Sweet and Creamy Shishito Pepper Chicken

By Alysha Melnyk

Looking for a satisfying and flavorful dinner idea for the week? Look no further than this cheese stuffed, shishito topped baked chicken recipe! I love the combination of flavors in this dish – a creaminess from the goat cheese and cream cheese filling, a smokiness and bit of spice from the shishito peppers on top, and a hint of sweet from a local honey drizzle.

This recipe is extra easy since the shishito peppers are baked directly on top of the chicken, and a quick additional broil near the end will help blister the peppers to delicious perfection. This recipe has become a new favorite for using shishito peppers and an easy meal prep idea for the week. Enjoy and happy baking!

Directions

1. First preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. 
2. Then, pour ~1 tablespoon of olive oil into a baking dish to coat the base of the dish.
3. Next, use the “hasselback” slicing method on your chicken, cutting slits across the chicken breast but not completely through the chicken (I made mine about an inch apart). 
4. Add chicken breasts to baking dish and flip to coat in oil as well.
5. After this, mix your cream cheese and goat cheese. Start by stuffing the cheese mixture into the sliced areas of the chicken and then adding any remaining in an even layer on the top. 
6. Next, add your shishito peppers directly on top of the cheese layer.
7. Bake your chicken for approximately 30 to 35 minutes until cooked. I use a meat thermometer to confirm it’s cooked through since the cheese makes it a bit trickier to tell from a slicing standpoint. 
8. At the end, I do recommend broiling the whole tray for a few minutes until the shishito peppers are blackened and blistered.
9. Serve warm with a drizzle of local honey and sprinkle of black pepper.
10. Enjoy!

Alysha Melnyk is the Founder and Content Creator of The Kitchenologist©, a food blog dedicated to healthy eating and kitchen experiments. Alysha combined her background in biology with her passion for making food delicious, eye-catching, and accessible. When she’s not cooking in the kitchen or dreaming up a recipe, Alysha works full time as an Implementation Specialist and Lead Educator at ECRI, an international medical nonprofit located in suburban Philadelphia that is dedicated to improving patient safety worldwide. Alysha finds her many career passions revolve around the power of knowledge and that equipping people with the right tools and resources will help them make better informed decisions.