Spinach Artichoke Chicken

Spinach Artichoke Chicken

Anyone who enjoys a good spinach artichoke dip will LOVE this dinner! It tastes so amazingly good that I have remind myself that it's okay for me to eat! Low fat cream cheese with greek yogurt makes up the creamy base and with some chopped artichoke hearts and spinach, it is just amazing! This one, I always prep for when I get home from the grocery store by cutting up my chicken breasts to the weight that they need to be before I stick them in the fridge or freezer. These are supposed to be 4 oz. chicken breasts. I typically buy my chicken in a big package at Walmart because I can get it for the best price per pound and they are pretty uniform in shape which makes cooking with them easier. However, most of them are 11-12oz. chicken breasts alone, so even butterflying them still makes them a little too big for this recipe (and I always want to make sure my point values are spot on!) So I usually take my big chicken breasts, butterfly them, weigh them, then trim off any extra bits until they are 4 oz each, and with all the extra bits, I throw them in some boiling water, cook them up, and use them as chopped or shredded chicken in other recipes during the week. Waste nothing!

Ingredients:

8 (4oz) chicken breasts (I took large chicken breasts, trimmed off the fat, then butterflied them, and they came very close to 4 oz. each…use a scale to weigh if you can).

Salt and pepper to taste
4 oz. 1/3 less fat cream cheese, softened
½ c. fat free plain Greek yogurt
2 cloves garlic, minced
¼ c. chopped onion

14 oz. can artichoke hearts, in water, chopped (while they were chopped in the can, I chopped them even further on my cutting board)

10 oz. pkg frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed dry

½ c. parmesan cheese

½ c. shredded 2% mozzarella cheese

 

Directions:

1.   Preheat oven to 375, spray 9x13 in baking dish.

2.   Lay chicken breasts out in the baking dish, season with salt & pepper and bake 15 minutes.

3.   While chicken bakes, combine yogurt and cream cheese and stir until well blended. Add all remaining ingredients and stir well to combine.

4.   Remove chicken from the oven (will not be done!), drain off any excess juice produced in the baking dish. Using a spoon, spread cream cheese mixture evenly over the chicken breasts. Bake another 15-20 minutes, depending on the thickness of your chicken, or until the chicken is cooked all the way through.  

Yields 8 servings – WWP+ 6 per serving.

 (Pictured above with a 2 point salad – lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, mushrooms, 2 T of low fat shredded cheese and 2 T of fat free Caesar dressing)

 
Recipe from Emily Bites