Creamy Baked Caesar Chicken

This Baked Caesar Chicken Recipe is such an easy dinner to make, yet it is so flavorful! It is a great dinner recipe for any night of the week. Chicken breasts are smothered in a Homemade Caesar style cream sauce and baked tender and perfect. It only takes a handful of simple ingredients and dinner is ready in about 30 minutes. The whole family will love it!

There is nothing better than an easy chicken recipe for dinner! If you love this Creamy Caesar Chicken Bake you will also love this Baked Artichoke Chicken Salad and Caesar Salad Dressing!

Why This Recipe Is So Great

• Chicken breasts bake up perfectly tender and juicy in just about 30 minutes.
• Instead of sour cream we use a Greek yogurt for a few less calories.
• The Caesar sauce is an easy homemade cream sauce for the chicken. Just stir together the mayo, yogurt, Dijon, garlic, capers, lemon juice, zest and spices.
• Making the sauce is the only real “work” in this recipe.
• Top the chicken with the Caesar sauce and bake- that’s it!

Ingredients

Here are the things you need to make this Caesar Chicken, plus some tips on a few ingredients:

Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts

Chicken breasts can tend to be irregular thickness and can sometimes be very thick. I recommend slicing your chicken breasts in half, lengthwise, so you end up with two thinner chicken breasts. It creates an even cooking chicken, that is done in about 25 minutes at 350 degrees.

If you already have thin or smaller chicken breasts do not worry about this step.

I also highly reccomend using air chilled chicken. Here in the midwest we have a great brand called Smart Chicken. Costco is now carrying air chilled chicken as well.

Buying air chilled chicken is the best way to ensure a great texture and flavor in your chicken. When the chicken is being processed for packaging it is hung in cold rooms to “air chill”, instead of the old method of being dunked in chlorinated water baths.

Mayo

Mayonnaise is the base for the Caesar sauce so make sure to buy a quality mayo. We love Hellmann’s. I know that Duke’s is also a great brand.

I have also purchased Aldi Mayo and it is a great dupe for Hellmann’s!

Greek Yogurt

Greek yogurt is a great base for this Caesar Chicken recipe. It makes the sauce creamy!

You can also sub in sour cream.

Capers

Capers are the edible flower bud of a caper bush. They used as a seasoning or garnish, especially in Mediterranean cooking. The capers are usually consumed salted or pickled.

In this case you will get pickled capers, they are found in the same aisle as olives at the grocery store.

Lemon

You will need the juice and the zest of the lemon. I highly recommend that you zest the lemon before juicing!

Step by Step Picture Instructions

There are really just two parts to this Caesar Chicken recipe- making the Caesar sauce and baking the chicken, so let’s get started:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

In a mixing bowl measure out the Greek yogurt, mayo, Dijon mustard, fresh garlic, lemon zest, lemon juice, capers, salt & pepper. Whisk it all together until it is well combined.

Remove about ⅓ of the Caesar sauce to a separate bowl and save for serving.

Pro Tip: If you have really thick chicken breasts go ahead and cut them in half, lengthwise, giving you two thinner breasts.

Season both sides of the chicken with a little salt & pepper.

Add about 3 tablespoon of the Caesar sauce to the bottom of your baking dish.

Place your chicken breasts on top of the sauce in the baking dish. Pour the remaining Caesar sauce over the top of the chicken.

Pop into the oven, uncovered, for 25-30 minutes until the chicken reaches an internal temperature of 165 degrees at it’s thickest part.

We highly recommend using a Thermoworks Thermapen in your kitchen to gage the temperature of all proteins!

Turn the oven on to broil for a final 2 minutes, until the top is a light golden brown in spots.

Make Ahead

You can absolutely prep this recipe a couple days ahead.

Make the Caesar Cream Sauce and pop it in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 2 days.

Cut and season the chicken breasts and also keep in the fridge.

When it is time to eat just assemble the recipe in a baking dish and pop in the oven.

Serving

Serve your Baked Caesar Chicken hot, with the additional sauce on the side.

Serve with mashed potatoes (or instant pot mashed potatoes), lemon herb rice, rice pilaf or risotto, and a green veggie like roasted broccoli, roasted asparagus or green beans.

Recipe Tips

• Zest the lemon before you squeeze the juice.
• Cut your thick chicken breast in half, lengthwise, giving you 2 thinner chicken breasts.
• Buy good quality chicken, it makes a difference! Look for an “air chilled” chicken, we like Smart Chicken.
• Use good quality mayonnaise! We like Hellmann’s.

More Delicious Chicken Recipes!

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This recipe was inspired by the Barefoot Contessa recipe for Caesar Swordfish.