What's for Dinner?: Stuffed Chicken Breasts

I think every person who cooks for their family has some kind of chicken dish.   My family prefers boneless compared to bone in chicken. I on the other hand like it with the bone in as it provides more flavor to any dish that you make.  So here is a dish that might be a little more fancy than normal but can be assembled the night before and the sauce too can be made the day before as well.  Your family will think you slaved over your stove all day.  It’s Spinach and Fontina Cheese Stuffed Chicken Breasts with a creamy wine sauce, tossed salad and spaghetti squash and that’s What’s for dinner?

Stuffed Chicken Breasts

• 1-2 lbs Boneless Chicken Breasts Pounded thin
• Flour
• Olive Oil and butter to sauté chicken breasts in
• 3 cloves chopped or minced  garlic
• Toothpicks
• Fresh baby spinach leaves
• Fontina Cheese grated (it’s a soft cheese so you can cut into small pieces if it won’t grate for you. Also can substitute Gruyere Swiss Cheese or Cheddar).

Directions for the Chicken: 

Pound chicken breasts thin, use kosher salt and pepper to season the breast on the inside, place minced garlic, Fontina cheese and a handful of baby spinach leaves, roll up short side and secure each roll with toothpicks..

At this point you can cover and refrigerate overnight or can prepare in the morning and cook later that evening.

Heat a sauté pan with olive oil and butter.  Coat chicken breasts in flour (can season it with salt and pepper) shake off excess and fry on top of stove till almost no longer pink.  You want a nice golden brown color on all sides if you can, but don’t worry because they need to be finished off in the oven at 350 degrees. Place in a 13x9 pan and bake off for 25 mins till cooked through. 

When the chicken is done cooking on top of the stove I deglaze the pan with wine and add the rest of the sauce ingredients.  Pour sauce over top of chicken.

Creamy Wine Sauce:

• ¼ Cup white wine (or more, wine you’d actually drink)
• ¼ Cup whipping cream
• 3T lemon juice
• 3T White Vinegar
• 1 shallot diced (I didn’t have the shallot and didn’t use one)
• 6 T butter
• Black pepper

Tip: If making in one day, can deglaze the pan with the wine, then add the rest of the ingredients till it reduces by ½ serve warm over chicken.

If making in advance, bring all to a boil, reduce and simmer to reduces by half, remove, cool and place in fridge till the next day.

Now here is a vegetable that people shy away from. It’s Spaghetti Squash and it is in the market all year round. It’s a big yellow oval squash and has a sticker on it so you know it’s spaghetti squash.  You can find it with all the other squashes at Market Basket.

Spaghetti Squash Directions:

Easiest way to cook it is to cut it in half, place in a large pan of water that comes ½ way up the squash and boil it for 15 mins or so till it’s soft but not mushy to the touch. 

Lift out each half, use a potholder to hold it as it’s hot, scoop out the seeds, discard them and then with a fork, scrape out the squash into a bowl.

It looks like spaghetti.  It’s sweet, crunchy (don’t overcook it, it will be too mushy), and delicious.  I add butter on top, black cracked pepper and parmesan cheese.  It’s a great side dish and rather easy to do. 

Tip: Buy the smallest one there is for a family of 4. Believe me it yields a lot of squash.

Hope you enjoy!!