Parmesan and Basil Stuffed Chicken Breasts

Ingredients:

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1 c. Parmesan cheese, grated

1/4 c. cream cheese, softened

1/4 fresh basil leaves, minced

1 small clove garlic

1/8 t. salt

1/8 t. pepper

2 T. extra virgin olive oil

Recipe:

1. Pat the chicken breasts dry. Using a parking knife and starting at the center edge of one of the breasts, cut a slit into the breast making sure to lave a 1-inch border around all sides. You'll be stuffing the filling into this slit.

2. Mix the cheeses, basil, garlic, salt, and pepper together until uniform. Reserve about 1 T. per breasts and set aside.

3. Divide the remaining filling and stuff into chicken breasts. Use toothpicks to cinch each of the slits closed. *

4. Heat a 12-inch skillet over medium heat. Add olive oil and heat until shimmering.

5. Place the chicken breasts in the pan without crowding. Cook without disturbing until browned on the bottoms, about 3-5 minutes.

6. Flip the chicken breasts and cook, covered, until a thermometer registers 160-165 in the middle of the meat, about 5-10 minutes.

7. Just before removing the chicken from the pan, remove the pan from the heat and spoon 1 T. of filling over each breast. Cover and let rest for 1-2 minutes, or until filling is melted over the chicken breasts.

8. Let chicken rest for 5 minutes before serving.

*If you're going to use colored toothpicks, then you might want to go with yellow. The blue ones bleed terribly! Haha.)

Rating: 4.5 of 5

This was so good! I recommend slitting the chicken closer to the edges (rather than 1-inch) so that there is more room to stuff. As long as the chicken had the cheese filling with it, it was fantastic. Eating it without any filling was just eating a plain piece of chicken....not so great. Super, super easy recipe. Stuffing chicken is not as hard as I always thought it was. I definitely don't like the part where you have to handle the raw meat.....gag. After this meal, I've been convinced that I need to grow some basil in our garden now.

Source: Dishing the Divine, Easy Stuffed Chicken Breasts with Parmesan and Basil Filling