Monday, September 22, 2008

Garlic Herb Stuffed Chicken


No matter how much you love food and truly enjoy your time in the kitchen, sometimes every chef needs a recipe that can be whipped up in less than 20 minutes* and still look gorgeous... This is one of those, "Honey, okay if my Boss joins us for dinner tonight?" or "Surprise, Aunt Edna is in town and on her way over to see you!" type meals.

The ingredients which really make this gluten free chicken memorable are its garlic and herb goat cheese, white wine and tomatoes. I would recommend serving it with a tangy side, something balsamic or citrus-y to bring out the full flavor of your dinner. It would also be lovely on a bed of angel hair rice pasta!

*Prep time = less than 20 minutes. With cooking time this meal takes one hour total.


Garlic Herb Stuffed Chicken

What You’ll Need:

4 large chicken breasts with skin left on
10 oz garlic and herb Chavrie goat cheese
4 large fresh basil leaves
4 large fresh tomatoes
4 sprigs fresh rosemary
36 trimmed asparagus sticks (a big bunch will do nicely)
Dry white wine
Extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt
Fresh ground black pepper
Small aluminum or cast iron baking dish (or you can use tin foil)


How It Works:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Toss each chicken breast by hand in a bowl with salt, pepper, olive oil, leaves from one rosemary sprig, asparagus and quarters of one large fresh tomato. It’s fine if the mixture gets good and juicy.

Place asparagus and most of the tomato quarters on the bottom of your small baking dish or hand made tin foil bowl. Pop the chicken breast and rosemary leaves on top. With a small sharp knife (or your fingers) make space between the chicken skin and the chicken breast – without pulling the skin off.

Cut thin slices of your garlic herb goat cheese and slide them into the pocket between the chicken breast and skin. Also add one large basil leaf, then tuck skin back over breast as smoothly as possible.


Sprinkle more salt and pepper over the top of your breast, as well as the remaining tomato quarters and rosemary. Drizzle with a bit of dry white wine and a bit more olive oil.


Bake approximately 30 – 35 minutes until the skin is crispy and golden brown, and the chicken is cooked through but still moist and tender (not dry).

Lovely in its juices and tin foil nest

As you can see, this recipe works very nicely with chicken thighs as well... we made a large batch of both breasts and thighs and they were all succulent.

Looks like you've been cooking all day!

Serves 4.

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