Roasted Chicken with Strawberry & Fresh Basil

A succulent roasted chicken dish with strawberry that is bursting of bold flavors. It’s healthy, high in protein and fibers,  and easy to make!

This recipe has been in my drafts for over three years now. I adore fruits with chicken, actually with all savory dishes. I love untypical combos and flavors, as well in life sometimes. Life becomes more exciting when you do untypical things, and let your imagination flow. Sometimes it leads you to unpleasant road, or not so good outcome.

Here, I thought juicy strawberries with roasted chicken would be really good, and of course I’m not the only one who thought of that.  So I told myself, oh someone made it before, and it’s kind of easy recipe, what’s the point of posting a recipe like that? Thinking of the value of my posts and what I can offer YOU my readers, is something I  always consider when I develop my recipes, however I thought myself, they maybe got sick from unknown ingredients or not easy to access ingredients. so here an easy one for you, that is fairly easy, bold, and full of flavors.,

In recipes like this, it’s crucial to get high quality ingredients, because there is nothing here like heavy spices, some sort of cream, or so to cover low quality strawberry or balsamic vinegar. 

Why do you need strawberry in your diet 

I mostly love strawberry in whole form, but red juicy strawberries have more capability and flavors. I love it in a smoothie or a salad or anything else I can think of or can find. 

• It’s low in calories, with good amounts of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants.
• It has Vitamin C more than you need in a day! Also its a good source of magnesium, and folate.
• The real health benefits are coming from antioxidants like antohcyanin, flavonoids.
• It lowers cholesterol too. This study found that, the more strawberries you eat, the more antioxidants your body absorb. 

I’ve discussed chicken a lot on the blog here, because it’s affordable, healthy, convenient, easy to access, and fits with lots of ingredients. 

There are so many health benefits of eating chicken, to mention a few:

• It has high protein quality, that is lean. Also low in calories, and fats relatively.
• Has high tryptophan amount, which helps you sleep, and makes you feel better.
• High in magnesium, and high in zinc that is good for raising testosterone level, and boosting immunity.
• Has high amounts of niacin (especially the breast) which helps the body do natural detoxification and helps lower bad cholesterol, and raise the good cholesterol. 

And I used lots of fruits before , like this mango chicken or this pineapple one, or this orange one, and more recipes of chicken you can find here. 

In this recipe, you can add the strawberries later in the cooking stage, however, it depends on the flavor of strawberry you have. But, I recommend, adding it from the beginning, while it will soften a bit , but it gives natural sweetness and bold flavors, and that’s why you should look for firm ones, so it wont get mushy in the oven. 

You can have pasta here as side as I did, or just plain white Basmati or Jasmine rice, or even mashed potato. 

Enjoy!

Yield: 2

Roasted Chicken with Strawberry & Fresh Basil

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 40 minutes

Total Time: 45 minutes

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Ingredients

• 500 g chicken breast sliced, or flattened.
• 1 small onion juvenile
• 2 Tb balsamic vinegar
• 1 Tb of honey (optional but recommended)
• Basil leaves
• 200 g firm strawberries halved.
• 1 Tb olive oil divided
• Salt and black pepper
• 1 small jalapeno or any chili cut into small pieces and remove seeds (optional)
• For Pasta:
• 200 g boiled pasta , linguine or spaghetti (Gluten free if needed)
• 2-3 garlic cloves crushed.
• 1 Tb of butter
• few leaves of basil smashed in mortal and pestle

Instructions

1. Heat a medium pan on the stove, add 1/2 Tb olive oil or butter, and when it becomes hot, saute the chicken for 3-5 minutes on each side.
2. Put the rest of ingredients (except basil) into a baking dish in the oven and bake at 175 C-350 F for 30-40 min or until the temperature of chicken breasts reaches 165 F .
3. Add basil before 5-10 minutes before it's done.
4. Broil the chicken for 3-5 minutes extra crunchiness.
5. Serve along with pasta, fresh strawberry, and basil leaves.
6. Refrigerate any leftovers