Recipe of the Year solves common dinner problem

Clever recipe solves the problem of chicken breasts going dry in the oven.

2024: it was the year of cinnamon rolls, ‘Marry me’ chicken, cucumber salads and whizzing up anything and everything in the Ninja CREAMi. It was also the year we got creative to make squeezed grocery budgets go the distance while getting dinner done (and devoured) every night. And you know what? We reckon it was still one of the tastiest years yet.

To round out this flavour-packed year, the team crunched the numbers on hundreds of thousands of recipe PVs, read countless user reviews, and leaned on the decades of cooking expertise on the taste food team to bring you our definitive taste Recipes of the Year list. 

And which recipe was crowned the winner? It was This creamy French chicken tray bake

creamy french chicken tray bake sauce

Top-rated dinner with Australia’s favourite protein

With rave reviews across the board and an overall 4.8-star rating, this budget-friendly dinner is the creation of taste Food Director Michelle Southan.

She says: “Chicken is the number one protein search on taste, and chicken breasts have been trending all year, so we’re constantly looking for new chicken dinner ideas to create.

“Tray bakes are always, always popular. Once they’re in the oven the hard work is done, giving you valuable hands-off time to do something else.”

Get the full list: top 50 recipes of the year

How to cook chicken breasts perfectly in the oven

It can be tricky to get the timing right when baking chicken breasts in the oven, but if you follow the recipe, you’ll end up with perfectly cooked chicken.

Michelle says: “I started baking the potatoes first so they were slightly tender, then added the chicken and cream mixture for the final 15 minutes, which keeps the chicken perfectly juicy and moist.

“Those final 15 minutes are really where the magic happens. This method maintains the creaminess of the dish without the liquid soaking into the potatoes, so you end up with a rich creamy sauce at the end. Plus the baking keeps the chicken really juicy, so no more dry chicken, not even in the slightest.”

Taste’s community of reviewers loved this recipe, too. User TraceyGunn commented: “This is my family’s new all-time favourite mid-week recipe.”

Another cook, Maddy, wrote: “Awesome dish and will be making it again and recommending to anyone who will listen.”

Which other recipes made the list?

New creations from Matt Preston also featured in the retrospective, with his 20-minute twist on sausage rolls hitting the top 10, and his mash-up of Caesar salad and san choy bau getting top ratings from users.

See the full Recipes of the Year list here>

Originally published as Recipe of the Year solves common dinner problem