Greek Chicken Stuffed Tomatoes
Hello! Today I’m sharing a recipe for one of my personal favorites. I started making this last summer when I had big delicious homegrown tomatoes. It’s a twist on one of our family favorites, Greek chicken and vegetables. I was going to make that for dinner one night and when I looked at all of those beautiful tomatoes, I decided to try something different. My thought process was something like this: “If you can stuff a pepper, why not a tomato?” Out of that, Greek chicken stuffed tomatoes were born.
I first decided to shred the chicken, because I figured that would be the easiest for “stuffing”. I also decided to dice all the veggies up, because if you’ve had my Greek chicken, you know the veggies stay rather big. In my Greek chicken recipe I use cherry or grape tomatoes. This time I was using the “shell” of the tomato, but I didn’t want all that goodness from the inside to go to waste. So, to substitute for the cherry tomatoes in the original recipe I decided to use the tomato pulp that I scooped out of the tomatoes I’d be stuffing.
Here’s how it all came together…
I cooked my chicken in the InstantPot. I place my chicken breasts in the pot, season with my homemade greek seasoning, salt and pepper, add 1 cup of water and cook on manual for 10 minutes. Allow it to do a natural release and then I shred it. You could easily use rotisserie chicken or leftover chicken that you have from a previous meal. Just use what you have and shred it with two forks, or by my preferred method of using a hand mixer.
When the chicken is shredded I season well with more of the Greek seasoning and add about 1/3 of the dressing. Allow that to sit and marinade while you prepare the vegetables.
The number of tomatoes is really up to you. It is hard for me to say how many to use, because tomatoes vary in size so much. This will easily make 4-6 medium to large tomatoes. Since The Girl Child doesn’t eat the tomato shell, sometimes I only make a few and she eats just the “stuff”.
Cut the tops of of your tomatoes, then scoop out the pulp from the inside and set aside in a bowl. You can use a knife or a spoon, but honestly I find that just using my hands works pretty well! After you’ve got that done, salt the inside of the tomato shell and invert them on paper towels to drain.
Next, chop up everything else that is going into your stuffing. I use the same vegetables as my original dish… red onion, green peppers, pepperoncinis, olives and artichoke hearts. Add that to your tomato pulp and stir to combine.
Are you ready to give this a try? Here’s what you’ll need:
4-6 medium to large red tomatoes
2-3 chicken breasts (cooked and shredded)
1 medium red onion (diced)
1 medium bell pepper (diced)
6.5 oz jar artichoke hearts (diced)
4-6 oz Greek pepperoncinis (diced)
2/3 cup kalamata olives (diced)
8 oz Feta cheese crumbles
For my Greek seasoning (store bought is fine too):
2 tsp salt
2 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp dried basil
2 tsp oregano
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp parsley
1 tsp tarragon
1 tsp dried dill weed
1/2 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp nutmeg
For the dressing:
4 cloves minced garlic
1 cup extra virgin olive oil
6 TBSP balsamic vinegar
2 tsp smoked paprika
4 tsp oregano
1 tsp salt
2 tsp pepper
Ok. Let’s do this!
Preheat your oven to 350°
Grease a 13×9 baking dish and set aside.
First, make the dressing with the ingredients listed above. Whisk it to combine well.
Place your shredded chicken in a large mixing bowl. Season liberally with Greek seasoning and pour roughly 1/2 of the dressing over the chicken. Stir to coat chicken evenly. Set aside.
Next, cut the tops off of your tomatoes. Using a sharp knife, carefully cut around the inner edge of the tomatoes to loosen pulp from outer shell. Scoop out the pulp with a spoon, or use your hands. Place the pulp in a medium size bowl and save for later. Sprinkle the inside of your tomato shells with salt and invert on paper towels to drain.
Dice the rest of your vegetables into small pieces and add to mixing bowl with tomato pulp. Stir to combine.
Add the vegetable mixture to the chicken and stir to combine. Pour approximately 1/2 of remaining dressing over mixture and toss to coat.
Place tomatoes in prepared baking dish and fill with chicken and vegetable mixture. Any remaining mixture can simply be placed in the dish around the stuffed tomatoes.
Drizzle remaining dressing over entire dish.
Place baking dish in oven and cook for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes sprinkle feta cheese crumbles on top of tomatoes and the rest of the dish. Return to oven for another 5 minutes.
*Note:
If you aren’t using many tomatoes and won’t have much pulp for the stuffing you can chop up a can of stewed tomatoes or use a can of diced tomatoes to get more tomato in there.
I hope you enjoy this as much as we do. The leftovers are fantastic the next day too!
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Thanks for stopping by!
Greek Chicken Stuffed Tomatoes
Ingredients
- 4-6 medium to large red tomatoes
- 2-3 chicken breasts cooked and shredded
- 1 medium red onion diced
- 1 medium bell pepper diced
- 6.5 oz jar artichoke hearts diced
- 4-6 oz Greek pepperoncinis diced
- 2/3 cup kalamata olives diced
- 8 oz Feta cheese crumbles
- For my Greek seasoning store bought is fine too:
- 2 tsp salt
- 2 tsp garlic powder
- 2 tsp dried basil
- 2 tsp oregano
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp parsley
- 1 tsp tarragon
- 1 tsp dried dill weed
- 1/2 tsp thyme
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- For the dressing:
- 4 cloves minced garlic
- 1 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 6 TBSP balsamic vinegar
- 2 tsp smoked paprika
- 4 tsp oregano
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tsp pepper
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350°
- Grease a 13×9 baking dish and set aside.
- First, make the dressing with the ingredients listed above. Whisk it to combine well.
- Place your shredded chicken in a large mixing bowl. Season liberally with Greek seasoning and pour roughly 1/2 of the dressing over the chicken. Stir to coat chicken evenly. Set aside.
- Next, cut the tops off of your tomatoes. Using a sharp knife, carefully cut around the inner edge of the tomatoes to loosen pulp from outer shell. Scoop out the pulp with a spoon, or use your hands. Place the pulp in a medium size bowl and save for later. Sprinkle the inside of your tomato shells with salt and invert on paper towels to drain.
- Dice the rest of your vegetables into small pieces and add to mixing bowl with tomato pulp. Stir to combine.
- Add the vegetable mixture to the chicken and stir to combine. Pour approximately 1/2 of remaining dressing over mixture and toss to coat.
- Place tomatoes in prepared baking dish and fill with chicken and vegetable mixture. Any remaining mixture can simply be placed in the dish around the stuffed tomatoes.
- Drizzle remaining dressing over entire dish.
- Place baking dish in oven and cook for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes sprinkle feta cheese crumbles on top of tomatoes and the rest of the dish. Return to oven for another 5 minutes.