Who Doesn't like stuffed chicken breasts ?

[discuspaul]

Who doesn't like stuffed chicken breast ?

I don't know anyone who doesn't like a moist and flavorful home-made stuffed chicken breast - do you ?

After going the usual 'store bought' route of rather bland stuffed chicken breasts for years - you know the kind I mean - cordon bleu, kiev, 3 cheese, etc., I decided several years ago to make my own from scratch, with many different fillings.

Tried many variations of widely different food types and flavors for fillings, along with several differing prep methods as well, and came up with several that I really enjoy taking the time to make, including this one, which I think of as a bit 'gourmet-ish', and which I thought you might like to try, perhaps some time soon, maybe even this week-end.

One of the biggest problems I faced right from the start, was to be able to put the chicken breasts together in such a way that they didn't leak & lose much, if any, of the lovely cheeses while baking - to the point that when you dished them up, all, or almost all, of the melted goodness had escaped and was 'glued on' to the bottom of the baking dish, while the served breast was quite dry inside and had lost it's expected appeal.


I pretty well solved that - see my 'IMPORTANT' note later.


This is what you need to have & do ( for a 4 person serving):

- 4 thin slices of rosemary ham.

- 4 large chicken breasts - each one placed singularly at a time - to lie flat (outside up) on a cutting board, and sliced horizontally starting from the smaller/thinner (rib bottom end) portion, right up to about 3/4" from the meaty breastbone top end, then unfolded open.

I try to make the cut so that the outer meat portion is somewhat thinner than the interior portion containing the chicken tender. You should then be able to make the overall thickness of the meat more even by further cutting & unfolding that inner, thicker portion which has the tender meat in it, out to the side.

The chicken tender portion may then become somewhat detached from the rest of the breast meat - but no worries - this will mesh reasonably well with the rest of the meat when being flattened with the meat cleaver, and this portion is where you will begin to begin rolling up to enclose the filling, so that it will be mainly inside of your finished chicken roll for baking.

This will result in a fairly flat, somewhat even, piece of chicken meat which is roughly 1/2" or so in overall thickness. Then cover each piece with cling wrap and use a meat cleaver to further well flatten the meat overall to a an even thickness of just over 1/4". This chicken slab should then have become somewhat roundish - approx. 7" X 7" - large enough to enable you to completely fold it around a decent amount of filling - approx. a heaping tablespoon of it- larger than a golf ball but smaller than a tennis ball - got it?

Before adding any filling - simply brush onto the chicken, a thin/light coating of molasses mixed with an even amount of water - yes molasses - a tbspn of it mixed well with water.

Then sprinkle on your choice of herb - use your favorite - I use ground fennel seed, but you could choose to use oregano, or thyme, or rosemary, or tarragon, or even just lemon zest. At this point, also add fresh ground pepper - but no salt - you'll get enough of that from the cheeses and the prosciutto in the filling - see below:

-----Then, lay flat onto each roll, a slice of the rosemary ham.

(To complete the stuffed chicken breast after rolling, you'll need to lightly flour coat each one, then drench it through a wash of beaten egg and milk, followed by rolling it well into panko bread crumbs to fully coat.)

Now you're ready to add filling and roll up the stuffed breastmeat.


HERE'S THE FILLING, which can be put together well ahead or even the previous day:


- 3-4 thin slices of prosciutto (fried ahead to near crispiness and then crumbled). You may substitute 2-3 rashers of bacon fried ahead to crispiness & crumbled.)

- 1 tbspn finely diced sun dried tomato. (I soak these in a bit of white wine first to soften them up & flavor them - but it's not necessary).

- 2-3 finely cut up green onions - green parts only.

- 1/3 cup fine chopped roasted pecans -

- 1/3 cup fine chopped artichoke hearts ( optional)

- 1/2 cup cream cheese, or soft goat cheese ( plain or herbed).

- 1/2 cup grated gruyere cheese, or alternatively, 1/2 cup crumbled gorgonzola or other blue cheese - your choice.

- 1/2 cup jalapeno monterey jack cheese, or havarti jalapeno cheese, or even just plain monterey jack, but I like the kick of jalapeno. Again, your choice.

All the above mixed well together, and apportioned suitably to each chicken breast for rolling.


NOW, here's the very "IMPORTANT TIP" - to ensure, as much as is possible, that the chicken roll seams will stay tightly closed/fairly well sealed up, during not only the pre-browning part prior to baking, but also all during the 45 minute baking ( @ 350 ) to finish for serving - so that you get little or no leakage of filling whatsoever:


Once you have the breasts stuffed with filling, and you've rolled each one of them up as tightly as you can, having the filling as completely well covered over with chicken meat as possible, place the rolled, floured, egg-washed, and panko-breaded breasts into your freezer.

Keep them in the freezer for up to a total of up to 3 hours or more, checking on them sometime after the first hour as they begin to firm up, compressing them with both hands (like you would roll up and pack together a firm snowball) .

Repeat doing that each & every half hour or so until they feel quite frozen firm and hard, and will not 'give' to any further hand compression at all. That will mean they are frozen down to about 1/2".

Add a modest amount of vegetable oil to large saucepan (sufficient to hold the 4 rolls without crowding them) - not more than 1/4" or so in depth of oil - heated to med./high & add the then partially frozen chicken rolls, starting with the SEAMED side of the rolls down first into the oil.

Assuming the oil is hot enough, moderately browning them on one side will only take a minute or so, then give them a quarter turn for a similar amount of time, and so on, until all 4 sides are medium brown.
You can try browning both ends a bit too, if you can manage that, but it's not necessary.

Place the browned rolls in an ovenproof baking dish, SEAMED side of each roll facing up.

Refrigerate until ready to bake - (I even place them back into the freezer for a while to firm them up again a little prior to baking for 45 -50 minutes in a 350 degree oven).

I made this recipe last night - and not only did I get NO LEAKAGE of melted cheese whatsoever, but they were without a doubt the best-tasting, moistest stuffed chicken breasts I've ever had !

I don't care to boast, but I'd venture to go as far as to say these stuffed chicken breasts could be a 'signature dish' at many fine restaurants !

Give this recipe a try - I think you will really like it.

[RogueDiscus]

You know, Paul. With a title like that, your asking for no replies.

[Willie]

Moist and flavorful are words almost never used together with chicken breast, Paul. Dry and bland are more common descriptors. I'm a dark meat guy myself.

Willie

[brewmaster15]

Paul, I love your recipes , you must have a circle of friends there inviting themselves over all the time! Im thinking we should change your user name from discuspaul to IronChefPaul.

Only one thing would make your recipes better... Pictures! Would love to see you incorporate some pics!


al

[jeep]

What a coincidence! I was going to fix some stuffed chicken breasts last night for dinner but the package had tenders and not breasts so I fried them. I will try this again using your recipe!

[Disgirl]

Paul, I wish I was rich enough to hire you as our personal chef, at least to make foods for us and send for me to only have to cook them. I also wish I had time to make your recipes, but I don't. Thanks for your recipes Chef Paul!
Barb

[discuspaul]

Moist and flavorful are words almost never used together with chicken breast, Paul. Dry and bland are more common descriptors. I'm a dark meat guy myself.

Willie

You're absolutely right, Willie - it's true - and that's why I posted this recipe - it was truly moist and flavorful.

Paul, I love your recipes , you must have a circle of friends there inviting themselves over all the time! Im thinking we should change your user name from discuspaul to IronChefPaul.

Only one thing would make your recipes better... Pictures! Would love to see you incorporate some pics!


al

Thanks Al, - pics are the toughest thing for me to deal with & post them successfully on the forum - I'll try in future - but I'll need some help - sure miss the ease & convenience of 'photobucket' pic transfers !

What a coincidence! I was going to fix some stuffed chicken breasts last night for dinner but the package had tenders and not breasts so I fried them. I will try this again using your recipe!

Please do give it a go - it's not difficult - and you can easily switch any of my suggestions for filling ingredients to other meats, cheeses, or herb/seasonings, vegs, etc. that you prefer.

Paul, I wish I was rich enough to hire you as our personal chef, at least to make foods for us and send for me to only have to cook them. I also wish I had time to make your recipes, but I don't. Thanks for your recipes Chef Paul!
Barb

Thanks Barb - wish you lived nearby - I'd have you over often - I love to cook for others & have ample time to do it.

[discuspaul]

You know, Paul. With a title like that, your asking for no replies.

True enough Steve, but my point was to hopefully pique interest enough for people to read through the instructions, & say to themselves - hey I can do that - let's give it a go !

BTW, the important part of the instructions - the freezing & compaction of the breasts - really works at keeping the rolls well sealed up & not falling apart when browning & baking - it was one of my most effective cooking discoveries.

[brewmaster15]

Thanks Al, - pics are the toughest thing for me to deal with & post them successfully on the forum - I'll try in future - but I'll need some help - sure miss the ease & convenience of 'photobucket' pic transfers !

Paul I am sure we can get you squared away.

[discuspaul]

Would appreciate any help I can get, Al
I can get the photos placed into my "Pictures" file, but don't know how to get them from there into a forum post or thread.

[Second Hand Pat]

Would appreciate any help I can get, Al
I can get the photos placed into my "Pictures" file, but don't know how to get them from there into a forum post or thread.

Hi Paul, where are your pictures? on the computer or phone? Lets start with this and get you up and running.
Pat

[discuspaul]

In my computer pictures file.

However, I didn't take any photos of the recent finished dishes I made for the very reason that I knew I couldn't successfully move them.
In fact, the stuffed chicken I made the other day looked real good after browning, and I would have loved to take a pic & post it with the recipe thread.
Also, after baking later it looked even better & would have proven there was no leakage !


I would definitely take pics in future if I knew I could easily post them on the forum.

Incidentally, I do have pics in my file of the chicken enchiladas dish I made recently, taken both before and after baking.
If I could move them to the forum, I could place them in the relative recipe post of the enchiladas.

[Second Hand Pat]

Paul, I added your Lasagna picture but I would rather teach you to post your own pictures rather then posting them for you. So the first thing to learn is to reduce your photo in size until they are no more then 2MB in size. Do you have any way of editing your photos.
Pat

[RogueDiscus]

Just to stick my nose in, here's my recent post about how I do this.

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showth...cs-for-posting

[discuspaul]

Paul, I added your Lasagna picture but I would rather teach you to post your own pictures rather then posting them for you. So the first thing to learn is to reduce your photo in size until they are no more then 2MB in size. Do you have any way of editing your photos.
Pat

I'm game for that - please give me directions & I'll give it a shot.

No, I don't know how to edit my photos - I may give Steve's suggestion a try.