Italian Dressing Chicken: The Weeknight Hero of the 90s
If you grew up in the 90s, chances are you remember Italian dressing chicken. It wasn’t just a recipe; it was practically the way to cook chicken.
Italian dressing chicken was everywhere. It showed up in church cookbooks, family recipe boxes, and food magazines. Kraft and Wish-Bone commercials practically declared it the answer to the eternal “what’s for dinner?” question. And my mother loved it, dumped a bottle of dressing over some chicken breasts, popped it in the oven, and dinner was done. I would beg for Kraft “Zesty” Italian dressing, because it was the best in my book.
When I was out of college and had enough money to actually buy chicken breasts, I would marinate it in Zesty Italian dressing and grilled it. Somewhere around 2000, I decided that was not cool and switched to soy, garlic, and honey, or teriyaki as the preferred marinade and forgot all about that old way.
Italian dressing chicken may not be as trendy now in the age of air fryers and TikTok recipes, but it still has a loyal fan base. For many of us, it was our first introduction to marinated chicken. It’s nostalgic, comforting, and honestly… Still pretty delicious.
Sometimes the simple recipes are the ones that stick around.
So, here’s to Italian dressing grilled chicken, the zesty, tangy, 90s classic that proved a humble bottle of dressing could do so much more than just dress a salad.
Who knows? Maybe it’s time for a comeback.
Would you eat it again today?
I added bacon and provolone cheese to my grilled Italian chicken and made it into a sandwich with lettuce, onion and mayo. Yummy.
just me, living here 
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