Chicken is so versatile and can be cooked so many ways. By versatile I mean you can serve these chickens in a number of ways. They go great with salads or pasta but also tasty and hearty enough to stand alone as the main dish.
Chicken Salad
Ingredients:
- 4 boneless chicken breasts
- Plastic wrap or wax paper.
- Butcher’s twine or other cooking twine — toothpicks would work too.
- Olive oil
- salt
- pepper
- garlic
- 1 cup frozen spinach – thawed and squeeze out excess water.
- 1 cup cashews – rough chopped
- 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese – grated
We are going to create our stuffed chicken by pounding the chicken flat, layering with the stuffing, rolling up and tyeing everything together with some butcher’s twine
The first step is pounding the chicken flat. To prep the chicken cut off any excess fat. There should not be much but take a quick scan and trim it up if there is any excess fat. Now we should be ready to start flattening. Do this on you cutting board. Put a piece of plastic wrap or wax paper on the cutting board. Lay 1 chicken breast on the plastic wrap. Put another piece of plastic wrap over the top of the chicken. Using a rolling pin ( or other blunt object ) hit the chicken lightly – starting in the middle and working out — until the chicken is about 1/4 inch- 1/2 inch in thickness. Repeat this for all chicken breasts. Lightly coat each chicken breast with olive oil and season with salt, pepper, and garlic powder.
Next up is to make the stuffing. With the frozen spinach make sure to let it thaw some and then just squeeze out the excess water with your hands. In a medium sized mixing bowl add the chopped cashews, grated Parmesan cheese and spinach. Mix with a spoon.
Lay 4 pieces of the butcher twine on your assembly surface. Next put one chicken breast flat on top of the twine and then spread 1/4 of the stuffing on the chicken breast. Now roll the chicken up and tie each piece of twine. There will most likely be stuffing coming out the top — that’s ok — check out the picture for what they look like.
Chicken Prep Work
That’s all the prep work — we’re 90% done with these. The final step is to cook on the grill. Cook on a medium heat (350% or so ) for 5-6 minutes per side. Careful not to burn the cashews !
Serve with pasta and a white sauce for a fancy dinner. If you want to go light and healthy serve on top of a green vegetable salad with a lemon vinaigrette.
Pasta Chicken
