Anyone familiar with Sizzler restaurants? It’s was one of our favorite restaurants when we were dating and the early years of our marriage. We haven’t lived near one in quite a while, but we had a chance to eat at one during our move to Las Vegas — we stopped at their location in Flagstaff, AZ.
Eating there that day brought back lots of memories. I remember when David and I were dating (over 20 years ago) and we were having lunch at Sizzler. We were talking away, and somehow I managed to dump my entire glass of soda directly into my lap. The whole thing. And I was wearing a white mini skirt. I was so embarrassed. Later, David took me shopping to buy a new skirt; he’s always been a sweetheart like that.
Almost every time I ate there, I would order Malibu Chicken. It’s sort of like Chicken Cordon Bleu, but easier. And it’s always served with a small cup of a mayonnaise/mustard sauce. When we stopped living close to a Sizzler, I just had to come up with my own version and this is it.
Sizzler does their version with a round chicken patty of some kind, but I do mine with chicken breast. The process is very simple. The first part of the recipe is simply dredge chicken breasts in flour, then dip them in an egg/milk mixture, and then coat them with panko breadcrumbs.
They are baked in an oven, and after they are finished cooking, you pull them out of the oven, top with thinly sliced ham and Swiss cheese. You place it back in the oven until the cheese is all melted. (I used a reduced fat Swiss cheese, so unfortunately my top photo doesn’t look at creamy and melty as I would have liked) It’s one of my favorite dinners and fairly healthy too.
PrintMalibu Chicken
Ingredients
- 1 egg (lightly beaten)
- 1 tablespoon milk
- 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
- Salt and pepper
- 1 cup Panko breadcrumbs (keep more nearby, you may need more depending on the size of your chicken breasts)
- 4 chicken breast halves (boneless, skinless)
- 12 slices ham (thinly sliced)
- 4 slices Swiss cheese
- Cooking spray
Sauce
- 2 tablespoons yellow mustard
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
Instructions
- Preheat oven 400 degrees F. In a shallow bowl or pan (pie plates work great), lightly beat eggs and milk with a fork. In another shallow bowl or pan, season flour with salt and pepper. Place panko into a 3rd shallow bowl or pan. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray.
- Dredge chicken breast in the flour (shake off excess), then dip into egg mixture (allow excess to fall off), and lastly, coat evenly with panko breadcrumbs. Place chicken breast on the baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining chicken breasts. Lightly spray tops of chicken with cooking spray.
- Bake for about 30 minutes or until a meat thermometer shows them to be 160 degrees F internally.
- Remove baking sheet from the oven. Top each chicken breast with 3 slices of ham and place a slice of cheese on top of ham (you may need to cut cheese in half to avoid it hanging off). Return to oven and bake just until cheese is all melted (approximately 5 minutes).
- For sauce: In a small bowl, combine mustard and mayonnaise to make a dipping sauce that is served with this chicken. Feel free to adjust this to your taste. If you prefer a more mayonnaise taste, feel free to add more mayonnaise, or if you are like me and prefer a more mustard taste, feel free to add more mustard.
- Category: Main Dish
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Do you have memories of a restaurant you’ve loved, but don’t get to eat there anymore? Maybe something that’s no longer in business or maybe you’ve moved to an area that does have that restaurant? I’d love to hear your story.
Steve says
I just made this for my wife and daughter. FANTASTIC! Followed every direction to the letter, but did add 1 Tbs steak sauce to the sauce ingredients. I do a lot of dinner parties for friends, and will be adding your wonderful Malibu Chicken to my rotation (with attribution to your site). I remember the commercials for Sizzler’s Malibu Chicken as a child (Late 70’s/early ’80’s?), and remember how wonderful it looked, but our family just never went. I feel like I finaly got to try one at home with my own family all these years later, and I’m NOT dissapointed. Thanks for a great recipe!!! Steve
brandie says
Awesome….so glad you liked it, Steve!
jenny - sugar loco says
YUM! We would always stop at Sizzlers on road trips. Pretty sure I’ve been to that one in Flagstaff. If only there had been blogs back then, I could have started one and made it a goal to eat at every one. LOVED the Texas toast.
Chrissy Morin says
This looks fantastic! Adding it to my things to try lists on Pinterest1
Holly Lefevre says
Oh my gosh! My kids would flip over this – some of their favorite things!
brandie says
My kids too! They are always happy when I make this.
Samantha says
this is going to be dinner tomorrow- we are SOOOO making this, it looks amazing, and i hope i do half as good as you did!
Jenn Erickson/Rook No. 17 says
Wow, thinking about Sizzler really took me back! We had one in our town when I was a kid and I loved the Malibu chicken! Yours looks even better than the original!
Jenn
Deb says
Mmmm. This looks so yummy!
Tammy Fischer says
My husband and I went to Florida and I had the BEST Cuban sandwich there. I haven’t had one like it since. It was made to perfection and we ate it at a restaurant on the docks watching the boats coming in and out. It was perfect.