Saturday, December 31, 2011

This Goat Cheese and Raspberry Stuffed Chicken Breast Wrapped in Proscuitto is NOT Playing Around.

When I woke up yesterday morning, I knew this was destined to become my dinner.  That rarely happens to me.  Often, I come home from work, boil some noodles and eat them with bottled pasta sauce and canned parmesan.  True story.  
But not this time.

Do you spy Sampson's butt?  

My good friend Jonna knows how much I enjoy cooking and got me an awesome spoon rest for Christmas as well as this Pampered Chef Raspberry Habanero Sauce.


The sauce was the inspiration for this dish.  I typically don't keep sauces around, so it was fun to dream up how to best use this one.
*If you don't have a sauce like this around, you could make something just as perfect for this dish by combining one small jar of seedless raspberry preserves with two tablespoons (or less depending on how hot you want it) chipotle in adobo sauce.  Perfectly sweet, smoky and spicy. The goat cheese is a great foil for the heat and makes everything all perfectly balanced and yum.

This dish is so simple, yet really elegant.  It reminds me of a grown up version of one of my favorite eats Mom and Dad used to make when I was growing up: cream cheese and chive stuffed chicken breast wrapped in bacon.  You can use the same method I'll outline below and switch up the ingredients to try this gem as well.  This is like the grown up version of my classic favorite.

Raspberry and Goat Cheese Stuffed Chicken with Prosciutto
3 or 4 medium chicken boneless, skinless chicken breasts
4 oz. plain soft goat cheese (chevre)
1/3 cup spicy raspberry sauce (see note above)
4 thin strips prosciutto
Salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
Toothpicks (for securing bundles)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Take a chicken breast and pound it out till it is an even thickness and thin enough to wrap completely around the filling you will put inside.  I used my empty coconut oil jar because I'm a professional.

Note the smashed pieces of raw chicken on the side of the jar.  Keepin' it real.
Divide your goat cheese into thirds or quarters, depending on how many chicken breasts you have.  I had three, so I did thirds.  Put one third of the cheese in the center of the pounded chicken breast.  Spoon a third (or quarter) of the sauce over the goat cheese.



Wrap the chicken around the fillings and secure it together by piercing the two ends of the meat together with a toothpick.  You might be able to skip this step if it sticks together with little effort.  Be careful to remove the toothpicks after cooking so you don't impale the roof of you mouth and treat yourself to an emergency room visit.  Thanks.
Repeat the pounding, filling and sealing process with all your chicken breasts.  Wrap a sweet li'l blanket of prosciutto around each stuffed breast before placing them in a casserole dish.  If you want to use two pieces of prosciutto per chicken breast, congratulate yourself on having a beautiful mind.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  I like a lot of pepper.


Place the stuffed and wrapped breasts in the oven for 20 minutes.  Flip.  Cook 20 more minutes on the other side until proscuitto is lightly browned and juices run clear.  This dish makes it's own gravy, kind of like Gravy Train Dog Food, but better, and totally meant for human consumption.  Eating it with rice to sop up the juices is a great idea.  In fact, it's the law.  I made a wild rice pilaf.

Wild Rice Pilaf
1/2 cup brown rice
1/2 cup wild rice
2 cups vegetable stock
1 Tbsp butter
1/2 yellow onion, diced
1 Tbsp garlic seasoning
Handful chopped parsely
1/4 bottle pilsner beer
2 tsp olive oil

Bring the rices, stock and butter to a boil.  Reduce to a simmer and cover.  Leave it alone for 50 minutes.  While that is working, saute your diced onion in the olive oil until translucent.  Add onion, garlic seasoning and beer to your rice during the last ten minutes or so of cooking.  Stir in parsley when ready to serve.

When your chicken is done, serve a piece over your rice and spoon some of that crazy good gravy over  both the rice and chicken.  You worked hard on dinner.  I give you permission to use bagged salad.  I sure did.




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3 comments:

JenMarie said...

Oh wow. I really want this. I am really glad you included your wild rice pilaf recipe. I'm gonna so try that.

Your salad looks super yummy too, what did you put on it?

Unknown said...

'If you want to use two pieces of prosciutto, congratulate yourself on having a beautiful mind.' This, I think, is my favorite sentence you've posted on here thus far. Period.

I'm salivating.

Cleochatra said...

Yum! That looks so sexy, I'd buy it dinner and let it touch my knee.