back of the chicken. Cut as many or as few as desired; most of my strips had 5 slits.
- Next, take one pepperoni at a time and stuff it into the slits on the chicken. I fold my pepperonis in half to make them fit a little better. Then use a dash of seasoning salt over the chicken. Use a spoon to put a light coat of marinara over the chicken, and then sprinkle with mozzarella cheese.
- Put chicken in the oven to bake for 20 minutes or until marinara is bubbling. If you want your cheese to be browned, then 30 minutes might be better.
- Remove from the oven, and serve over some spaghetti pasta. Enjoy!