Cranberry Orange Chicken Bake is an elegant, surprisingly simple dish that brings together tender chicken breasts stuffed with creamy brie cheese and tart fresh cranberries! With just a handful of ingredients and minimal prep.
Love More Cranberry Recipes? Try My Cranberry Apple Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes or this Cranberry Turkey Stuffing Balls next.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
This Cranberry Orange Chicken Bake is a flavorful, fuss-free dish that combines savory and sweet in every bite. Juicy chicken is baked with a bright blend of cranberries, orange juice, and aromatic herbs, creating a deliciously tangy glaze. It’s the perfect meal for busy weeknights or festive dinners alike.
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Cranberry Orange Chicken Bake
- Total Time: 50 minutes
- Yield: 4 stuffed chicken breasts
Description
This Cranberry Orange Chicken Bake features tender chicken breasts stuffed with creamy brie cheese and tart fresh cranberries, seasoned with sage and baked to perfection. Served alongside sweet potatoes, it’s an elegant yet simple dinner that’s perfect for holidays or any special occasion.
Ingredients
For the Chicken and Filling:
- Boneless, skinless chicken breasts (1 per person)
- 1 small brick brie cheese
- 1/2 cup fresh cranberries
For Seasoning and Sides:
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- Fresh sage, to taste
- Salt and black pepper, to taste
- Sweet potatoes (for serving alongside)
Instructions
Oven goes to 350°F. Get paper towels and dry off your chicken. Skipping this means soggy chicken that won’t brown.
Grab your best knife. Make a horizontal slice on the fat side of the chicken breast, then push the knife in sideways to hollow out a pocket. Don’t cut all the way through the other side. My first attempt looked like I murdered the chicken because I went too fast and hacked through it. Go slow.
Chop brie into random chunks. Rind stays on. Push pieces of brie and 4-6 cranberries into each pocket. I used to overstuff and then wonder why cheese lava flowed all over my pan. Less is more here.
Rip off parchment paper, line your pan. Put chicken on it. Pour olive oil over the top. Rip up sage leaves with your hands, throw them on. Salt and pepper like you mean it because under-seasoned chicken is depressing.
Put it in the oven. Set timer for 35 minutes. Walk away. Check it when the timer goes off. If juices run clear and it’s not pink inside, you’re done. My breasts are usually medium-sized so 35 minutes works. Giant ones take longer, maybe 40-45 minutes.
Do not cut into this immediately. I’ve made that mistake exactly once and watched an entire breast worth of brie slide onto my counter. Set a timer for 5 minutes and leave the kitchen if you have no self-control. Then slice and serve with whatever sweet potatoes you made.
Notes
- The pocket is everything! Cut deep enough to hold plenty of filling, but be careful not to pierce through. Think of it like a little purse inside the chicken.
- Pound thicker breasts slightly if they’re uneven. This helps them cook at the same rate.
- Save those pan juices! They’re incredible drizzled over the sweet potatoes or spooned over the chicken.
- Common mistake to avoid: Overstuffing! If you pack too much in, it’ll leak out during baking. A generous amount is perfect, but leave a little room.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 35 minutes
- Category: Main Dish
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Ingredient List
For the Chicken and Filling:
- Boneless, skinless chicken breasts (1 per person)
- 1 small brick brie cheese
- 1/2 cup fresh cranberries
For Seasoning and Sides:
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- Fresh sage, to taste
- Salt and black pepper, to taste
- Sweet potatoes (for serving alongside)
Why These Ingredients Work
Chicken breasts hold up to getting stabbed with a knife and stuffed without falling apart. Thighs are too floppy for this.
Brie costs more than I want to spend on cheese but there’s no substitute that works the same. It’s mild and creamy and melts into this silky pool inside the chicken. The rind stays on because peeling it off is annoying and unnecessary—it gets soft anyway.
Fresh cranberries taste sharp and slightly bitter, which stops this from being a cheese blob. I bought dried cranberries once because I forgot to check my pantry before shopping, and they made everything cloying and sweet. Terrible decision.
Olive oil keeps the outside from turning into leather while everything bakes. Use whatever brand you already own.
Sage grows in my garden so I use it constantly, but for this recipe it actually makes sense. Tastes like fall, doesn’t fight with the other flavors.
Sweet potatoes because I always have them and their sweetness goes with the chicken. Also they catch any cheese that tries to escape.
Essential Tools and Equipment
- Rimmed baking sheet
- Parchment paper (use it or spend twenty minutes scraping burnt cheese later)
- Sharp knife
- Meat thermometer if you’re not good at guessing doneness
- Paper towels
How To Make Cranberry Orange Chicken Bake
Step 1: Preheat and Prep
Oven goes to 350°F. Get paper towels and dry off your chicken. Skipping this means soggy chicken that won’t brown.
Step 2: Create the Pockets
Grab your best knife. Make a horizontal slice on the fat side of the chicken breast, then push the knife in sideways to hollow out a pocket. Don’t cut all the way through the other side. My first attempt looked like I murdered the chicken because I went too fast and hacked through it. Go slow.
Step 3: Stuff the Chicken
Chop brie into random chunks. Rind stays on. Push pieces of brie and 4-6 cranberries into each pocket. I used to overstuff and then wonder why cheese lava flowed all over my pan. Less is more here.
Step 4: Season and Prepare for Baking
Rip off parchment paper, line your pan. Put chicken on it. Pour olive oil over the top. Rip up sage leaves with your hands, throw them on. Salt and pepper like you mean it because under-seasoned chicken is depressing.
Step 5: Bake to Perfection
Put it in the oven. Set timer for 35 minutes. Walk away. Check it when the timer goes off. If juices run clear and it’s not pink inside, you’re done. My breasts are usually medium-sized so 35 minutes works. Giant ones take longer, maybe 40-45 minutes.
Step 6: Rest and Serve
Do not cut into this immediately. I’ve made that mistake exactly once and watched an entire breast worth of brie slide onto my counter. Set a timer for 5 minutes and leave the kitchen if you have no self-control. Then slice and serve with whatever sweet potatoes you made.
You Must Know
The 5-minute rest isn’t optional. That brie is molten lava hot and will run everywhere if you cut too soon. I learned this the expensive way when I ruined dinner for six people by being impatient. Set a timer and do not touch the chicken.
Personal Secret: I chop cranberries before stuffing them now. Sounds fussy but it spreads the flavor around and makes slicing way prettier. Whole cranberries roll off plates and annoy people.
Pro Tips & Cooking Hacks
Cold brie from the fridge is like trying to cut a rock. Leave it out while your oven heats up.
That pocket needs to be actually deep, not a wimpy little slice. You want room for filling without it spilling out the opening.
Uneven chicken breasts cook unevenly. Thick part gets dry edges, thin part is still raw in the middle. Whack the thick part with something heavy to flatten it.
Spoon those pan drippings over everything on your plate. Wasting them is a crime.
Overstuffing seems smart until brie explodes everywhere and burns on your pan. Moderate amounts work better.
Flavor Variations / Suggestions
No fresh cranberries at the store? Stick a spoonful of canned cranberry sauce in each pocket instead. More sugar but it works.
Chop sage really fine and mix it with the brie before stuffing for herb flavor in every bite.
My friend substitutes goat cheese because she thinks brie tastes like nothing. She’s wrong but her version is also good.
Add orange zest to cranberries if you want actual orange flavor. I skip it because extra steps.
Drizzle honey on top before baking. My mom insists this is better. I think it’s unnecessary but she won’t stop arguing about it.
Pecans in the filling sounded good until I tried it and decided it was too much texture chaos.
Make-Ahead Options
Stuff chicken in the morning, cover it, refrigerate. Take it out twenty minutes before dinner to lose the fridge chill. Bake as usual.
Freezing stuffed chicken turns the brie grainy and weird when thawed. Don’t do it. Freeze plain chicken if you want, stuff it fresh later.
Make sweet potatoes earlier in the day, reheat while chicken rests. Saves time if you’re busy.
Recipe Notes & Baker’s Tips
Small chicken breasts finish faster. Start checking at 25 minutes if yours are tiny.
Brie rind is edible and nobody will care that you left it on. It melts soft anyway.
Parchment paper saves you from scrubbing burnt cheese for half an hour. Worth the three seconds it takes to line the pan.
Fresh sage beats dried by a mile. Dried works but use barely any—quarter teaspoon maybe.
Serving Suggestions
I cut sweet potatoes into wedges, toss with oil and cinnamon, roast at 400°F for half an hour. Done same time as chicken usually.
Mashed sweet potatoes if that’s your preference.
Wild rice makes it seem fancier than it is.
Brussels sprouts with balsamic if you need vegetables to feel better about eating cheese-stuffed chicken.
Arugula salad with lemon juice cuts the richness if you care about that.
Bread to soak up cheese. Obviously.
Throw some sage on top when you plate it. Add cranberries around the edges. Looks deliberate instead of accidental.
Made this for Thanksgiving once when I was too tired for turkey. Nobody complained. My cousin requests it for her birthday now instead of going out to eat. Works for date night or random Wednesday.
Make it. See what happens.
How to Store Your Cranberry Orange Chicken Bake
Leftovers go in a container. Fridge. Three days max.
Reheat in oven at 325°F for ten minutes. Microwave makes it rubbery but works if you’re desperate. Low power, short bursts.
Don’t freeze after cooking. Texture gets gross.
Best eaten fresh when brie is still melty and perfect.
Allergy Information
Contains: Dairy because brie
Dairy-free: Almost impossible since brie is the entire point. Maybe try dairy-free cream cheese but I haven’t tested it. Safer bet is mushrooms and caramelized onions instead of cheese entirely.
No gluten. No nuts unless you add them.
Questions I Get Asked A Lot
My brie is leaking out during baking—what did I do wrong?
Pocket too shallow, you stabbed through the other side, or you crammed too much in. Also maybe you didn’t let it rest long enough before cutting.
Can I use dried cranberries instead of fresh?
Soak them in hot water first. But fresh cranberries have bite and tartness that dried ones can’t match. Dried makes it too sweet.
What if I can’t find brie cheese?
Camembert is basically identical. Goat cheese if you want tang. Cream cheese mixed with herbs works but isn’t the same experience.
How do I know when the chicken is done?
Thermometer reads 165°F. No thermometer? Cut the thickest part, check for white meat and clear juice.
💬 Tried this recipe? Leave a comment and rating below! Did your brie stay inside? What’d you pair it with? Tell me in the comments.
