Goat Cheese & Olive-Stuffed Chicken Breasts

The hard part of making this elegant dish is choosing the filling. Making a pocket in the chicken breast to hold the stuffing is easy, particularly if you use a good, sharp, thin-bladed knife. Browning the chicken in a skillet before baking gives it a beautiful golden color. Finishing it in the oven ensures that it cooks evenly throughout.

Prep Time: 25 minutes
Ready in: 50 minutes
Yield: 4 servings
Ease of Prep: Easy

Recipe Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons creamy goat cheese (I may have used a little more...)
• 1 tablespoon chopped black olives (I had to pit a bunch of Kalamatas, which were all I had.)
• Freshly ground pepper to taste
• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (1-1 1/4 pounds total)
• 1 large egg white
• 1/2 cup plain dry breadcrumbs
• 2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil

Recipe Directions

• Preheat oven to 400°F. Coat a rimmed baking sheet with cooking spray.
• Combine goat cheese, olives and pepper in a small bowl with a fork.
• Cut a horizontal slit along the thin, long edge of a chicken breast half, nearly through to the opposite side. Open up each breast and place one-fourth of the filling in the center. Close the breast over the filling, pressing the edges firmly together to seal. Repeat with the remaining chicken breasts and filling.
• Lightly beat egg white with a fork in a medium bowl. Place breadcrumbs in a shallow glass dish. Hold each chicken breast half together and dip in the egg white, then dredge in the breadcrumbs. (Discard leftovers.)
• Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken breasts; cook until browned on one side, about 2 minutes. Place the chicken, browned-side up, on the prepared baking sheet.
• Bake until the chicken is no longer pink in the center or until an instant-read thermometer registers 170°F, about 20 minutes.

In terms of changes to the recipe, I browned it on both sides because I didn't read very closely, and cooked it in an open glass Pyrex dish. I also sprinkled some rosemary into the bread crumbs.

Nutrition Information
Servings Per Recipe: 4

Calories: 235 cal
Carbohydrate Servings: 1/2
Carbohydrates: 10 g
Dietary Fiber: 1 g
Cholesterol: 72 mg
Fat: 7 g
Sodium: 248 mg
Saturated Fat: 2 g
Protein: 31 g
Potassium: 341 mg
Monounsaturated Fat: 3 g

http://www.qwantz.com/archive/001269.html

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July 23rd, 2008: I forgot to mention that yesterday, July 22nd, was Pi Approximation Day! Today is Approximately Pi Approximation Day, however, so today you can just sort of rub pie around your face with a much greater margin of error. Math holidays, cats and kittens!

I am a great business man if I mention I made a totally sweet shirt out of the Pi Approximation Day comic!

I had never had the urge to try hummus until I started searching for something that I could eat as a snack when I found out I was Diabetic. It's the only thing the doctor didn't turn his nose up when I suggested it. (on salt free crackers of course). While it is available in a quality product actually made about 45 miles from me in the market I want to branch out and try making my own, so anyone who has a recipe they would like to recommend I would appreciate it.