A Favorite Pioneer Woman Recipe

If you have never heard of The Pioneer Woman, Ree Drummond, then you are in for a treat. She has a website, two cookbooks, and a cooking show on The Food Network. I found her through her website a year or so ago, and have tried several of her recipes. We have loved everything that we have tried thus far such as her Restaurant Style Salsa, Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes, and Best Ever Chocolate Sheet Cake recipe, but my favorite is this one.


 Grilled Chicken and Roasted Red Pepper Panini

The ingredients she lists are:

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts ( I use more because I have a bigger family)
8 whole sundried tomatoes, packed in oil (I found these on the tomato sauce aisle)
3 T. prepared Basil Pesto (I found this near the spaghetti sauce)
1 T. extra virgin olive oil
1 T. lemon juice
1/2 tsp kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper
1/4 c. mayo
2 whole red bell peppers
8 whole slies provolone or mozzarella
8 slices good whole grain sandwich bread
4 T. butter, softened

Marinating Chicken in sun dried tomato/pesto mixture

In a blender or food processor, puree the sundried tomatoes, pesto, olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Add half of this mixture to a large ziplock bag with the chicken breasts. Smush around to coat the chicken, then refrigerate several hours or overnight. After marinating, either grill or cook in heavy skillet til done. Slice chicken into strips. I actually reverse this a bit. I cut up the chicken first, then cook in a skillet until done.

Spread:  In a small bowl, combine mayo and 3 T. of the sundried tomato mixture. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate til needed.

Roasted Red Peppers: In your oven broiler, completely blacken peppers on all sides, then immediately seal in ziplock bag. Allow peppers to sit, sealed, in the bag for 20 minutes. When cool enough to handle, remove from bag and use fingers to slip off the blackened skin. Lop off the top cut in half, then seed and slice into strips.

To Assemble: To make the panini, spread generous amounts of the tomato/pesto spread on one side of all the pieces of bread. On four of the pieces, arrange 1/4 of the chicken slices, 1/4 of the pepper, and two pieces of provolone. Top with the other pieces of bread with the spread face down. Butter both sides and grill in panini maker. ( I do not have a panini maker, so I improvise by putting in a 400 degree oven). Or, she says that you can put in a skillet and place a heavy pan on top of the sandwich as each side browns.

This is the finished product and they are so good! My daughter asks that I only give her half of one as they are so filling. The sun dried tomatoes and pesto give so much flavor.




The Pioneer Woman comes on The Food Network at 9:30 a.m. and her website is www.thepioneerwoman.com  Her recipes are very easy to follow. Hope you enjoy these as much as we do!

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