Stuffed Chicken Breast With Mozzarella, Sun Dried Tomatoes and Basil

I use this stuffing technique for chicken, steak and pork chops. Be creative about what you put inside: try sautéed spinach and mushrooms or capers, parsley and lemon zest.

Serves 4

6 sun dried tomatoes halves in oil, drained and chopped
2 ounces fresh mozzarella, chopped
10 large basil leaves, chopped
Zest from 1 lemon
2 8-ounce boneless, skinless chicken breasts, trimmed of extra fat
2 teaspoons olive oil
Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, mix together tomatoes, mozzarella, basil, and lemon zest. Taste and season with salt and pepper if desired.

Using a pairing knife, start a thickest part of chicken and make a pocket lengthwise in the chicken. Using fingers, stuff chicken with mozzarella filling. Repeat with remaining chicken breast. Season chicken with salt.

Heat a medium stainless steel skillet over medium high heat. Add olive oil and once hot, add chicken breasts. Sear on both sides until brown. Place chicken on a rimmed baking sheet and bake until centers are hot and reach 160 degrees on an instant read thermometer, about 15 to 20 minutes. Let chicken rest 5 minutes. Slice chicken into rounds and serve hot.

Nutritional information per serving:
Calories: 179; total fat: 6g; cholesterol: 75mg; sodium (not including additional seasoning): 127mg; carbohydrate: 1g; total dietary fiber: 0g; protein: 29g

if you’re wondering what’s for dinner how about some stuffed chicken breasts with fresh basil a little mozzarella and sun-dried tomatoes and the best part about this recipe is I’m going to give you a unique technique but I’ll have you stuffing chicken like a pro the great part about this recipe is how quickly it comes together so my filling is simply going to be a little bit of fresh basil some sun-dried tomatoes now these have been packed in oil they’ve been drained and chopped a little bit of fresh mozzarella cheese hint of lemon zest because that gives it a little bit of a kick you can stuff your chicken breast with anything you want maybe some sauteed spinach and mushrooms or to make chicken cordon bleu you can use ham and cheese there we go and just a little pinch of salt now watch this very unique technique that I have for stuffing the chicken breast really easy to do and I like to tell people you’re channeling your inner surgeon here so when you do it go slow so take your chicken breast just place it on the cutting board and notice how I have the smooth side down and I’ve got the thickest part of the chicken facing away from me I’m going to take my boning knife keep your hand flat and your knife parallel to the cutting board and take the knife and just push it back through the thickest part of the chicken and just go all the way back almost to the end right there okay see how I did that now all we’re going to do is we’re making this little pocket where we can put the stuffing and if you happen to cut through it’s okay don’t worry about it so now let’s check that pocket it goes all the way back that’s perfect take your filling open up the chicken just kind of stuff it in there that’s lovely now one of the problems that I usually have is see how it’s open here and some of the cheese may tend to melt out then I take one little extra basil leaf and this is kind of my my dam it’s going to stop the cheese from coming out so I’m just going to tuck that in around the filling there we go then chicken breast is ready for Siri already season the chicken with a little salt and I’ve preheated my stainless steel pan on medium-high heat this is very easy all we’re going to do is add a little olive oil to the pan not too much swirl to coat and then once that olive oil is nice and hot take your chicken and place it directly down and then just here until brown on both sides now sure you could skip this step the browning part but it adds flavors of the chicken so I wouldn’t it’s nice and brown on the second side so the chicken is totally raw in the middle so now I’m going to put it on a baking sheet with a little cooling rack inside and cook it until we reach an internal temperature of 160 degrees about 20 minutes take the chicken out of the oven let it rest 5 minutes so the juices redistribute and you’re ready to slice now I want you to take a look see how the basil held in all my filling so it didn’t end up on my baking sheet that’s exactly what I was looking for and to slice I like to cut my slices at angles because I think it’s really pretty just cut that away the first two slices don’t have a ton of filling but now take a look as we slice through we’ll get back isn’t that fantastic and see how nice and juicy the chicken is then let it rest there we go one more slice now remember that one chicken breast does serve to people come and take this gather it up stick it on the plate and kind of fan it out how beautiful is that and then I’ll probably serve this with a little bit of green salad this is fast easy fresh you