Ok, this meal isn’t going to win any awards for gourmet-meal-of-the year but it’s easy and so, so delicious and it fits the bill for a remake Brian’s been wanting for forever. One of his favorite meals of the past is a Swiss cheese chicken bake that uses a sauce mixture of cream of chicken soup, milk and is topped with stuffing crumbs. Familiar? Anyone? Anyone?
Well, since we don’t keep cream of chicken soup on hand these days, I’ve been wanting to recreate that favorite dish from scratch. Then, I spied a pin circulating on Pinterest that peaked my interest and I decided to remake it into Brian’s longed for Swiss cheese chicken bake with several alterations which basically made it not like the Swiss chicken bake at all, which is ok because the end result is really fantastic!
Lean chicken breasts are topped with slices of Swiss cheese and then with a simple sauce made from mayo (seriously, it works), Greek yogurt and a few simple spices plus Parmesan. I was skeptical about baking mayo and yogurt together for 45 minutes – curdling would have been a deal breaker for me. But thankfully, no curdling! Just creamy, delicious sauce with tender chicken and the hint of Swiss cheese. We served this over hot, cooked rice with steamed peas and a green salad, and it will definitely go into our dinner rotation. I mean, seriously, the assembly is basically brainless and who can argue with brainless when it comes to dinner?
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Note: If you like extra sauce, consider increasing the sauce ingredients accordingly. Also, if you are using frozen or even partly frozen chicken breasts for this dish, there is a chance the finished dish after baking will be watery. I recommend using fresh, not frozen, chicken breasts and patting them dry prior to using.
Ingredients
- 2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 4-6 chicken pieces)
- 6-8 slices Swiss cheese (about 4-6 ounces)
- 1/2 cup light mayonnaise
- 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt
- 3/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, divided
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- Hot, cooked rice for serving
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F and lightly spray a 9X13-inch baking pan with cooking spray.
- Pat the chicken dry with paper towels and season on each side with salt and pepper. Lay the chicken breast pieces in a single layer on the bottom of the prepared baking pan. Layer the Swiss cheese slices over the chicken. In a medium bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise, yogurt, 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Spread this mixture over the chicken and cheese. Top with remaining 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese.
- Bake for 45 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through and the sauce is hot and bubbly. Serve over hot, steamed rice.
This looks like perfect comfort food to me! Mel, I recently stumbled upon a recipe for the creamy canned soup “base”. I will e-mail it to you!
Minus the swiss cheese, I also use this topping for tilapia fillets. sometimes sprinkle a little panko on top for some crunch. Thanks for sharing!!!
I was expecting this to be super complicated (or at least ingredient heavy) and was delighted to see such a simple ingredient list! This is definitely going to be made soon
I have most of these ingredients so I think we’ll make this one tonight!!! Thanks!
you had me sold until the mayonnaise. Can’t do anything with mayo in it. Otherwise looks great!
Does this mean you’re on Pinterest?! I can’t find you
It looks really delicious, but I would definitely rather use cream of chicken soup than mayonnaise (which we don’t use) and Greek Yogurt (which we don’t eat). I hope Brian liked it just as well.
Christina – here’s my Pinterest link:
https://pinterest.com/melskitchencafe/
Pamela (and others) – I really have nothing against cream of chicken soup except that I don’t keep it on hand and like the less processed aspect of yogurt and mayo a bit better. But I completely understand if those are ingredients you don’t use. That’s the great thing about recipes and food – everyone has their own style! (Thank goodness Brian and the kids put up with mine!)
This is why I adore your blog. I don’t keep cream of anything on hand either and you have made my life easier trying not to use processed foods. I love you and my kids and husband do as well. Made your cornbread last night with some ribs and my husband (who doesn’t care for cornbread) loved it. This is one more recipe I will have to try.
I’ll be making this tomorrow after a trip to the grocery store. I cook for my parents and they’ll love this!
I know that original recipe you mentioned…. it was made for me as a housewarming meal when we moved almost 20 years ago, and it became a huge favorite. But then I stopped using canned soups in recipes (due to an allergy one of my kids acquired) and have never tried to recreate the recipe. But now I will try this! Thanks!!!
Definitely can’t argue with brainless for dinner! This sounds great!
Yum! Made your pineapple salsa chicken yesterday with your best drop biscuits and your Welsh cakes for breakfast! All big hits in our family!!! Thank you!
This looks so good! I love the addition of the Greek yogurt
Can you use all greek yogurt instead of the combination of yogurt and mayo? I love the idea of avoiding canned “cream of” soups, but we aren’t a mayo family….
Ok I have never commented on here, but literally 10 minutes before checking your site I was thinking of that Swiss cheese/stuffing/chicken bake. I was restocking my pantry thanks to a helpful 2.5 year old and found an old box of stuffing that I am sure was on hand just to make that dish. Well I too rarely have cream of anything on hand (thanks in big part to your recipes!) and thought too bad we won’t be having that again anytime soon. Then 5 minutes later I am reading your recipe! How crazy is that?! Thanks for all the wonderful recipes!!!
Does it have to be Greek yogurt? How about just plain regular yogurt? Thanks for the recipe!
Stacy and Mary A. – if you want to vary from the recipe using mayo and yogurt, you’ll have to kind of experiment. I’ve only made it with half mayo, half Greek yogurt so I can’t attest to the results the other ways. Mary, if you want to use regular plain yogurt, I’d strain it through cheesecloth first so it doesn’t get too watery as it bakes.
Thanks for sharing, Melanie! Quick question for you; I love Swiss cheese, my hubby doesn’t, any recommendations for a good cheese to use in place of Swiss for this recipe???
My family HATES cream of anything in a can. I usually end up making my own roux sauce as a substitute and they will eat that. I am SO excited to try this one! When I re-do dinner menus this weekend this will be the top of the list! Simple, easy and my family friendly!
Thanks Mel! You’ve made my day again!
-oh, we’re having Turkey panninis tonight for dinner and I can’t wait to eat my crusty rustic bread that is the only bread I can make thanks to you! YUM!
We call it Company Chicken! =)
This sounds delicious! I make a similar but with mayo , sour cream, lemon juice salt/pepper and curry powder. Pour that over the chicken and bake-sprinkle cheddar cheese on top when done and let it melt. Mayo makes a great sauce!
What’s the provenance of the recipe. I wonder if it could go into my book-in-progress “Back in the Day.” It’s about food in the 50′s, when I was a kid. Oh, I’ll only see a reply if it goes to [email protected]
This is perfect because it uses things I always have on hand and is so easy! I love using mayo (in lieu) of eggs when breading chicken because it makes the most tender, juicy chicken so I imagine that it would produce similar results here.
This sounds really similar to a chicken dish that I make, but uses cream of chicken soup. I’ve been looking for a different recipe so I can get rid of the creamy soup part. Top it with some buttery breadcrumbs or crushed up croutons and it sounds like a winner to me!
Denise – to be honest, I’d probably just leave it off (or only put Swiss cheese on half the chicken). I think it would still be delicious that way – I’ve just never tried it with another type of cheese.
My family loved it!!!! It made decadent leftovers as well!
Thanks for the advice about the cheese, Melanie!
I bet this would be a terrific crock pot meal! We’re still trudging through the sweaty, hot end-of-summer days here in SoCal so can’t think of turning on my oven yet. We are surviving on slow cooker meals, and this one looks like a winner! Thanks, Mel.
I made this 2 nights ago, and everyone loved it. But I didn’t have greek yogurt, so I used cottage cheese instead. I put a little milk in and used my immersion blender to get it to a less “chunky” consistency. Possibly a good alternative for those folks above who don’t care for greek yogurt.
I didn’t have Swiss cheese so I used Provolone and I can tell you it tastes great that way too! My husband kept saying how delicious it was. Thanks for another great recipe!
Thank goodness you were my sister’s neighbor!!! My family would have grown up eating canned soup and tuna fish! This is delicious, easy and stuff I have on hand!
Made this tonight! 5 stars!!! Delicious!! Everyone loved it. However, I did get tons of curdling. Didn’t affect the taste though so I’ll definitely be making it again! Yum!
I am not one to argue, but I have to disagree with your “Ok, this meal isn’t going to win any awards for gourmet-meal-of-the year” comment.
This was FANTASTIC! Thank you! (And so easy!!) …Did I mention it was fantastic?!
made this chicken last week and it was absolutely delicious. thanks for the recipe. i needed to use up some swiss cheese and this was awesome.
First time reader….I think I wandered into your blog via Pinterest tonight. I am tormenting myself trying to find a recipe for a special lunch on Saturday. I am leaning toward your awesome Manicotti roll-ups (from a 2009 blog post) or this Swiss Cheese Chicken Bake. If not for lunch, definitely an upcoming dinner. I enjoyed perusing your blog tonight and I have already bookmarked it!
Best. Recipe. Ever.
Seriously.
Made this tonight … It was soo good. I used cream of mushroom soup in place of the cream of chicken. SOOOOO yummy! Thank you for this recipe and all of them on your site- I am definately a big fan!
Ate this for dinner tonight. DELICIOUS! Anything that is fast and easy, and delicious is a win in my book and on the rotating menu. My kids loved it! Thanks!
[...] Swiss Cheese Chicken Bake-http://www.melskitchencafe.com/2012/09/creamy-swiss-cheese-chicken-bake.html -served with Brown Rice and Roasted Brussels Sprouts w/Cranberries [...]
I’ve made several recipes from this site and every single one has been a winner. This is my go-to site for new recipes! I tried this one tonight and it was excellent, as I knew it would be coming from Mel. The sauce is wonderfully tangy and creamy. My husband loved it. I love that it doesn’t use “Cream of X” soup. Thanks again!
I made this tonight and it was quite tasty (even though I remembered as I was slicing the cheese that I’m not a big fan of swiss). My problem, though, was that my chicken turned out pretty dry, and I even cooked it 350 because I was cooking rice at the same time. Do you normally cover it?
Diane – I don’t cover it. You might try decreasing baking time a bit.