September 3, 2020

Halloumi Chicken with Tomatoes and Mint Sauce

Name: Halloumi Chicken with Tomatoes and Mint Sauce
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 22 min
Total time: 32 min
Yield: 2
Ingredients: 1 lb thin chicken breasts or cutlets; 8 oz halloumi cheese; 2 cups cherry tomatoes, cut in half; Olive oil spray; Salt and pepper; 1/3 cup fresh mint, finely chopped; 3 tbsp olive oil; 2 cloves garlic; 1/3 lemon, juiced; 1/2 tsp flaky sea salt

Recipes, Dinner, Weeknight Meals

This halloumi chicken with tomatoes is a super easy one pan recipe for weeknights!

Halloumi Chicken with Tomatoes and Mint Sauce

So… I’ve created a monster. A halloumi monster, that is ? To give you a little bit of backstory, Adam and I went to Helsinki, Finland back in 2018 and while we were there I made him go to a very trendy instagrammable restaurant called Yes Yes Yes. They ended up having the most incredible food, including halloumi fries with a yogurt sauce, pomegranate seeds, and fresh herbs. As soon as we bit into the salty and slightly squeaky pieces of cheese, we were obsessed. And now he requests halloumi all the time.

Since then, we look for halloumi on menus whenever we eat out, and I’ve even recreated those fries at home. But since eating a plate of air fried cheese with yogurt sauce on it isn’t the healthiest thing to do, I’m always brainstorming other ways to use it. We’ve realized that it’s really great to just pan fry or grill a piece or two to go with whatever protein we made for dinner… and then it struck me. If we’re just going to end up eating it in the same bite anyway, what if I baked chicken and halloumi at the same time? Kind of like a caprese chicken… but with a twist!

Caprese would typically include basil, mozzarella, and tomatoes – so I figured we’d keep the tomatoes and swap the mozzarella for halloumi. Then, instead of basil, I remembered a mint sauce that my Mom and Nana both used to make with grilled chicken. It’s basically just lots of fresh mint, garlic, olive oil, and lemon. Super fresh and SUPER flavorful. And thus, halloumi chicken with tomatoes and mint sauce was born!

How to Make Halloumi Chicken with Tomatoes and Mint Sauce

Ingredients

1 lb thin chicken breasts or cutlets
8 oz halloumi cheese
2 cups cherry tomatoes, cut in half
Olive oil spray
Salt and pepper
1/3 cup fresh mint, finely chopped
3 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic
1/3 lemon, juiced
1/2 tsp flaky sea salt

Step One

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Step Two

Pat your chicken dry and season generously with salt and pepper on both sides.

Step Three

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and spray with olive oil spray. Lay chicken in the middle.

Step Four

Cut the halloumi into 1/4 inch thick slices. Lay 3 slides on top of each piece of chicken.

Step Five

Cut tomatoes in half and spread them around the chicken. Season with salt and pepper. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes.

Step Six

While that is cooking, finely chop fresh mint and garlic. Add both to a bowl with olive oil, lemon juice, and salt. Stir to combine.

Step Seven

After 15 minutes, change the oven to broil (high) and cook the chicken and tomatoes for another 5-7 minutes. Every oven is different on broil, so do not walk away! Check in on it each minute, and take it out when the cheese is golden on top.

Step Eight

Serve your chicken and tomatoes on a plate and top with the mint sauce. Enjoy!

Where To Find Halloumi

Any time I share a dinner or appetizer featuring halloumi, I always get questions about where to find it. Since it’s not the most popular or well known cheese in the midwest, it’s not necessarily stocked at all stores all the time, but we find it pretty regularly at both Jewel and Trader Joe’s! At Trader Joe’s, it’s in the cheese section, usually near the mozzarella and burrata. Our Jewel usually has two cheese sections though – and it’s always in the more specialty section. Don’t look by the parmesan and mozzarella. Instead look by the goat cheese and brie!