Sun-dried Tomato Baked Chicken

This is a recipe that was based on a dish that Drew had eaten over at our friend Ronnie's place.  Apparently, it was a type of breaded and baked chicken that had delicious sun-dried tomatoes on them.  Mmm!  I'm sold.  We didn't have a written-down recipe, but we kinda guestimated the ingredients, and it came out wonderfully!

Ingredients (4 servings):
-4 chicken breasts (about 1.5 lbs total)
-1 1/2 cups buttermilk
-1 tsp salt
-1 1/2 cups italian breadcrumbs
-1/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes, chopped

1.  Hello, buttermilk.

Ever use it?  It's so thick, kind of like the consistency of Pepto.  Except ever so hearty and flavorful.  You'll want to pour the buttermilk into a bowl, preferably one with a large surface area down at the bottom.

2.  Here are some lovely chicken breasts we got from the grocery store butcher.

Sprinkle salt on the chicken breasts, then dunk each one in the buttermilk.  I'm so used to drinking skim, it always amazes me to see a type of milk that is so thick it actually coats pieces of chicken.  

3.  Next, coat each buttermilk-dunked chicken with breadcrumbs.  Fun!

4.  Lay in a foil-covered casserole pan. 

5.  Preheat oven to 375F.  While your oven's getting nice and toasty, you'll wanna get a hold of your sun-dried tomatoes.  Awww gosh how i love sun-dried tomatoes.  They taste nothing like its non-sun-dried counterpart...they're sweet n' tangy in the most delightful way.

On top of each breaded chicken breast, lay a few hearty pieces of sun-dried tomato.  It's okay to get the juices on the chicken, it'll soak into the breading and make it taste great.

It's also very much okay to eat sun-dried tomatoes.  Just not the ones that are already on the chicken.  That's called salmonella.

Here are all the chicken breasts lying in the pan, ready to become awesome in the oven.  This is also a fun bokeh picture.  Depth of chicken field.

6.  That's it!  Bake them for 25 minutes, or until the inside of the largest piece at its thickest part is white.

And look what we've got here!  Mmm!

We served this alongside some penne with red sauce and baby lima beans lightly sauteed with onions.

Wanna see the inside?  Check this out.

Oh my gosh, sooooo good.  Super moist because of the buttermilk, delicious external texture because of the breadcrumbs, and wonderfully flavorful because of those lovely sun-dried tomatoes.

This was really simple to make, but it made for a really delicious and impressive meal.  Thanks, Ronnie, for inspiring us! :D

For a printable version of this recipe, please click here.