Grilled Chicken Smothered in Tomatillo Salsa and Cheese

This isn’t the prettiest dish but looks can be so deceiving! This grilled chicken smothered in tomatillo salsa and cheese is the dish you didn’t know you needed. It is moist, tangy, spicy, cheesy and simply delicious. I picked up tomatillos at the market the other day to make a salsa for a side of chips but decided on topping this amazing sauce on grilled chicken instead. 

I grilled the chicken using my George Foreman grill because the weather has been terrible lately. The indoor grill worked just fine and allowed for quicker cook times since the chicken cooks on both sides and you can still get nice grill marks. While the chicken was cooking, I prepped the salsa ingredients and cooked to soften the tomatoes. Tomatillos are very firm, green tomatoes that are on the sour side but perfect to make sauces. When I first made this recipe years ago I just added all the salsa ingredients to the blender. This time I cooked the tomatillos and found the processing much easier on my blender. Cooking down the tomatoes gives you a smoother salsa as well and also saves time when baking. I also adjusted the bake time to account for that update. 

I also made my own tortillas for the first time! I’m never buying store bought corn tortillas again. You can make your own tortillas using a fine corn flour called Masa, found in Latin grocery stores. Masa is a fine corn flour made with a hint of lime. I added salt just to give it more flavor. Making tortillas by hand is very easy and the key to a perfect tortilla is getting them nice and flat. You can purchase a tortilla press or roll out with a rolling pin. These were a little thick but next time I think I’ll invest in a tortilla press for perfect tortillas every time.

This was an incredibly easy dish to make and took about 30 minutes to make. Let me know if you try it, I’d love to hear what you think.

Note: you can get Maseca corn flour from a Latin grocery store. Maseca is the brand name of a very fine corn flour that’s made with a bit of lime.

Updated recipe 6/5/20

Print Recipe

Grilled Chicken Smothered in Tomatillo Salso

Prep Time10 minutes mins

Cook Time30 minutes mins

Course: Dinner

Cuisine: Mexican

Keyword: casserole, chicken, grilled, Keto, low carb, tomatillo

Servings: 4 people

Author: Maria

Ingredients

• 2 lbs chicken breasst about 4 breasts
• 6 tomatillos roughly chopped
• 1 serrano pepper sliced
• 1 tbsp cayenne pepper sauce
• 1 medium onion chopped
• 1 tbsp parsley chopped
• 2 tbsp cilantro chopped
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp black ground pepper
• 1/2 lemon squeezed
• 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Handmade Tortillas

• 1 cup Maseca Corn Flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup hot water

Instructions

• Season the chicken with salt and pepper and squeeze 1/2 lemon over the chicken breasts, being careful to remove seeds.
• Grill the chicken until cooked all the way through, about 5 minutes on each side. If chicken breast is thick, slice in half for quicker cook times.
• While the chicken is cooking, sautee the chopped onions in 1 tbsp on oil until they soften and add the diced tomatillos, pepper sauce, parsley, cilantro, 1/2 tsp salt, and half the serrano pepper and stir. Cook for 5 minutes until the tomatillos soften. Add tomatillo mixture to a blender and puree ingredients.
• Add cooked chicken to a baking dish and cover completely with the tomatillo salsa. Top with cheese and remaining serrano chile slices on top and bake chicken in a 350 pre-heated oven for about 5 minutes until the cheese has melted and is bubbling. Remove from oven and top with cilantro.
• While the chicken is baking, make the tortillas by adding corn flour, 1/4 tsp of salt in a bowl and slowly adding 3/4 cup of hot water. Stir together until dough forms then roll about 2-3 tbsp of dough in hand to shape like a ball. Flatten ball with the palm of your on a floured board. Lay a piece of parchment paper on top and roll until desired thickness. Makes about 6 tortillas.
• Heat up each tortilla in a heavy cast iron pan with a pat of butter. Heat on each side until tortillas are a little browned on both sides.