Nicola's Italian Style Chicken and Polenta

Introducing the lovely Nicola, for this weeks guest recipe on Kids Tea Tuesdays! Nicola’s blog ‘Mummy to Dex‘ follows her parenting journey since the birth of her eight month old son, Dexter. Her blog shares recipes, experiences and reviews so please pop over and have a look! Nicola’s sharing a tasty chicken and polenta recipe with us today and I, for one, don’t often use polenta, so will be giving this one a go:

We’ve been baby led weaning for five months now and one of the main benefits of it is that Dex can eat whatever we are having for tea. This makes life so much easier for me. It is important to my husband and I that we impart our love for food onto Dex. We love to travel the world trying different cuisines as we go and we would love Dex to have the same appreciation for wonderfully cooked and loving made meals.

One of my favourite recipes to share as a family is my Chicken and Polenta recipe. More often than not, when I tell people we are having this for tea, they look at me quizzically and ask me what on earth polenta is. It is in fact Italian ground corn which can purchased either as cornmeal or ready boiled and solidified ready to be grilled or oven cooked.

This recipe uses other quintessential Italian ingredients like fresh basil, parmesan cheese and juicy cherry tomatoes. It’s a really flavourful and summery dish, perfect for the lighter evenings which are now upon us.

Ingredients (serves a family of three, 2 adults and a very hungry baby):

Pack of 500g readymade Polenta
2 chicken breasts
2 cloves of garlic, diced
100g cherry tomatoes
5 fresh basil leaves (can substitute for dried basil)
Olive oil
60g parmesan cheese
Pinch chilli flakes

Method:

Preheat the oven to 220C and prepare a baking tray by lining it with foil. Grease it with a little olive oil.
Slice the polenta into thin chunks and place them on the baking tray creating a bottom layer.
Throw a dash of olive oil over the polenta and coat evenly with a brush.
Slice the cherry tomatoes in halve and scatter on top of the polenta along with the diced garlic, chilli flakes and basil leaves.

Place the chicken breasts on top of the polenta and tomatoes and add another drizzle of olive oil over each. I like to place a small piece of foil over the chicken breasts loosely to avoid them drying out.
Bake in the oven for 15 minutes, remove the foil covering the chicken and grate parmesan over the polenta and chicken and bake for a further five minutes.
Ensure chicken is thoroughly cooked. (Slice with a knife and check there are no pink bits and the juices run clear)
Serve alongside a green salad and breadsticks or steamed green veg.

Enjoy your Italian Style chicken and polenta!

If you’d like to see more from Nicola, you can also find her on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter & Pinterest

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Nicola's Italian Style Chicken and Polenta