Southwest Chicken & Cheese

This chicken breast recipe earns its Southwest name from the duo of green chiles and red jalapeno simmered into the pan sauce. The mushrooms and onions are the base; the chiles bring the heat and the Southwestern character. Provolone melts over the top instead of the expected Monterey Jack, which gives a slightly tangier finish.

The key technique is pounding the chicken breasts flat before cooking. Even thickness means even cook time, and pounded breasts cook in about 10 minutes total instead of the 25 that thick whole breasts require. Thin breasts also pick up flavor faster from the surrounding sauce.

The two-pan approach pays off. Cooking the vegetables separately first means they soften and release their juices without crowding the chicken in the main skillet. Adding them back over the chicken with their juices intact creates a built-in sauce that bastes the meat as it finishes.

The cheese melt at the end is fast (about a minute under a covered pan) and seals everything together. Use the lid as a steam chamber, not the oven.

Pro Tips

• Use a meat mallet on the chicken between sheets of plastic wrap. No mallet? A heavy skillet pressed flat works.
• Don’t drain the vegetable juices. The recipe specifically says not to. Those juices become the sauce that flavors the chicken.
• Use roasted Hatch chiles (fresh or canned) if you can find them. They’re the genuine Southwestern green chile and beat generic canned chiles for flavor.

Variations

• Swap provolone for pepper jack to amplify the heat with melted spice.
• Add a handful of cooked black beans and corn kernels to the vegetable mixture for a more substantial topping.
• Serve over Spanish rice or in warm flour tortillas to turn it into chicken fajitas style.