Stuffed Chicken

I think my husband is trying to take over my blog. Really, I do. The problem is that he comes up with these great cooking ideas and approaches them with such enthusiasm, that I have to comply.  Plus, I’ve been an uncreative blogger lately and if it were up to me I would make  things like this every night for dinner.

Technically, I suggested we make stuffed chicken last weekend for dinner. But then John trumped me by coming up with 8 different ways to stuff them.  I cut it down to three, for feasibility and general practicality purposes. We don’t have kids yet, but I can already tell which parent I am going to be.

Shoot.

We stuffed the chicken three ways. It was so easy and actually healthy enough we could eat the leftovers during the week.  Start by preparing each boneless skinless chicken breast by either pounding them to ~1/2 inch thin or cutting in half crosswise (our Central Market has enormous chickens so we halved ours).  Then we pounded them a little thinner, topped them with each of the three stuffing variations (a few spoonfuls), secured with two toothpicks, brushed with olive oil and S&P, then baked at 350 for about 20-25 minutes.  The opportunities are endless, but this is what we tried:

Broccoli & Cheese

Broccoli, cooked

Sharp Cheddar, cubed

Mushroom and Wine

Melt one tablespoon of butter in a large skillet. Add 1 package of sliced mushrooms and plenty of salt. Add 1 cup of good red wine, then bring to a low simmer and reduce until just the mushrooms and a touch of wine is left.

Apple & Onion

Heat a tablespoon of olive oil, then add in a ¾ cup finely diced onion. Cook for several minutes, then add in your favorite apples, chopped into small pieces.  Cube a slice of bread (we actually used an english muffin) and stir into the mixture. Pour in ½ cup apple juice and cook until reduced.

My fave was the broccoli and cheese, John's was the apple and onion. They were all good though, and really quite cute.