If you've been here before you know how I feel about boneless breast of chicken. It's doesn't taste like anything so it's our job as home chefs to make it taste like something. Right? When I stuff chicken breast, I pick my favorite flavors and experiment. And since I'm slightly obsessed with leeks, I knew I wanted to stuff them in some chicken. So here we are: stuffed chicken breast with roasted tomatoes, goat cheese and leeks.
Chicken Breast Stuffed with Tomatoes, Cheese and Leeks? Yes, Please!
When I make white meat chicken, I often go for stuffing a boneless breast of chicken. Why? To give it flavor! It needs to be properly seasoned and properly stuffed with flavor. I really enjoy when I find a flavor combo that will easily fit into a butterflied chicken breast too. No toothpicks or twine or tools needed. If you choose ingredients that can lay pretty flat, you can simply fold the chicken over and everything will be just fine and stay in place. Well, there will be oozing of cheeses most likely, but that's okay. I never met an oozy cheese I didn't want to devour.
Do You Know the Delight That is Roasted Tomatoes?
I realize that if you are, in fact, going to make this that one easy shortcut you will consider is NOT roasting the tomatoes. And I know that temptation. The dish will probably still taste very good. However, please roast the tomatoes. You especially should roast the tomatoes if you love tomatoes, but have somehow never roasted them before. You can also roast them the night before and stick them in the fridge until the next night. The difference between sliced raw tomatoes and roasted tomatoes is significant. I add finely diced garlic to the tomatoes, but if you don't want garlic you don't have to use it. They will still be delicious. But please roast them. Three easy steps: core tomatoes, gut the seeds, season and cook for an hour.
Follow These Easy Steps To Make Stuffed Chicken w/Tomatoes, Leeks and Cheese:
Want to Try More Stuffed Chicken Recipes? I Thought So:
- Jalapeno Popper Stuffed Chicken Wrapped in Bacon
- Stuffed Chicken Pepperoni Pizza Bake
- Three-Cheese Stuffed Chicken w/Sausage & Red Sauce
- Stove Top Stuffing Chicken Rolls
- Cheesy Fajita Stuffed Chicken
- Bone-in Stuffed Chicken Breast w/Spinach & Gouda
- Cranberry Brie Stuffed Chicken
Cooking with Leftovers in Mind Saves You Money on Take-Out
I realize this seems like a lot of food. However, if you can get into the mind-set of cooking with an eye on leftovers for lunches you will save money in the long run. When I worked in corporate America, I had colleagues who ate take-out every day for lunch. Every. Day. I never understood how they could afford to do that. How can anyone spend about $15+ a day for lunch? At the end of the month that's a car payment. Always baffled me. Every time I cook I think, why not make a little more than I need? Not only can it provide lunches for two people for a day or two, it's saves time and money. This dish reheats very well. I've done it in a microwave for a couple of minutes and I've also heated it on low in a covered pan. Both ways were awesome. If you're a larger family - this will all be gone. If this is for a smaller group - you've got built-in lunches.
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Stuffed Chicken Breast with Roasted Tomatoes, Goat Cheese and Leeks
- Prep Time: 35 minutes
- Cook Time: 1 hour, 20 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 55 minutes
Description
Want to spice up boring, old boneless breast of chicken? Try my stuffed chicken breast with roasted tomatoes, goat cheese and leeks.
Ingredients
- 6 boneless chicken breasts, butterflied
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
- ¾ to 1 teaspoon herbs de provence
- 2-3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 tablespoon fresh chopped parsley, optional garnish
For cooking the leeks
- 2 leeks, sliced in rings
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 tablespoons butter
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
For the roasted tomatoes
- 8 medium to large tomatoes
- 2 small cloves of garlic, finely diced
- 3-4 tablespoons olive oil, more if needed
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
For the cheese filling:
- 1 cup fresh shredded parmesan cheese
- ½ cup sharp white cheddar
- 11-ounce package of goat cheese
- Sautéed leeks
NOTE: Cook time includes one hour to roast the tomatoes and 20 minutes to cook the chicken. You can make the tomatoes a day or two before.
Instructions
- Start by making the roasted tomatoes. Finely dice the garlic. Remove cores from tomatoes with coring tool or paring knife. Cut tomatoes in half and remove seeds and pulp. Transfer tomato halves to one or two large baking dishes. Add a pinch of garlic to each tomato, drizzle olive oil over tomatoes and make sure to get some on the bottom of the pan too. Then rub the olive oil and garlic around inside of tomatoes. Last step: season with salt and pepper. Bake in a preheated over at 400 degrees for an hour. Longer if you want a little char on them. Can make these a day or two ahead and store in fridge.
- Slice and wash the leeks. Start by chopping off the dark green part of the leek. Cut the fuzzy ends off too. We’re using just the white and light green part. Slice leeks into ¼” rings and transfer to a large bowl. Add water to bowl to clean the leeks – they can actually be pretty dirty so watch for that. Press down on leeks and toss around in the water while also separating the rings. Drain the leeks when done.
- On medium heat, melt the olive oil and butter in a large pan. Add the leeks and season with salt and pepper. Stir until leeks are coated in the oil and butter. Stir often over 20-25 minutes until leeks start turning golden brown in color. Set aside to cool a few minutes when done.
- Shred the fresh parmesan cheese and white cheddar cheese and put in a bowl. Break apart the log of goat cheese and add to bowl. Add the sautéed leeks. Using gloves, mix the cheese and leeks together until everything is well combined. This is the filling for the chicken.
- Butterfly all your chicken breasts. Slice from the side until the chicken lays out flat on your cutting board. Don’t cut the chicken in half into cutlets. My video shows this well.
- Take you butterflied breasts and lay them on a cutting board with a piece of plastic wrap over it. We want to pound it down to about ¼” in thickness. You can pound them with a kitchen mallet or a frying pan like I did in the video. You can pound more than one piece of chicken at a time to save time with this.
- Stuff the chicken. Lay out the chicken breast on your cutting board. I measured out a ¼ cup of cheese and leek filling for each breast. Spread it out on the chicken. Place two tomato halves on top of the cheese then gently fold the chicken over. Repeat with all the breasts.
- Put any remaining cheese filling in a small baking dish. We’ll bake that in the oven with the chicken.
- Season the top of the stuffed chicken breasts with salt, pepper and herbs de provence. If you don’t have herbs de provence, you can use dried thyme or rosemary.
- Heat two pans on your stove top with olive oil to sear the chicken. Should be on medium-to-high heat. Don’t crowd the pan and put all the pieces in one pan as the steam will make it difficult to get the sear. I used two pans (see video).
- Add chicken breasts to pans seasoned side down. Now season the top of the chicken with salt, pepper and herbs de provence as well.
- Cook for about 3-4 minutes until it’s got a nice sear (golden brown color). Turn the chicken over and cook one more minute.
- Now you can combine the chicken into one pan (I used an oven-safe pan) and cook in a preheated oven at 375 degrees for 15-20 minutes. Internal temperature of the chicken should be 165 degrees. If you don’t have a large oven-safe pan use a 9x13 baking dish. Add the extra cheese mixture in the oven with the chicken – check this at 10 minutes to see if it’s done.
- If you’re using the fresh parsley garnish you should chop that now.
- Once the chicken is cooked let it rest for 5-10 minutes. You can plate it individually or on a platter like I did. I served with steamed broccoli, but you can do whatever sides you want. A salad would be great too!
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