Stuffed Chicken breasts

This is a recipe I came up with for a very special occasion. Sometimes you just look what you have in your fridge/pantry and need to come up with something nice but not too complicated to make.

This is a very good dish. Great in textures, flavors and also provides a very nice presentation, so if you want to wow your crowd, this is the way to go!

Ingredients:

2 halves deboned and butterflied chicken breasts
2 tspn. olive oil
1/2 package frozen spinach thawed
1/2 container ricotta cheese (almost one cup)
salt and freshly ground black pepper
Sliced Pepperoni
1 cup mozzarella cheese

2 eggs
Panko breadcrumbs
flour
Salt and fresh ground pepper
Garlic powder
Italian seasoning
2 Tbspn. Butter


Directions:

Preheat oven to 350ºF.

In a medium bowl, mix the spinach, ricotta, salt and pepper, and 1/4 cup of the mozzarella cheese. Mix until well combined.

Lay the chicken breast between 2 pieces of plastic wrap. Using the flat side of a meat mallet, gently pound the chicken to 1/4-inch thickness. Remove the top sheet of plastic and lay half of the pepperoni slices neatly over the top to cover the breast. Add half of the spinach mixture and cover with half of the mozzarella cheese. Tuck in the sides of the breast and roll up tight like a jellyroll inside the plastic wrap. Squeeze the log gently to seal and twist both ends tight to form a nice log. Repeat with remaining chicken.

Season the flour with salt and pepper. Mix the bread crumbs with the italian seasoning, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Beat together the eggs and season so the flour, the eggs and the crumbs are all seasoned.

In a large frying pan, melt two tablespoons of butter.

Remove the plastic wrap. Lightly dust the chicken with flour, dip in the egg mixture and gently coat in the bread crumbs. Sear the logs and gently transfer them onto a lightly coated baking pan. Bake for 20 minutes or until browned and cooked through. (This cook time will vary depending on the thickness of your chicken and filling). To be more accurate, you can bake it until the chicken internal temperature reaches 165ºF.

Cut into pinwheels and serve.

Enjoy!