If you want to go the extra mile for your family for dinner tonight, try Italian Stuffed Chicken Breasts. Every time I make it, I get all kinds of “ooh’s” and “aah’s”, except for one solitary time. Â The story behind this one disaster of a meal is worth hearing, and could save you from making the same mistake, so sit tight, and we’ll get to the recipe in just a bit.
I Participate in a meal-share. I cook for my own family and two other families once a week. The other families do the same, so two days a week, a nice homemade dinner magically appears on my doorstep. I love it! This particular mishap happened on my night to cook. I was baking these beautiful Italian stuffed chicken breasts.I prepped them all and had two dishes in the oven baking.  I put the third dish on the stove top and covered it. We had a glass top stove at the time. I was about to put it in the fridge while I was waiting for space in the oven when the phone rang. I answered it and was immediately distracted by my friend telling me all about her recent vacation. Little did I know, the burner, where I placed my chicken, was on. I walked back and forth through the kitchen, laughing with my friend, until suddenly, it happened. It sounded as if a bomb had gone off. Technically, it did. An explosion of molten hot glass, and raw stuffed chicken breast was sent like shrapnel to every corner of  my kitchen. Some even reached the family room where the glass started melting the carpet. Nobody was hurt, except maybe the friend on the line, as I sent a piercing scream right into her ear. The other families didn’t suffer that night, as their meal was tucked safely in the oven. My family, well, after we sanitized the entire place had beautiful, safe, cold bowls of cereal for dinner. Moral of the story, never mix glass dishes, with a hot glass stove top. You might just have yourself a bacteria-filled, glass infused, hot mess.
Now that you know what not to do…here’s how to wow your family for dinner.
Italian Stuffed Chicken Breasts
1 lb chicken breast
Spinach
Feta Cheese Chunk (sliced very thin)
Pepperoni
Italian bread crumbs
2 eggs, beaten
Your favorite marinara sauce
Pat your chicken breasts dry with a paper towel. Place in a gallon Ziplock bag and pound with a rolling pin until chicken is an even width of about 3/4 of an inch throughout.
Take the chicken breast out of the bag and carefully fillet the chicken in half (from the side).
Sandwich spinach, feta, and pepperoni in the middle of the chicken breast and fold back over.
Heat up a large skillet on medium/high heat. Dip the entire breast in the beaten egg on both sides, then dip in the bread crumbs. make sure the breast is nicely coated. Place the breaded chicken in your hot skillet. You just want to brown the crumbs to a nice golden color. Carefully turn the chicken over and brown the other side.
Move the chicken to a glass baking dish and bake at 375 for 45-50 minutes. Â I have a convection oven so I did mine at 350 for about 35 minutes. Either way will work great.
When chicken is done, take out of the oven, Cut to serving size and top with your favorite marinara sauce. Enjoy!
