TRIPLE-CHEESE STUFFED CHICKEN BREASTS

Okay my very first post! I'm excited!! Tonight as the title reads, I tried my culinary skills at cheese stuffed chicken breasts. The recipe states to cook it until they are no longer pink, I have a thermometer which states that for poultry the inside heat should be at least 170 degrees. I cooked it for about 70 minutes, since I had larger chicken breasts then what the recipe calls for. The recipe is as follows:

PREP: 20 MIN BAKE: 45 MIN OVEN: 375 degrees

INGREDIENTS:

6 medium chicken breast halves (about 3 pounds total)
1/2 cup ricotta cheese
1/2 cup shredded fontina or mozzarella cheese (2 ounces)
1/3 cup grated Parmesan or Romano cheese
2 teaspoons snipped fresh basil or 1/2 teaspoon dried basil, crushed
1 teaspoon snipped fresh oregano or 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano, crushed
1/4 teaspoon lemon-pepper seasoning
1 teaspoon olive oil or cooking oil


1. Rinse chicken; pat dry. With your fingers, gently separate the skin from the meat along rib edge.

2. For stuffing, combine cheeses, basil, oregano, and lemon-pepper seasoning. Stuff a little less than a 1/4 cup of the stuffing between the skin and meat of chicken breast. Place chicken, skin side up, in a 13x9x2-inch baking dish. Brush chicken lightly with oil. Bake in a 375 degree oven for 45 to 55 minutes, or till chicken is tender and no longer pink. Makes 6 servings.

Instead of the 6 medium breasts, I got 4 larger ones, so of course I had more cheese stuffing than needed, but its me and I LOVE cheese so I stuffed as much cheese as I could get in all 4 of the breasts. The cheese, when mixed looked like this...



Here's a picture of when I was stuffing the chicken breasts, fyi.. use a spoon like the recipe says to stuff the chicken. It is a lot easier then your fingers!



The recipe did not say to spray the bottom of the pan with olive oil, but I did anyways since I have issues with things sticking to my pots and pans. A.W. and I hardly ever use vegetable oil, instead olive oil cooking spray. This of course is a healthier option for everyone.

For the side dish, I just cooked up some packaged yellow saffron rice, which by the way, is my favorite new rice! The finished product looked really good, and oh tasted amazing!! The chicken breasts were really juicy, and I did find that you may want to add just a sprinkle of salt either to the cheese mixture before you put it in the chicken, or on the chicken before you put them in the oven. The finished meal looked like the following, sorry it is a little blurry!!



"There is no love sincerer than the love of food." - George Bernard Shaw.