Italian Dressing Chicken

Make Italian Dressing Chicken breasts with just 4 ingredients. Marinate in salad dressing, and grill or bake in oven for tender, juicy chicken with this easy recipe! It’s budget friendly, simple and delicious! Make extra chicken to use for dinner or lunches during the week.

If you’re looking for simple easy chicken recipes for dinner, this one’s for you! As much as I love to get creative with different chicken marinades, I’ve been using Italian dressing as a marinade for chicken lately because it’s so easy.

It’s really nothing new. My mom and grandma always used salad dressing to marinate chicken. And, so did I. Nothing like getting back to the basics!

We like to serve the chicken with Italian Pasta Salad or Greek Pasta Salad in the summer. Microwave green beans or broccoli and Air fryer roasted potatoes are good year round.

4 Ingredient Recipe

The best thing about this chicken recipe is you only need 4 ingredients to make it. If you really want to keep it simple, you can cut it down to just 2 ingredients. Here’s what you need:

• Chicken breasts — boneless, skinless
• Italian salad dressing — We like Olive Garden, Wishbone or Kraft, but any brand works
• Garlic powder
• Italian seasoning blend — adds some extra flavor

How to Make Italian Dressing Chicken

To help the chicken breasts cook quickly and evenly, I like to pound them first. You can slice them in half or buy split breasts to make them even thinner. Just place the chicken in a zip top freezer bag, and gently pound them with a kitchen mallet until they’re even.

You don’t have to pound them too thin. We usually keep them around 1/4 inch or so.

Next, place the chicken breasts into a large zip top freezer bag. Don’t reuse the same bag. Sprinkle a little bit of garlic powder and Italian seasoning over the chicken.

Then, pour a cup of Italian dressing over the chicken. This is about half a bottle. You can use the whole bottle if you want, but I like to save some to brush over the chicken after cooking.

Rub the dressing into the chicken, and close the bag tightly. I like to place the bag into a small baking dish or bowl just in case there’s a leak at some point.

How Long to Marinate

Marinate the chicken for 2 to 3 hours in the refrigerator. You can also leave it in overnight. If you forget to marinate the chicken ahead of time, even 30 minutes will work. I’ve done this before, and it was still tasy — just not as juicy and tender as when I leave it in longer.

Grill the Chicken

When the weather’s nice, we cook Italian chicken on the gas grill. We rub some avocado oil on the grate and cook over direct medium heat (about 350 degrees) for about 10 minutes, flipping over about halfway. When you pound the chicken first, you get even cooking.

Larger pieces of meat may take longer. For safety, use a meat thermometer, and make sure the internal temperature is 165 degrees.

Bake in Oven

You can also bake Italian dressing chicken in the oven. After marinating the chicken, place them on a foil lined baking sheet. Bake at 425 degrees for 20 minutes or until internal temperature is 165 degrees. This works best for thin chicken breasts. Thick ones may take longer.

No time to marinate? You can also place the chicken into a baking dish, season with garlic powder and Italian seasoning, pour the dressing over the chicken and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. All of these methods are equally delicious!