Baked Garlic Chicken & Mozzarella With Pasta * Fazoli's Copy

Debber's Note:

After dinner with Mom at Fazoli's, I altered a recipe from Taste of Home's "Country Chicken" cookbook, and this is the amazingly excellent result. Great for dinner parties and delicious for a week-night supper with the family all around the table!

• Total Time: 1 hrs
• Prep Time: 30 mins
• Cook Time: 30 mins

Ingredients:

Serves: 8-12

Yield: 1.0 13x9 pan

• 2 tablespoons olive oil , divided
• ½ cup biscuit mix
• 2 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese
• 1 teaspoon basil
• 1 teaspoon oregano
• ½ teaspoon garlic powder
• ¼ teaspoon pepper
• 4 boneless chicken breast halves
• 1 quart home-made tomato sauce
• 1 (28 ounce) can spaghetti sauce
• 3 -5 garlic cloves , minced (or pressed)
• 3 cups shredded mozzarella cheese , divided
• 12 ounces linguine , cooked & drained (or fettucini)
• ½ cup parmesan cheese (set aside for later)

Directions:

1. Preheat frying pan to medium high; preheat oven to 350. Grease 13x9 pan with 1 T. of the olive oil.
2. In a medium bowl, combine biscuit mix, Parmesan, basil, oregano, garlic and pepper.
3. Pull "tenders" from breast halves. Dredge all pieces in the biscuit mixture; pressing it on as necessary.
4. Add remaining oil to hot frying pan, and brown the chicken pieces, turning to brown all sides. Remove pan from heat.
5. While meat is browning, mix tomato and spaghetti sauces; add garlic & more herbs if you wish. (I'm very heavy-handed with the basil & oregano.).
6. Spread a layer of cooked pasta over the bottom (about 1/3 of total pasta) of the 13x9 pan. Sprinkle with 1/4 of the Mozzarella cheese. Spread about a cup of the sauce over this. Repeat twice. (You should have about a cup of cheese left.)
7. Lay the chicken pieces over the last layer of pasta-cheese-sauce. Pour the remaining sauce over the top of the meat, sprinkle on the remaining Mozzarella.
8. Pop in the oven for 30 minutes; then sprinkle on reserved Parmesan cheese, bake for 10 more minutes.
9. SERVE: A small green salad and a few slices of crisp apple or orange or a handful of grapes are delicious accompaniments.
10. PLANNED OVERS #1: Whatever meat is left, cut into bite-size pieces, mix thoroughly into remaining pasta, cheese and sauce. At the next meal, you may need to add a few drops of water or sauce to juice it up, but reheated--this works beautifully.
11. PLANNED OVERS #2: If no meat is left-over, spread pasta in the bottom of a greased casserole, lay some pepperoni slices over the top, sprinkle with a bit of Cheddar cheese, and bake until bubbly. Sounds like SUPPER!
12. SUBSTITUTIONS: Add some chili powder to the sauce (try some salsa in there), minced (dried) onions, lots of black olives, and you have a Taco-y flavored dish instead!

Reviews

[mom_of_4]

This was great!! Next time I will cook the pasta for only 1/2 the time suggested on the package to avoid the pasta being too mushy after baking it in the oven. All in all, I thought it tasted pretty good. I did not have biscuit mix, so I used a pancake mix and that worked really well. Next time I will try adding a can of diced tomatoes.

[Sydney Mike]

There were just the 2 of us so I cut this recipe in half & still had plenty to share with a neighbor couple! No homemade tomato sauce here (so used store-bought), but did have some homemade pasta sauce, & pretty much followed your recipe for a wonderfully satisfying chicken main dish! Couldn't have been better! Thanks for sharing the recipe! [Made & reviewed in I Recommend recipe tag]

[Catnip46]

I did not have any spaghetti sauce on hand so I used my home canned tomato sauce and a can of tomato paste.I put the oregano and basil into the sauce to give it some taste instead of the breading mix but added paprika to the breading mix. I had some celery and onions I wanted to use up so I saute that along with the minced garlic then added to sauce. Simmered the sauce for an hour or two and then proceed with the rest of the recipe. Yum good! Thanks for posting.