Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Roasted Garlic and Red Pepper, Feta and Spinach stuffed Chicken!

First, I want to apologize for the pictures here. My camera was in my car (still is actually) and the carpenter bees that are hovering around outside my garage seem like they are trying to deliberately keep me away from my vehicle. I'm terrified of those things and I tried several times to bravely run out there (with a broom so as to swat the bees) only to run back in screaming and launching the broom behind me hitting nothing but my car. Anyway, I had to take the pictures with my camera phone.....

EDIT: And now I can't get the pictures to do right at all on my site so, I can either post them randomly all on top, or I can not post them at all...we'll see!

I had all afternoon to prepare for this meal, so I just kind of took my time. I roasted my own red peppers and garlic but it is time consuming so if you don't have time, just use the jarred stuff.

Roasted Garlic and Red Pepper, Feta and Spinach Stuffed Chicken


3 to 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
3 (at least) red bell peppers
1 head of garlic
6 oz or so of chopped frozen spinach drained
1 tub of feta
1/4 cup of parmesan cheese
pinch or sprinkle of cavendars greek seasoning - or whatever chicken seasoning you like
pinch or so of paprika (totally optional)


1. Okay, like I said, I had time on my hands and this part CAN take time, however it is still easy. And if you wanna skip it, then just by jarred roasted red peppers. But, I cut up my peppers and just laid them in fairly large junks "meat" side down and skin side up in a casserole dish (you can use a cookie pan) and I drizzled a little olive oil and broiled those suckers until the skin on them was totally black and blistered (this takes about 15 to 20 minutes with the oven on 525 depending on your oven of course).



Once roasted they looked like this, and even these could've been broiled a bit longer...


Okay, and once you roast the peppers (if you already know how to do this, please skip to the step where it's already done...)you have to throw them immediately into a ziplock bag OR tupperware with the lid on so as to let them"stew" until they are all cooled off. This blistering and sealing makes the skins sooo much easier to peal off .

So, then you peel the blistered skin off of the red peppers once they are cooled and voila, you have roasted red peppers. Set those thangs aside for tha moment.

2. I roasted my own garlic as well which is also totally optional. I just took a head of garlic and put it in some tin foil with a smidge of butter and stuck it in the oven for 25 minutes at 350 degrees and when I took them out they were perfect!


3. So, I had my roasted peppers and my roasted garlic and I mixed them in a bowl. I decided to chop mine just a smidge in my little mini chopper just to sort of make the garlic cloves smash around and chop the peppers up finer. You do what you like. After I got the consistancy I desired, I added the spinach that I thawed and drained, and the tub of feta which I love. Then I added the parmesan and stirred it all up. It wouldn't be a bad idea to salt this mixture a bit, but it's not necessary.



4. Flatten out your chicken breasts until they are total flatsos. (anybody read Junie B Jones?, well I have a 7 year old and so the term "Flatso" means almost as flat as it would be if you ran your car over it). Of course, you'll wanna put some saran wrap or wax paper when you're doing the meat pounding or else gross stuff will fly around the room each time you lift your meat tenderizing tool.....

6. Okay, so now you flatsoed your meat, so now you put a spoon full or two of the aforementioned red pepper, spinach, feta and garlic mixture in the middle of the flat chicken and either roll it or fold it in half best you can and stick a toothpick through that sucker.

7. Now, season your meat with cavendars and paprika or whatever poultry seasoning you deem acceptable and pop it in the oven at 375 and cook it until the meat is done which took me almost an hour.

Voila! You have a really complicated looking meal that may or may not have taken a lot of time but certainly wasn't that complicated. I had some of the red pepper mixture left over at the end and I spooned it on top of mine, but again, you do whatever you like there.

Hope you enjoy!!! This is actually my own recipe, believe it or not. So, I really, really, hope anyone who tries this enjoys it!
Ha!!

2 comments:

  1. Sounds delicious.This recipe is new for me.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm so glad it sounds good to you! I think some sort of other cream would be good to help it stick together better....maybe cream cheese? But it was fantastic just like this. And the left over red pepper mixture, I made a dip with it by adding more spinach and chopping it a little in my blender, and then adding sour cream and cream cheese. It was pretty darned good!

    ReplyDelete