Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Stuffed Chicken



With time on my hands and a gastronomically inclined mind, I decided to go into the kitchen again this week. I've been having fun learning how to cook new dishes. However, tonight I didn't learn a new dish. I simply took chicken out and started adding different elements to it. Let's start with the main component; the chicken and its stuffing: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees

Ingredients Needed:
Chicken breasts (on the larger side preferably)
Half package frozen, chopped spinach
One or two large mushrooms, finely chopped
Quarter of red, yellow, or orange bell pepper
2 garlics cloves, finely diced
Jalapeno, finely diced
Feta cheese
Italian spices

Preparation:
1) Cut the chicken, making it thin and wide. There should be two cuts that result in the chicken breast looking like a trifold wallet when opened up.
2)Saute the finely chopped vegetables in 1 tbsp of butter, adding generous amounts of the herbs and spices. I am keen on using more than most people would think appropriate because I love bold flavors.
3) Leave sautéed vegetables off to the side in order to cool down so that the feta cheese can be added.
4) Add feta cheese to the cooled mixture and spoon into the center of the opened up chicken breast.
5) Fold the two sides of the chicken breasts to the center, creating the stuffed effect.
6) Liberally sprinkle more of the spices and herbs on the top of the chicken breast.

After preparing this, I then started making the sauces. I'll start with the green sauce.

Ingredients:
Second half of frozen, chopped spinach
4-6 stalks of asparagus
2-3 jalapenos (i tend to like food much spicier than others do so adjust for yourself)
salt, to taste
pepper
2 tbsp milk
olive oil (to help make sauce a liquid)
2 cloves garlic

Preparation:
1) Add all ingredients to blender and begin on a slow setting to blend everything together, slowly increasing the speed of the blade while wiping down the edges.
2) add olive oil as needed to help smooth out the texture
3) adjust flavors until you like it
4) Once a smooth mixture, pour sauce into sauce pan to cook over medium on the stove for 5-10 minutes

To make the orange sauce, here are the ingredients:
1 whole orange bell pepper (can substitute for red or yellow)
1 tbsp cayenne pepper (90,000 scoville units)
4 cloves of cardamon
Olive Oil
Salt, to taste


Preparation:
1) roast the bell pepper on your stove or in your oven on broil setting. When skin becomes loose, peel the skin off.
2) Roughly chop the pepper and put it into the blender with the rest of the ingredients
3) Blend until smooth sauce



At this point, you should have the two sauces made and the chicken breasts prepared. The oven should be preheated to 400 degrees. So, place the chicken breasts on a rack with a drip pan below. Let it bake until almost done. I'm not sure how long it took so check on it periodically. When it is almost done, switch the oven setting to broil for the last few minutes to give the top a golden color.

Now, at last, everything is complete! Enjoy!

1 comment:

  1. 2) Roughly thomas sabo sverige chop the pepper thomas sabo armband and put it thomas sabo utlopp into the blender thomas sabo kedjor with the rest thomas sabo butik of the ingredients
    3) Blend until smooth sauce

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