stuffed chicken a la me

a while back the daughter and i made chicken fingers. she's been asking to make them again, and last week... the week before? i forget, i decided we could. unfortunately for her (bad mommy) i got it in my head that it'd actually be stuffed chicken fingers and the day i REALLY decided to do it, it was too late in the evening for her to help... so we'll have to do the regular ones another time... perhaps tomorrow, being her bday and all...but i digress. So, here it is...

Bread Crumbs. What do you do when you've got various near (or already) stale bread and some croutons lying around? Make breadcrumbs of course! This is 1 and a half italian rolls, a slice and a heel of rye bread, some croutons (cheese & garlic I think) and a couple tablespoons (or so) of grated parmesan cheese. Throw it all in the processor. I pulsed for a bit, got impatient and just hit...grate perhaps.

Cheese Filling. Can't really recall exactly how or why I decided to go with a mixture, but it really didn't have to be anything more than knowing that I had all these different cheeses available. I wish I knew enough about the science to say something about how the different forms would work together, but I don't. Ah well - it just does. Knowing that it works for lasagna probably played a part in me bothering to give it a try. Grated parm, ricotta, shredded 6 cheese italian blend. I also added minced garlic here. if I hadn't had any I probably would have added garlic powder to the breadcrumbs or used it to season the meat. The consistency was less moist than with lasagna, but spreadable.

Veggies. I was discussing my endeavor with coworkers earlier that day and contemplating adding something else to the filling. A coworker suggested spinach or broccoli. I was thinking bacon but I kept that to myself, lol. I did, however, have plum tomatoes and an onion and figured they'd work nicely. And it did. Though I think it could use more. But in this case I used all that would fit. More in a minute..





Chicken. A lb or so of... ok I know it was boneless, skinless chicken breast, but it was already relatively thin when I started. So, whatever that was. I did pound it out to make it even flatter and ideally better for rolling, coulda been flatter. I must confess, at first I forgot the top layer of wax paper. Amazing how much better it went once I remembered. And no, I didn't ROLL it... I repurposed my rolling pin as a meat tenderizer. Oh yeah, the meat somehow. Pepper and more salt than necessary. Wah. It wasn't inedible, make no mistake. But I did use more salt than I'd intended given all that cheese.

Fill. I managed to have exactly enough of the cheese mixture for the 4 pieces of chicken. Or so I thought. In the end what I had was way more cheese mixture than necessary, lol. Aint it purdy. I was tempted to just bake it like that, but I resisted. I rolled as intended....

Roll. Given the amount of filling, 'rolling' ended up little more than an almost tri-fold. Flatter meat and less cheese should help with that going forward. You can see the tomatoes and onions that had to be sacrificed. String of some kind would have helped, but all I had was toothpicks. They did ok.

Bread. I have previously scoffed at  the notion of buying a 3 piece breading set... However, I've since added it to my wish list. I planned to bake them vs fry them. Can I say it's because it's healthier (marginally, given all. that. cheese)? Sure, but that would kinda be a lie. That is just a pleasant bi product. I just didn't feel like it.

Bake. 20min at 375. Probably could have done a few minutes less.

  

Voila. Chickenny cheesy goodness! So, aside from using less cheese to allow for more veggies, I considered adding a layer of tomato paste on top of the cheese. While it could be partly for flavor purposes, the idea was really inspired for a need for more color. As yummy as it was, it does look rather bland. The red of the tomato barely comes through. Could also do something with herbs for some greenness...Starting to sound like Christmas... Point being, it could use more color. We'll see what happens when I try it again. All anything aside (too much salt, too much cheese, not enough color...blah blah blah). IT WAS DELICIOUS!!!!! Can't wait to do it again.