These tender Italian chicken thighs are covered with your preferred marinara sauce and a savory medley of three cheeses. For a great midweek supper, serve over spaghetti, rice, or with roasted potatoes. Even while I prefer to shred my own cheese since it melts better, you are welcome to use pre-shredded cheese to save time.
| Prep Time: | 5 mins |
| Cook Time: | 30 mins |
| Total Time: | 35 mins |
| Servings: | 4 |
Ingredients
- ½ cup low-fat ricotta cheese
- ¼ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
- ½ teaspoon Italian seasoning
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 1 pound skinless, boneless chicken thighs
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- salt to taste
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 ½ cups marinara sauce
- ¾ cup shredded mozzarella cheese
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley (Optional)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
- Combine ricotta cheese, Parmesan cheese, Italian seasoning, and salt in a small bowl; set aside.
- Season chicken thighs on both sides with garlic powder and salt.
- Heat olive oil in an oven-proof skillet over medium-high heat. Cook chicken thighs, smooth-side down, in hot oil until the bottoms are browned, 3 to 4 minutes. Flip thighs over and remove the skillet from heat. Top each thigh with an equal amount of ricotta cheese mixture. Spoon marinara sauce on top and around chicken thighs.
- Bake in the preheated oven until chicken is no longer pink in the center and the juices run clear, about 25 minutes. An instant-read thermometer inserted into the centers of thighs should read at least 165 degrees F (74 degrees C).
- Top each thigh with mozzarella cheese and continue baking until cheese is melted, 2 to 3 minutes. Garnish with parsley to serve.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 378 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 14 g |
| Cholesterol | 91 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 3 g |
| Protein | 28 g |
| Saturated Fat | 7 g |
| Sodium | 769 mg |
| Sugars | 9 g |
| Fat | 23 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
Easy
Dish was excellent! I modified the recipe added cumin, Coriander, and Ms Dash. Also, added thin spaghetti which gave it a nice buttery flavor.
Very easy to make. I too used 1.5 lbs of boneless/skinless thighs (6 thighs). My husband loved it but I am not a fan of thighs so not my favorite. I will make again and add a few skinless/boneless breasts. Mushrooms would be a nice addition too.
Delicious
I used thighs with bones and skin. Had to peel the skin off and debone to eat, but the meat was very tender and a tasty dish that was easy to prepart in one pan.
Supper Yummy! Will make again for sure.
So easy. So good. Whether one uses ricotta, cottage cheese, or even cream cheese, it all works. A keeper for sure.
Easy but not particularly tasty
Really enjoyed this. Will use garlic herb seasoning next time. I don’t do dairy so I made two versions. One I used sheep cheese and it was still very tasty.
This was a great weeknight meal with some steamed veggies on the side. My husband is lactose intolerant so I always substitute stick blended Lactaid cottage cheese for the ‘ricotta’. I also didn’t have any prepared Italian seasoning but found a great recipe online to make my own. The mix of the ricotta, parmesan and Italian seasonings was THE BOMB! I will be finding other things to bake that onto for sure! Other than the ricotta replacement the recipe is delicious as written.
Loved it! I had no ricotta on hand so decided to experiment with cream cheese. Came out great!
Followed recipe as is. Easy to follow…tastes great! Served with pasta and garlic bread. Used Rao’s sauce. Will make again!
Great flavor!! We had it again this week but with thin pork chops minus the ricotta. We struck gold here on this recipe!
Very adaptable! I didn’t have marinara so I used pizza sauce. I didn’t have ricotta so I used an equal amount of queso freso melting cheese. I didn’t have mozzarella so I used shredded Italian blend cheese. It was so good and the chicken stayed so moist!
I was super generous with the mozzarella added side of rotini
Super easy and so good! Made it with chicken breasts instead of thighs though.
This taste so delicious It was quick and easy recipe we only added a little adobo light seasoning with the garlic powder, I mixed a little less sodium McCormick Montreal chicken seasoning to Italian seasoning and used roasted garlic marinara sauce to give it a little more taste since I didn’t have grated Parmesan I grated my parmigiano reggiano cheese
Loved this. Will make it again.
Made no changes. Family loved it right out of the oven, not so much for my son, who didn’t get off work for an hour and a half later. He said it was still good, just not the OMG praise that the rest of the family had.
Made the recipe exactly as written (using homemade marinara sauce). It was very good; will definitely make it again. Served it with angel hair pasta.
I didn’t have ricotta cheese, so I used cottage cheese and it worked out great! I will definitely make this again!