Stuffed Chicken Like You’ve Never Had It Before! (Spanakopita Style)

Print this recipe here: https://www.dimitrasdishes.com/spinach-feta-stuffed-chicken-breast/

Ingredients

5 chicken breasts, boneless skinless
olive oil
balsamic glaze
oregano
ground coriander
Salt
Pepper
Cumin
Dried oregano
For the filling:
1-pound baby spinach leaves, roughly chopped
¼ cup olive oil
4-5 scallions, finely chopped
2-3 garlic cloves, grated
Salt and pepper, to taste
6 ounces feta cheese
5 ounces cream cheese or ricotta cheese
2 tablespoons finely chopped mint
For the tomato sauce:
1 jar of your favorite marinara sauce
For Homemade Marinara Sauce:
1 small onion
2 garlic cloves, grated
28 ounces canned tomatoes, pureed
½ teaspoon sugar or honey
1 teaspoon dried oregano
Salt and pepper, to taste

Pinch of crushed red pepper flakes
For the Lemon-Caper Sauce:
Pan drippings
2 tablespoons of butter
2 garlic cloves, grated
2-4 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2-3 cups chicken broth
2 tablespoons capers, or less
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 400 °F, 200 °C.
Cut a pocket into each chicken breast. Drizzle some olive oil and balsamic glaze over the chicken breast. Season the chicken all around and inside the pocket with salt, pepper, a dusting of cumin, coriander, and oregano. Set aside in a baking tray.

Place the scallions with the olive oil in a pan over medium-high heat and cook until they soften. About 3 minutes.
Add the garlic and warm through about 30 seconds.
Add the spinach and cook until wilted and the liquid is mostly evaporated. About 8 minutes.
Place the feta in a large mixing bowl and mash it with a fork. Add the cream cheese or ricotta cheese and mix together. Season with some black pepper and add the mint along with the spinach mixture and mix well. Taste and adjust seasoning, if needed.
Stuff each breast with about a half cup of the filling.
To make your own homemade marinara sauce heat the olive oil with the onions over medium heat and cook until soft and golden. Add the garlic and warm through. Add all of the remaining ingredients and simmer for 10 minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning if needed.
Place the chicken in an ovenproof pan such as a cast-iron skillet and cook over medium-high heat for 5 minutes. Flip the chicken over and remove from the heat.
If you are making this dish with the tomato sauce, pour as much of the marinara sauce as desired into the pan. It should cover the chicken 1/3-1/2 of the way up from the bottom of the pan.

Bake in the preheated oven until the internal temperature of the chicken reaches 165 °F. Time depends on the thickness of the chicken cutlets. Thicker chicken takes about 18 minutes to bake.
Remove from the oven and allow to rest 5 minutes before serving.
If you are serving these with the lemon-caper sauce, just bake them in the oven without any sauce and as soon as they are ready, take them out of the oven, transfer the chicken to a plate and cover with foil.
Make the lemon caper sauce: Place the skillet that the chicken baked in over medium heat and add the butter. Once it melts add the garlic and immediately add the lemon juice. Pour the chicken broth into the skillet and bring to a boil. Add the capers and simmer for 3-5 minutes until the sauce reduces a bit. Pour the sauce over the chicken and serve.
To make this ahead:
Assemble and fill the chicken and place the tray in the refrigerator covered in plastic wrap. This can be done a day ahead.
Allow the chicken to come to room temperature before cooking. About 1-2 hours.
If you’re making a big batch (8-12, or more) you may skip the step of pan-frying one side of the chicken and just bake it in a large pan (or 2) until the internal temperature of the chicken reaches 165 °F.

Serve this with some toasted bread, pasta, or roasted vegetables. Enjoy!
Music Used:
Greek Sun Time (With Intro)
ITEM ID: 66582698
By: tonyanthony

Its All Greek
ITEM ID: 84456733
By: LowNotes

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hi everyoneas to another episode of Dimmitra’s Dishes i cannot wait to share this delicious chicken dinner idea with you it’s elegant enough to serve for a dinner party because it tastes like juicy chicken that’s stuffed with spanakopita spinach pie filling i mean just absolutely delicious if you’ve already tried my Mediterranean three cheese stuffed chicken and you liked it you’re going to love this let’s get started okay we’re going to begin with the chicken breast so I’m using seven chicken breasts today because there are some smaller breasts that came in the packet but there’s enough filling in here to fill between six to eight chicken breasts depending on their size so we’re going to begin by cutting the chicken breast in half lengthwise but don’t go all the way down to the end you don’t want to separate them you just want to be able to open them up all the way to add a lot of filling in the center and then we’re just going to season them so you can make the seasoning by mixing everything all together or by drizzling and sprinkling it on top just like I’m doing we’re going to season all around the inside and the outside beginning with a little bit of olive oil some balsamic glaze balsamic glaze is a thicker balsamic vinegar that’s just been cooked down longer and it’s sweeter and so much more flavorful if you don’t have any you can combine some regular balsamic vinegar with about a tablespoon of honey and you’ll get the same type of flavor and texture and then we’re going to season with salt freshly cracked black pepper some dried oregano and a little bit of coriander this is ground coriander then we’re going to flip the chicken around and do the same thing olive oil balsamic vinegar salt freshly cracked black pepper ground coriander and some dried oregano and we’ll just set this aside let the chicken marinate for a little bit while we make the spanacopita filling so I have six scallions here that have been washed really well i’m just going to thinly slice them all the way down to the white parts and these are going to go into a large skillet with a little bit of olive oil we’re going to cook these over medium heat until they’re nice and soft and golden once that’s done we’re going to go in with about four garlic cloves that have been grated i keep my garlic cloves already grated in the freezer and I just break off a chunk when I need it and it warms through as soon as it’s all warmed through and fragrant we’re going to go in with a pound of baby spinach leaves and we’ll do this in two or three batches seasoning each batch of spinach very lightly with some salt and freshly cracked black pepper i’ll increase the heat to high at this point so that way any liquid that the spinach releases will just evaporate quickly and then once the spinach has completely wilted I’ll take the skillet off of the heat i’ll add in a heaping teaspoon of dried dill if you have fresh dill you can add about a tablespoon of it or season it to your liking then I have a pack of cream cheese here this is going to go in straight out of the refrigerator if you leave it out if you remember to leave it out at room temperature it’s just going to incorporate much easier and if you’re not a fan of cream cheese you can substitute ricota cheese it just won’t bind everything as well as the cream cheese does i love adding cream cheese to my spanacopita filling just because it keeps everything nice and thick and creamy and it’s it just has the perfect flavor then I have a 6 oz block of feta cheese i’ll just crumble it right in and then just a handful of or two of shredded mozzarella cheese just so you can get a little bit of that gooey pull- aart texture mix everything all together and you can give it a taste at this point let the spanakopita filling cool to room temperature and then we’re going to fill our chicken breast but while we wait for the spanopita filling to cool down I like to serve this with some roasted broccoli because it tastes really good and it’s such an easy side to make i’m just going to peel the broccoli fuettes off of the stems and put them in a baking pan drizzle some olive oil over the top and then we just season very lightly with salt and freshly cracked black pepper this is going to roast at 400° Fahrenheit for 20 or 25 minutes until it’s tender you don’t want to overcook it so that way it doesn’t get too charred and it doesn’t get soggy so the broccoli is going to be ready in no time now we’re going to fill the chicken breasts i’ll just distribute that spinach pie filling into the center of each of the chicken breast if there’s a little bit left over I’ll just put it in the side of the tray because it’ll bake and just get so flavorful and good if you want to you can secure the chicken breast with three or four toothpicks just to hold them in place i’ll do some with toothpicks and some without the thing is when you put the toothpicks in they the chicken breast kind of stay shut otherwise during the cooking time they’re going to lift up a little bit so it’s totally up to you the oven is preheated to 400° F the chicken is going to bake on the center rack for 25 minutes then I’ll increase the heat to the broiler setting and I’ll put it on the broiler high setting but I’ll leave the chicken on the same middle rack and then let this cook for another five minutes you can check the temperature of the chicken using an instant read thermometer and as soon as it reaches 165° Fahrenheit you can take it out of the oven and then you’re going to have to let it rest for about 15 minutes you’re going to see that there’s going to be a nice pan sauce in there just let it sit it’ll thicken as it cools and you can use it to pour over the chicken and the broccoli this does taste good with a marinara sauce and a lemono sauce or even a lemony capra sauce and that’s it just like that the chicken is ready it’s We have a whole meal ready in under an hour just like I promised the roasted broccoli is one of the easiest sides that you can make and of course if you don’t have broccoli you can totally use cauliflower instead or just a combination of whatever veggies that you have on hand just place them on a sheetpan drizzle them with olive oil salt and pepper and that’s all you need you roast them at 400 until they’re fork tender and you have a delicious and healthy side that’s ready at the same time that your main dish is cooking so the chicken stays juicy the hardest part about cooking chicken breast is overcooking it and that can easily happen when you’re stuffing it but not if you follow my step-by-step instructions the chicken is going to cook and it’s going to be perfectly juicy that filling is going to add so much creaminess and so much depth of flavor it releases a lot of um pan juices so the spinach releases its juices the chicken releases its juices and it creates its own sauce but of course like I said earlier you can definitely warm up a can of pasta sauce or a jar of pasta sauce or if you make your own definitely make it and warm it on the stove top and you could serve this on top of the chicken or if you like a more lemony a more bright and lemony flavor I have a delicious lemony caper sauce that I’ll post on the website you can choose either one of the sauces or just serve it like that this tastes delicious maybe with some roasted potatoes cauliflower rice a salad or if you like pasta tastes really good with pasta too the exact measurements are on the website demetriosicious.com head on over there to print this recipe out and let me know what you think in the comment section down below thank you so much for spending time with me today if you want to learn how to make the Mediterranean three cheese stuffed chicken click over here and I’ll see you right over there