Goat Cheese and Roasted Red Pepper Stuffed Chicken with Parmesan Baked Tomato

We eat a lot of chicken and keeping it interesting is always a challenge. For tonight's dinner I decided to go with a stuffed chicken. When you cook chicken this way it is usually really tender and is excellent with goat cheese. 

Prep time: 20 minutes (although some of the prep for the tomato can be done while chicken is cooking
Bake time: 60 minutes
Total time: 1 hour 10 mins


Ingredients
Stuffed Chicken
2 large chicken breasts
1 small log of goat cheese
1 green onion, finely sliced
1 full roasted red pepper, jarred and sliced in half
2 tsp garlic, minced...I used jarred
2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
salt and pepper to taste


Parmesan Baked Tomato
1 large tomato, cut in half
handful of croutons
1/8 cup parmesan, grated
1 tsp garlic, minced... I used jarred
a few sprinkles of dried rosemary


Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
2. Place the chicken breasts in a large ziplock bag and pound until they are about 1/4 inch thick with a meat pounder. The ziplock helps the chicken from tearing and the counter clean.
3. In a small bowl crumble the goat cheese and mix with green onion.
4. Take the chicken breasts out of the bag and lay them out on a plate. Put half the goat cheese mixture on each, then top with the red pepper.
5. Fold up the sides and ends of the chicken around the filling and fasten with toothpicks.
6. Place the chicken with the seam side down on a baking tray, then spread 1 tsp of garlic over each, sprinkle salt, pepper and parsley over top.
7. Cover with foil and bake for 45 minutes.
8. While the chicken is cooking, take the tomatoes and with the inside facing up, cut criss-crosses in them to allow the seasonings to seep in when they are cooking.
9. Spread 1/2 tsp of minced garlic on each, then sprinkle rosemary.
10. Crush up the croutons into crumbs (I used a mini chopper, but you could put in another bag and use the meat pounder).
11. Top the tomatoes with the croutons so the tops are covered, the top with grated parm.
12. Put tomatoes on a baking sheet, and put in the oven when the chicken has about 20 minutes left on the timer.
13. Once 45 minutes are up, uncover chicken and cook for an additional 15 minutes. Keep tomatoes in the oven as well.
14. Remove the toothpicks when you are ready to serve, and sprinkle some more parsley on top. If some of the cheese seeped out when it cooked, drizzle it over the top. Because there may be some chicken fat also in the bottom of the baking pan you may want to skim the cheese out.

Serve it up and enjoy! We wanted some more veggies, so we also included a mixed green salad.

Let me know what you think and leave a comment!

Messy Avocado Feta Chicken Burger Sandwiches with Homemade Oven Fries and Roasted Cheesy Tomatoes

This recipe is inspired by the Cobb salad, then changed dramatically. It includes some of my favourite ingredients like sour cream, green onion, avocado and chicken. It's a bit of a messy one, but so yummy! I hope you enjoy it too!


Prep Time: 20 mins  
Hands on Cooking: 60 mins   


Ingredients
Homemade Oven Fries
3 baking potatoes, cleaned and sliced into thick fries
1/2 tsp chilli powder
dash of cayenne pepper
10 shakes of Frank's Red Hot
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil


Messy Avocado Feta Chicken Burger Sandwiches
2 hard boiled eggs, crumbled
1 green onion
1/2 cup crumbled feta
1/4 cup sour cream
1 package ground chicken
1/4 cup bread crumbs
1 tbsp chopped sweet onion
1 tsp minced garlic (I use jarred)
1 ripe avocado
2 dashes of Realime
2 dashes of Frank's Red Hot sauce
4 Naan breads


Roasted Cheesy Tomatoes
4 tomatoes
12 slices of white cheddar
sprinkle of dried basil

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2. While it is heating, hard boil the eggs (if not already done), I follow this format
3. In a large bowl, toss potatoes with chilli powder, cayenne, Frank's Red Hot Sauce, 1 tbsp of olive oil and salt to your preference
4. Spray baking sheet with PAM then transfer potatoes to baking sheet and spread in a single layer, sprinkle with more salt (will help them brown)
5. Cook in oven for 50 minutes, turning when the timer reads 35 and 15 minutes remaining. Add more salt as necessary (I like salt)
6. While fries are cooking, thinly slice green onion and  mix in a bowl with crumbled feta and sour cream. Set aside
7. Turn on grill press, mine is a Breville, or heat 1 tbsp of oil in a fry pan over medium heat (but wait until burgers are closer to being ready to cook
8. In a medium bowl add ground chicken, onion, breadcrumbs, garlic, salt and pepper and mix with hands until combined.
9. Shape into 8 small patties.
10. In a small bowl, mash avocado with lime juice and Frank's Red Hot sauce. Set aside
11. Add patties to grill (or fry pan) and heat until cooked through.
12. While patties are cooking, cut tops off tomatoes and cut X slits in them. Insert cheese and sprinkle extra cheese on top. Sprinkle with dried basil.
13. Add tomatoes to baking sheet with fries for last 10 minutes of cook time. 
14. Spread avocado mixture on one side of naan bread, sprinkle with crumbled hard boiled egg and place two patties on top. Spoon feta mixture on top of burgers and fold in half.
15. Serve with oven fries and roasted cheesy tomatoes.

Caution:

This meal is a three napkin dinner. It is messy, but delicious! To cut down on the mess you could substitute naan bread with English Muffins or small dinner rolls, topping with only one patty.