Prep One-Pan Smothered Baked Chicken In 3 Minutes (Just Grab The Caesar Dressing)

Weeknight dinners are some of the most difficult meals to plan. No one wants to eat frozen dinners all the time, but few people have the time or energy to devote to making a cheesy French onion pot roast on a Wednesday night, either — no matter how delicious it sounds. The cure for this conundrum is to have the right recipes and pantry staples to put together a tasty meal on the fly, using just enough shortcuts to save you time without sacrificing any flavor.

Luckily, simple, three-ingredient baked chicken breasts check all the boxes perfectly. This zesty, belly-warming main dish takes literally three minutes to put together, bakes while you unwind after a long day, and tastes like you spent hours preparing it. The idea is to smother the raw chicken breasts in rich, tangy, creamy Caesar dressing before draping them in breadcrumbs and shredded Parmesan cheese. Then simply shove the baking dish into the oven until the chicken is succulent and cooked all the way through.

The reason this works is because the Caesar dressing is thick enough to do the same job as a homemade creamy cottage cheese and garlic Alfredo sauce or a can of creamy mushroom soup. The blanket of dressing coats the chicken in layers of fat and flavor while simultaneously protecting it from drying out under the heat of the oven. The breadcrumbs add texture, while the Parmesan fuses with them to create a subtly crunchy crust. The best part? This dish is also incredibly easy to customize.

If you're low on time but want to give the original recipe some added flair, you can easily amp up the flavor of your store-bought Caesar salad dressing with things already in your cupboards. Mix in a squeeze or two of sriracha, add a teaspoon of miso paste, whisk in some ghee for added richness, or even plop in a little tomato paste if you'd like to zhuzh up the creamy dressing a bit. It's also pretty easy to elevate breadcrumbs and Parmesan — just toss them together in a bowl with various seasonings like basil and tarragon, oregano and garlic, or Tajín if you're feeling especially spicy.

Once you're ready to experiment a bit more, it's a simple matter of swapping out the listed ingredients for similar things — creamy dressing, grated cheese, and crisp crumbs are all you need. That means it's pretty easy to sub blue cheese dressing for Caesar, smashed Cheez-Its for breadcrumbs, and Asiago for grated Parmesan to make your very own Buffalo chicken bake. You could also try some thousand island dressing with crushed rye crumbs and grated Swiss cheese for a Reuben-style dish.

The only thing left to think about with this simple main course are the sides. Think instant mashed potatoes upgraded with flavorful ingredients along with a simple kale Caesar salad, microwaveable steamed veggies and garlicky brown rice, or steamed broccoli and pasta drizzled with some of the extra Caesar chicken sauce.