Looking for a delicious and easy week night dinner? You’ve found it. This baked sweet Italian mustard chicken recipe is a weeknight favorite. It’s sweet, savory, juicy, and so delicious. If you’re busy or on the go, you’re going to need to add this to your dinner schedule because everyone is going to love it.
We love baking in our home, whether it’s fish, chicken, or sweets we always seem to have something in our oven. This delicious baked chicken is easy and it’s perfect for meal prepping, especially if you end up with left overs. There isn’t much that goes into it aside from chopping the vegetables before hand.
Seasoning the chicken is really simple, there are only three ingredients and as the chicken bakes, it seasons the vegetables and creates a delicious coating on the outside of the chicken. It’s also kid approved.
Ingredients:
Chicken:
For this recipe I opted for boneless skinless chicken breasts. The ones I used were a medium size. If yours are large you can increase the cook time or slice them in half and cook as usual.
TIP: There are a couple of ways I go about making sure the chicken is super flavorful. The first is marinating. You certainly don’t have to marinate the chicken but if you do, you’ll have that much more flavor. Something else I like to do if I don’t have time to marinate is I take a fork and poke holes in the chicken so when I add the mustard, brown sugar, and Italian dressing mix it seeps into the chicken flavoring the inside even more.
Seasonings
Some of the best recipes are those you don’t have to do much for. Especially when it comes to seasonings, this recipe is super simple because instead of measuring out every spice in your spice cabinet for the perfect blend, you just need an Italian dressing seasoning packet which is already pre-measured and prepared. Added to this is brown sugar. This is a delicious combination that you’ll want to use on everything after you try it. The brown sugar compliments the italian seasoning and also forms a crust on the chicken as it bakes.
The other flavor maximizing ingredient is the dijon mustard. This should be massaged into the chicken before the brown sugar italian mix is added so there’s no clumping. As the chicken bakes, it’ll get juicy, and the vegetables under the chicken will be seasoned as well. Make sure you season both sides of the chicken because there’s nothing worse than unseasoned chicken, am I right?
Vegetables
I might be the strange one here but when it comes to the vegetables, I get very excited. With this recipe you can pretty much choose your favorite vegetables so the recipe is very versatile in that sense. When you choose the vegetables you want to use, I highly recommend you choose ones that cook at similar cook times since you’re placing them all together. For example you could try the following:
- zucchini
- yellow squash
- mushrooms
These are absolutely delicious together and have very similar cook times. Alternatively, if you’re cooking this in the colder months you could opt for the following
- potatoes
- carrots
- Brussel sprouts
- squash
Also keep in mind these take longer to cook so you’ll need to extend the bake time. Continue checking your chicken to make sure they don’t overbake. If they’re done before the vegetables, simply remove the chicken and continue to cook the vegetables until they’re fork tender.
In this recipe, I was looking for some color and serious flavor. I chose to go with a pepper trio and onions. These don’t take very long to cook and cook up very nicely in the oven. Plus when they’re combined with the brown sugar italian seasoning, they become super addicting.
How to make it ahead
If you’re anything like me, you don’t feel like cooking on work nights. Not when there are a lot of other things to be done like spending time with your loved ones. A lot of times when I make this, I prepare it on a Sunday night and eat it that week. It’s easy and convenient.
You’ll need to start by prepping your vegetables by chopping them and placing them in your baking dish. You can grease your baking dish but I don’t find that it’s necessary since the chicken creates so much juice. Next massage your chicken breasts with the dijon mustard and place these over top of the vegetables. Season with your italian and brown sugar mix, flip the chicken, season again, and top with foil. Then place the baking dish in the refrigerator and keep until you’re ready to bake but don’t let it sit for too long.
When the weeknight comes preheat your oven and bake and voila, dinner is ready. You’ve got your meat and vegetables so it’s a nice healthy balance. I can’t wait for you to try this recipe and I hope it saves you time like it did with me.
Sweet Italian Mustard Baked Chicken with Vegetables
Ingredients
- 4 Chicken Breasts
- 3 tablespoons dijon mustard
- 1 0.6 oz packet zesty italian salad dressing mix
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 3 sweet bell peppers roughly chopped
- 1 onion sliced
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees
- Layer your baking dish with your bell peppers and onions
- Massage the 1/4 cup dijon mustard into the chicken on both sides and place the chicken on top of the peppers and onions
- In a small bowl, combine the italian seasoning mix and brown sugar. Place half of the mixture on the chicken. Flip the chicken and coat the other side with the remaining seasoning.
- Place in the oven and cook for 20 minutes, flip the chicken and cook for another 20 minutes until it’s done and the juices run clear.
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