Sunday, July 15, 2012

Stuffed Chicken a la Erika


Ok, how about a happy post? What makes most people happy? Thaaaat's right....food. 

I was racking my brain the other day in terms of what to make for dinner because I was getting really tired of left over enchiladas. We had been surviving off of 'em for the last several days.. I was very over them! So, I started poking around the freezer and decided to use up the chicken we had in there. I didn't want "just" chicken with some rice, so I opted to "stuff" some chicken breasts with something. After thinking a little more, I decided I'd try stuffing them with my artichoke & spinach dip. 

Remember, preheat the oven to 350*!



Here's my spinach & artichoke recipe. What's listed is for a regular sized amount, I ended up doubling it so I had enough to stuff all the chicken boobies and a little extra in case I wanted extra dip to bake on it's own:

12 oz. Cream Cheese (make sure it's soft so it's easier to blend with the other ingredients)
1/3 cup sour cream
1/4 cup mayo 
1 cup of spinach (either fresh, cooked, or frozen, thawed). Make sure it's very drained of extra water!
2 cans or jars of non-marinated artichoke hearts, roughly chopped
2 teaspoons of garlic salt
1/2 a packet of McCormicks Chili seasoning (yes, seriously)
1 cup of shredded pepper jack cheese

Mix all the ingredients together and then set it aside. If you're wanting it as an actual dip, just stick it in the oven at 325* for twenty minutes and you're good as gold. 

Make sure you wash your chicken, then dry 'em on a paper towel so they're not sopping wet. Then you'll need to take the breast, make a shallow cut from top to bottom, then inside the cut, fillet it a little more so you'll have room to stuff it with the dip. Here's a picture of what I'm talking about. For those of you who are perverts, like my husband, I'm sure it'll give you a giggle..whatever..just trying to help out those who are more "visual". 


Once you've done all the cutting, stuff all the pieces with the dip & use toothpicks to keep the sides together. Then take a small amount of olive oil (I use garlic infused olive oil), drizzle lightly over the chicken and then sprinkle breading crumbs over all of it. 


Cover it with aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, take the foil off and allow it to bake another 30 minutes. By doing this, you'll allow the chicken to stay juicy and also brown the bread crumbs. 


Tah-dah!


I ended up serving the stuffed chicken with some broccoli au gratin rice...the guys totally demolished everything! Major victory for me! 




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