Texas Two Step Salsa Chicken

Salsa chicken is a quick, weeknight dinner recipe bursting with fresh Southwestern flavor. OMG, it's so easy that's it's almost too embarrassing to post!

So good with a side of roasted sweet potatoes!

🥘 Ingredients

We always called this Texas Two Step chicken. Since I usually have the ingredients on hand it's my go to for last minute dinners.

• Chicken breast or chicken thighs are my favorite but you could use bone in chicken as well.
• I use chipotle mustard because I like the extra spice. You can use any dijon mustard you prefer.

🔪 Instructions

1. Just preheat your oven and spray a 13x9 inch baking dish with nonstick spray.
2. Put the chicken in the dish - don't crowd it.
3. Whisk the mustard, brown sugar, and salsa in a bowl and pour it over the top.
4. Bake uncovered for 30 minutes and serve with rice.

Expert Tip: Make this even easier! Grill the chicken ahead of time and bake for just 10 -15 minutes or until warmed through. The grilling gives it a nice smoky flavor. 🍗

💭 Tips

• Salsa chicken freezes well. I like to add the ingredients in meal sized portions to bags and vacuum seal them to use for later. I leave the chicken uncooked - then it's just a thaw, dump, and go!
• I've made this recipe with pork chops, too. Delicious!
• Serve with rice, potatoes, cornbread casserole, or whatever you like.
• Leftovers are delicious in warm, soft tortillas!
• You can put it together up to 2 days ahead of time.
• It will be fine tightly covered in the fridge for up to 3 days.
• You can make this in a slow cooker on low for 8 hours but the sauce gets watery - I don't recommend it.

☕ Kaffeklatsch

When I inherited my mom’s 1939 edition of Better Homes and Gardens cookbook it was stuffed with recipes she had clipped over the years. Once in awhile I still very carefully go through them to reacquaint myself with flavors and foods from my childhood.

One of the worn and stained papers has a recipe that was on the back of Pace Picante sauce at some point. Don’t ask me when, but she usually made her own salsa which explains why it was handwritten, right?

I love this simple recipe - it's right up there with the slow cooker tequila lime chicken.

If you click on the number of servings in the recipe card you can adjust the measurements up or down for the exact number of servings you need. Don't forget that you can click on "add to collection" to save it to your own, private recipe box!

If you love this recipe please give it 5 stars! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

📋Recipe

4.6 from 5 votes

Texas Two Step Salsa Chicken

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This vintage recipe is one for the quick and easy file. Chicken breast bakes in a sweet and tangy salsa based sauce that's made of just 3 ingredients. Difficulty level 1/10

Course Main Dish - Chicken

Cuisine Southwestern

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 25 minutes

Servings:8

Calories:161

Author:Marye Audet-White

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Equipment Needed

• 13x9-inch pan

Ingredients

1x2x3x

• 4 chicken breasts, boneless, skinless
• 1 1/2 cups salsa
• 3 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon spicy mustard

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 375F
• Cut chicken breasts in half horizontally to make 2 pieces each
• Rub a baking pan with olive oil.
• Lay the 8 pieces of chicken breast in the pan.
• Mix the picante, brown sugar, and spicy mustard together until smooth.
• Pour over the chicken.
• Bake 20 minutes until it reaches a temp of 160F.
• Let sit on the counter for five to ten minutes so that the juices settle and the temperature continues to rise to 165F.

Notes

• Salsa chicken freezes well. I like to add the ingredients in meal sized portions to bags and vacuum seal them to use for later. I leave the chicken uncooked - then it's just a thaw, dump, and go!
• Make this even easier! Grill the chicken ahead of time and bake for just 10 -15 minutes or until warmed through. The grilling gives it a nice smoky flavor. 
• I've made this recipe with pork chops, too. Delicious!
• I think it's best served with rice.
• Leftovers are delicious in warm, soft tortillas!
• You can put it together up to 2 days ahead of time.
• It will be fine tightly covered in the fridge for up to 3 days.

Nutrition

Calories: 161kcal | Carbohydrates: 8g | Protein: 25g | Fat: 3g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 72mg | Sodium: 499mg | Potassium: 563mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 6g | Vitamin A: 268IU | Vitamin C: 2mg | Calcium: 24mg | Iron: 1mg

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First published March 13, 2015. Last updated May 27, 2020 to update images and for better readability.