Chicken stuffed with couscous

I am not sure if other people relate to me but I find many chicken recipes boring.  I know it is a leaner meat and healthy to eat but I tend not to cook with it that often. Maybe one day I will master my favorite Thai and Indian dishes (like chicken tikka masala...so good, I want some just thinking about it) but until then chicken is not always my first choice.

I also find it tricky to cook.  When frying or baking chicken the meat tends to dry out and just doesn't stay juicy enough for me. When we were younger, Alyssa and I would often heat up individual portions of stuffed chicken from the freezer: either chicken kiev or chicken cordon bleu. So as I was thinking about some new and exciting way to cook chicken, I decided to try to make stuffed chicken with couscous. I found a recipe online that called for baking the chicken. To prevent the chicken from drying out during this step, I decided to add some liquid to the baking dish. I added some wine that I had already opened, lemon juice, and olive oil, not measuring just by feel. Also, I think that covering the tray with aluminum foil would help to keep the meat soft.

Stuffed Chicken
makes 2 portions

Couscous
1 cup couscous
1 3/4 cups of vegetable broth
1 small white onion, chopped
1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
1/4 cup of frozen corn kernels
1/4 cup of crumbled feta cheese
Fresh parsley, chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil

1. Heat the oil in a small pot and add the couscous. Brown the couscous for about 3 minutes.

2. Add the vegetable broth and cover the pot. Cook over low heat until the couscous is fluffy, for about 10 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, in a frying pan, heat olive oil and add onion, garlic, and corn. Cook for about 5 minutes until the onion gets soft.

4. When everything is cooked, combine the couscous with vegetables, feta cheese, and parsley.

5. Separate 1/2 cup of couscous for stuffing the chicken, reserve the rest for serving on the side.

Chicken
2 chicken breasts
Salt, Pepper, and Paprika to taste
2 tablespoons olive oil
White wine

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F.

2. Cut a slit in the chicken length-wise without puncturing the other side.

3. Stuff the chicken with about 1/4 cup of couscous mixture.

4. In a frying pan, heat the olive oil. Brown the chicken on both sides.

5. Sprinkle each side with salt, pepper, and paprika.

6. Move the chicken to a baking pan and add some wine, lemon juice, and olive oil to the pan.

7. Bake for about 30-35 minutes until fully cooked.

Serve with couscous.

Enjoy

~R

Chicken Rolled with Le Gruyère & Sage

For those of you who have an iPhone, I highly recommend downloading the "Whole Foods Recipe" app. That is where I found this delicious recipe. The app allows you to browse recipes based on food preferences and categories, save favorites, and even create shopping lists. And I would probably eat almost everything the app suggests.

Now that my little promo for Whole Foods is over, onto the meal...

This dish has such a rich taste, from the sage to the pan sauce to the wine-soaked shallots, every element of this dish is punched with flavor. And while it may sound a little complicated, I assure you it's pretty easy to make!

Ingredients (serves 2)

2 large boneless, skinless chicken breast (thin sliced)

1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Small block Le Gruyère cheese, thinly sliced

Fresh sage leaves

2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 shallot, thinly sliced

1/2 cup dry white wine

Although I try to do most of my cooking on a budget, I don't mind splurging once in a while to try to make something I've never had before. The splurge in this recipe was the cheese. Le Gruyère cost me about $6.99 for a medium sized wedge, but I had never tried this cheese so I was able to justify the cost. And I already had most of the other ingredients in my pantry anyway. Also, where I splurged on cheese, I saved on wine. For the pan sauce, I used Trader Joe's classic "3 Buck Chuck" because that's all I had in my apartment so I needed to be resourceful. Still tasted great!

Procedure

1. Before beginning your preparation, take the cheese out of the refrigerator and let it sit out in room temperature for a few minutes. This softens the cheese and makes it much easier to handle in this dish.

2. Remove the outer 2 layers of the shallot and thinly slice. Take the block of the cheese that should be softened at this point and cut very thin slices. Set these ingredients aside with the sage leaves.

3. This part can be a little tricky, especially in my case because I do not own a rolling pin (an atrocity, I know.) But I'll give you the directions assuming you do own a rolling pin: Place the chicken breast between sheets of wax paper, and roll with a rolling pin. If you need to improvise, a meat mallet works well too. Flatten out the chicken until it is about 1/4-inch thick. Then cut along the length of the chicken into approximately 1/2 inch strips. Season the strips with salt and pepper on both sides. Repeat for the second piece of chicken.

4. Cover each strip of chicken with a slice of Le Gruyère and sage leaves. Roll them up and seal tightly with toothpicks so that they look like this:

5. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the rolled up chicken and cook until brown on both sides, turning constantly. As they start to brown, they should almost resemble scallops. Do not worry if some cheese melts onto the pan.

6. Once the chicken has cooked, transfer the chicken onto a plate (cover the plate with a paper towel to drain the excess oil.) Remove toothpicks.

7. Onto the pan sauce...return the skillet to medium heat and add the sliced shallot. Cook the shallot, scraping up brown bits from the pan, for about 2 minutes. Add the wine until most of the liquid has evaporated. I added some chili powder to the wine to achieve the right color and for an extra kick.

8. Pour the sauce over the chicken and you're ready to serve!

~A