Chicken Breasts Stuffed with Perfection

Most Helpful Positive Review

Made this for a party last night and everyone screamed for more! The only change I think I would make next time is to change the topping to the prepared stuffing mixed with a little butter as suggested by another reviewer. Making the crumb topping from the recipe was just too much work and I even think it made the chicken looked dried out. I brushed some butter on top right before serving to give it some "glisten". Other than that, the flavor was excellent. I made them in the morning, put them in a baking dish lined with non-stick Reynolds Wrap and popped them in the oven to cook while I was serving appetizers and drinks. I served each breast on top of a bed of cooked fettucine noodles which I had sauteed in olive oil and seasoned with garlic salt & parsley flakes. As a side, I stir-fried (again in garlic oil) a mixture of strips of green, red and yellow peppers, sugar snap peas, tiny baby carrots and baby portabella mushrooms and seasoned them with salt and just a little cayenne pepper and ginger.

I have been cooking since I was 6, so aren't many recipes I don't make "improvements" on, and this one was no exception. For starters, medium is too high of a heat setting for sautee'ing the garlic. It will burn. You need to put the heat to medium low, and use 2 tbsps oil. After the garlic, spinach and green onion was sautee'd and removed from the pan, I added the mushrooms, but seasoned them with 1/8 tsp garlic salt w/ parsley, 1/8 tsp garlic pepper, and 1/8 tsp onion salt. They had a distinct marinaded flavor. When mixing the feta cheese mixture, I increased the sour cream to 1 cup, because it was too dry without it, and I wanted the mixture to be smoother so the flavors would combine and the cheese would melt some when cooked instead of making the mix clumpy. The bread coating I changed completely. I used 2 cups italian style bread crumbs, 1/2 cup of shredded parmesan/romano/asiago cheese blend and 1/8 tsp seasoned pepper blend. When I served this, it was gone in record time. I even had a picky-eater 5 year old visiting that cleaned her plate. I had some filling left over, so I put it in the fridge and then took it to my in-laws' house for their Easter party. I threw it in a bowl and microwaved it, and it made an AMAZING dip when served with Tostito's Scoops. It was gone in 5 minutes. Thanks so much for the key ingredient combinations! You gave me the means to concoct my own something special. I will be making this often, and definately if I have company coming!

This recipe not only tasted great, but it also came out looking great too! I made it strictly following the recipe the first time and loved it, but it does take a while to make. The second time I made it, I used some shortcuts, and it came out just as great. First, instead of making the bread crumb topping, I used a prepackaged cornbread stuffing (Pepperidge Farm), made it according to the package directions, and then patted a thin layer over the chicken before baking. Instead of precooking all the ingredients for the "perfection", I simply used thawed frozen spinach, canned mushrooms (the no salt added kind), and just didn't bother precooking the onions and garlic before mixing with the feta/sourcream. Also, instead of premarinating the chicken, I just poured a little Italian dressing over the chicken after stuffing and adding to the pan (just make sure and not add a lot). Since the ingredients weren't warm before placing in the chicken this way, I left out the freezer part all together. Doing this cut the prep time down from an hour to about 10 minutes - and there was very little taste difference! As a side note, I did have to cook my chicken a good bit longer than 25 mintues in order to get the chicken completely cooked - more like 45 minutes (but then the breasts I used were rather thick and I didn't pound them thin...just cut a slit and stuffed that way to save time). I will definitely make this again!