Chicken Breasts Stuffed with Cheese, Tomato, and Basil
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Everyday Food, May 2006
- Prep Time 25 minutes
- Total Time 1 hour
- Yield Serves 4
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Ingredients
- 4 bone-in chicken breast halves (14 ounces each)
- 1/2 cup packed fresh basil leaves
- 1/3 cup drained oil-packed sun-dried tomato halves, about 8
- 2 garlic cloves, peeled
- 1 teaspoon finely grated orange zest
- Coarse salt and ground pepper
- 2 ounces Fontina or mozzarella cheese, cut into four pieces
- 2 teaspoons olive oil
Directions
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Line a rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil; set aside. With a paring knife, cut a 1-inch-long slit in thick side of each breast. Insert knife, and without enlarging opening, carefully work around inside to form a pocket (make sure you do not go through the other side).
- On a cutting board, pile basil, sun-dried tomatoes, garlic, zest, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper; finely chop. Divide mixture evenly, and spoon into breast pockets, spreading it around. Insert one piece of cheese in each breast pocket.
- Close pockets, using 2 to 3 toothpicks per breast; arrange, skin side up, on baking sheet. Rub with olive oil, and season generously with salt and pepper. Roast until well browned and an instant-read thermometer inserted in thickest part of breast (avoiding bone) reads 165 degrees, 30 to 35 minutes. Let chicken rest 5 minutes; remove toothpicks before serving.
A friend of mine cooked this recipe the other day and it was very good :-)
I made this for dinner tonight and it turned out excellent. I used fresh, diced tomatoes in place of the sun-dried tomatoes, and also added a few more seasonings to the top in addition to the salt and pepper. I added a dash of parsley, basil and garlic on top and they looked beautiful. I served it with minced, fresh tomatoes on top as garnish and it looked exquisite! And... it was so easy to make!
Can't beat new Chicken recipes, and this one will be on my table soon.
I liked your idea YankeeinEngland how you blended the spices. Thanks.
Now I am printing this off, and onto all the other exciting ideas with Chicken.
Good posting as always. God Bless
Not bad, but I put the tomato, basil, and garlic into the food processor, then spread this into the chicken pockets, then baked. I topped with the cheese the last 10 mins of baking, and it was delicious.
So good. I used boneless, skinless chicken breasts. It worked great. I also used dieced tomatos. It was really good
Very tasty but cooking the chicken on the bone too quite a while. Will try agan but may try it boneless but with skin on just to give it another try. Flavors work wonderfully.
This is a delicious chicken recipe!!!! So easy to fix and comes out perfect! The basil really gives the chicken a wonderful flavor! I'm sharing this recipe with everyone! YUMMY!
My husband and I truly enjoyed this recipe...
It was easy to prepare and delicious. We both need to watch our fat and cholesterol intake, a breakdown of nutritional information would be a huge improvement to all of these recipes.
i made this last night along with the pasta with shrimp, tomato, and basil (the recipe can be found on here) it was really good and super easy to make! i will be making this again soon!
I made this dish for my wife and a friend of hers from work. They were both very impressed and I looked like a culinary genius.
wonderful and very simple. My family loved it.
Excellent! made this for dinner tonight and it was very good and filling.