There's nothing better than a simple chicken dinner, and this easy Roasted Red Pepper Chicken is one of my favorites. The roasted red pepper sauce is high in protein and vitamin C and it also happens to taste delicious. The chicken is moist, tasty, and perfect served with pasta, potatoes, or salad.
We're roasting our own red bell peppers for this recipe because I love the flavour they provide, but if you've only got jarred roasted red bell peppers, then that works too!
If you've got some leftover roasted red bell peppers, then why not make my roasted red pepper hummus, my roasted red pepper pasta sauce, or for those of you with some leftover fresh bell peppers, check out my stuffed peppers with ground beef and rice with taco-inspired vibes!
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About Emily's Recipe
If you're new here, hi! I'm Emily - a recipe developer, food content creator, and cookbook author! Thanks for stopping by to check out my Roasted Red Pepper Chicken recipe. I really hope you enjoy it and please do let me know in the comments if you give it a go!
If you'd like to join a community of food lovers, just subscribe to my newsletter for recipes, cooking tips, and foodie chats. Now, let me tell you a bit more about this recipe...
Texture: the roasted red pepper sauce is smooth and the chicken is moist.
Taste: sweet roasted red pepper with creamy cottage cheese. You've also got a hint of basil in the sauce. The chicken is slightly golden on the outside, giving a depth of flavour, seasoned to perfection with salt and pepper.
Ease: it's a straightforward recipe, you just have a few steps to it. 1. roasting the red peppers 2. blending the sauce, and 3. cooking the chicken in the sauce.
Top Tips: 1. you want the slight charred black bits on the red pepper, they provide loads of flavour. 2. wrap your garlic bulb in foil to help it bake and go all soft. 3. don't overcook the chicken as this will make it dry.
Would I make this again? yes, it's a very versatile chicken dish that can be served with potatoes, pasta, salad, anything you fancy!
Ingredients and Substitutions
Red pepper: we're using fresh red bell peppers instead of other colours (green is too savoury), you could use yellow bell peppers if you'd like! Alternatively, you could use jarred roasted red peppers if you'd like to skip the roasting step.
Garlic: we're roasting a whole bulb of garlic, and it's delicious. It's definitely not too garlicky so don't worry about that. If you don't want to roast the garlic, then feel free to use ½ teaspoon garlic granules in the blended sauce.
Parmesan: this is optional but it gives the sauce a lovely cheesy flavour.
Cottage cheese: cottage cheese contains 11g protein per 100g which is a great boost in a simple pasta sauce. If you don't want to use cottage cheese, feel free to use the same amount of mascarpone, ricotta, or cream.
Paprika: this just adds a nice extra kick of flavour.
Basil: fresh basil is what we're using in this recipe. I wouldn't recommend using dried basil. If you don't have basil, use fresh parsley.
Balsamic vinegar: this balances out the acidity of the dish, giving the roasted red pepper pasta sauce a bit of a tang. Feel free to omit if you don't have it.
Olive oil: good quality olive oil gives you a lovely freshness. Feel free to omit or replace with water!
Chicken: we're using chicken breast for this recipe but you can use chicken thighs if you like!
The full list of ingredients and quantities is at the bottom of this blog in the recipe card!
Step by step instructions with photos
Step 1: Preheat the oven to 200C/390F. Place your chopped red bell peppers in a tray. Wrap the bulb of garlic in foil with some olive oil, salt, and pepper, and place in the tray. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Toss and then roast for 25 minutes.
Step 2: Once your red peppers are cooked and slightly charred around the edges add to your blender and squeeze the garlic out of the bulb. Next, add the cottage cheese, paprika, basil, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, parmesan, salt and pepper. Blend until smooth.
Step 3: Once your roasted red pepper pasta sauce is smooth, taste and season according to your preference.
Step 4: Place a frying pan (that has a lid) on medium heat and drizzle with olive oil. Add in the chicken breasts and season with salt and pepper. Fry on each side for 4 minutes until golden on each side but not fully cooked. Then, add in the butter and stir it around once melted.
Step 5: Transfer the sauce into the pan and add on the lid of your pan. Bring up to the boil and then reduce to low heat and leave to simmer for 10 minutes until the chicken is cooked through.
Step 6: Once the chicken is cooked through and the sauce has thickened slightly, serve up with grated parmesan, sprinkles of basil, salt, and pepper. Enjoy with potatoes, pasta, or salad!
What to do with leftovers
Storage: once the roasted red pepper chicken has cooled, transfer into containers and store in the fridge for up to 3 days.
Freezing: you can totally store this in the freezer. Don't forget to label your containers with contents and date! Store in the freezer for up to 3 months. Leave to defrost/thaw in the fridge overnight before reheating.
Reheating: I don't know if this is just me, but reheating chicken in the microwave tastes weird...so I never reheat it in the microwave haha. But you do you! I would rather transfer the chicken to a pan with the sauce and place a lid on the pan, and reheat the chicken on low heat until piping hot.
FAQs
For sure! The flavour will differ slightly but it's a quick and easy replacement!
I love serving this dish with mashed potato, roasted potatoes, or fries. It would also go really well with pasta. For something a bit lighter, I'd serve this with a kale balsamic salad.
For sure! This would go really well if you added cubed aubergine/eggplant in with the chicken, broccoli, or chickpeas.
More recipes you might enjoy!
If you tried this Roasted Red Pepper Chicken recipe or any other recipe on my website, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the 📝 comments below. Thank you!
Easy Roasted Red Pepper Chicken
Ingredients
For the roasted red pepper sauce
- 3 red bell peppers roughly chopped
- 1 garlic bulb slice the top off to reveal the garlic bulbs
- 300 g cottage cheese
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 30 g parmesan grated
- 10 g fresh basil plus more for garnish
- 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- salt and pepper
For the chicken
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 tablespoon salted butter
- 4 chicken breasts
- salt and pepper
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 200C/390F. Place your chopped red bell peppers in a tray. Wrap the bulb of garlic in foil with some olive oil, salt, and pepper, and place in the tray. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Toss and then roast for 25 minutes.
- Once your red peppers are cooked and slightly charred around the edges add to your blender and squeeze the garlic out of the bulb. Next, add the cottage cheese, paprika, basil, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, parmesan, salt and pepper. Blend until smooth.
- Once your roasted red pepper pasta sauce is smooth, taste and season according to your preference.
- Place a frying pan (that has a lid) on medium heat and drizzle with olive oil. Add in the chicken breasts and season with salt and pepper. Fry on each side for 4 minutes until golden on each side but not fully cooked. Then, add in the butter and stir it around once melted.
- Transfer the sauce into the pan and add on the lid of your pan. Bring up to the boil and then reduce to low heat and leave to simmer for 10 minutes until the chicken is cooked through.
- Once the chicken is cooked through and the sauce has thickened slightly, serve up with grated parmesan, sprinkles of basil, salt, and pepper. Enjoy with potatoes, pasta, or salad!
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