Stuffed Chicken Breast

I am sure you have heard it before, but chicken breast is a great source of lean protein.  It is however a very tricky meat to cook because it is easy to overcook, and undercooking can make you very sick. It doesn’t matter what you do to season it, a dry chicken breast is hard to eat. I don’t know about you, but I don’t see the point in eating something that doesn’t have flavor for the sake of it being good for me.

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You will notice when you look at your chicken breast, there is a clear film that covers one side. This is called Fascia, the connecting tissue that covers the muscle and connects it to the skin. Here is a picture of the chicken breast after it has been flattened.  it doesn’t look pretty, but you wont see this side anyways after it is all rolled up.

imagePlacing the fascia face down on your surface is going to become essential to contain the contents of your chicken breast once stuffed. It will reduce the occurrence of holes if it remains in tact.  You will need to pound the breast flat and when you do so, make sure the fascia is face down on your cutting board or solid surface. It is more difficult to pound flat if you are using a mallet on the non-fascia side anyways. Here is how the under side of the breast should look after it has been flattened.

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I stuffed my chicken with broccoli and cheese. The combinations are endless, such as onions and bell peppers, apples and Brie etc. Besides the apple, you will want to pre-cook your stuffing. This will prevent you from over cooking your chicken trying to cook your stuffing or bring it to temp to kill any germs that might be trapped inside.

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Before stuffing and rolling your chicken breast, lightly season the chicken with salt. Roll or fold the stuffing contents to contain them. If needed, use tooth picks to keep it from unrolling or falling apart in the oven.  They can be removed before serving, so don’t worry about how ugly they look sticking out of your chicken.

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Place in the oven and cook at 350 degrees until  cooked. Your meat thermometer should read 165 degrees when measured from the center of the stuffed chicken breast.

Here is what you will need:

5 chicken breasts

cooked stuffing ingredients

salt and pepper to taste.

It is hard to say how much stuffing ingredients you will need, because it will depend on the size of chicken breasts you are using.

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Enjoy!