Goat Cheese and Sun Dried Tomato Pesto Stuffed Chicken

I have never made a stuffed chicken before and when I saw this recipe along with this recipe I was inspired to make a few adjustments and make it mine. In this picture you can see the melted goat cheese and pesto oozing out of the side. Yum!! It was easy but it looks elegant and difficult. The fun thing about it is experimenting with a ton of different fillings. Once you have the technique down, the possibilities are endless (and the technique is not that hard to get down). The filling that sounded good to me this time around was a Sun Dried Tomato Pesto and Goat Cheese combination (if these ingredients sound too exotic for you or your children, my 8 year old sister who can be picky LOVED it.) For the best results, I highly recommend making your own pesto. The store bought options for Sun Dried Tomato Pesto just aren't that good (in my opinion) unless they are super expensive.

Ready, Set, Pesto!

1 (8.5 ounces) jar Sun Dried Tomatoes packed in Olive Oil
2 garlic cloves
Salt and fresh cracked pepper
1/2 cup fresh basil leaves, packed in
1/2 cup fresh parsley leaves, packed in
Splash of Lemon Juice
1/2 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese

Blend all ingredients together except the Parmesan Cheese in a food processor until tomatoes are finely chopped. Transfer to a large bowl and stir in Parmesan.

Now for the dish:

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
6-8 ounces goat cheese (Chevre is the brand I used and I used about 7 oz)
1 Tb dried basil
6 ounces sun dried tomato pesto
1 egg
Parmesan cheese for breading (or bread crumbs if you like) about 3/4 cups
Fresh Basil for Garnish
8 toothpicks
Baking dish, greased

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Put the chicken breasts one by one inbetween wax paper or a freezer ziplock bag and pound with a meat mallet until 1/4 inch thick.

Combine pesto, goat cheese and dried basil in a food processor just until the cheese is more evenly distributed throughout mixture, but not completely incorporated.

Lay out one of the chicken breasts and fill with 1/4 Pesto mixture and roll up starting with the smallest side to the largest side, tucking in any parts of the chicken that you need to. Secure with 2 toothpicks.

Crack an egg into a large bowl, pour 3/4 cup parmesan cheese into large plate. Dip the chicken into egg mixture to coat outside, then dip the chicken into Parmesan to coat. Place chicken into baking dish. Repeat with the rest of the chicken.

Make sure the chicken is spaced out in baking dish (not touching the other chicken) and bake for 40-60 minutes (mine took 55). Watch for the chicken to brown on the outside and be firm to the touch. Remove chicken from the oven and let rest for 5 minutes before serving. Garnish with some fresh basil. The chicken is actually quite filling so you want to keep your side dish light, like some grilled veggies. Enjoy!

Here is a hint for printing the recipes since we don't have one of those fancy options for printing the recipe only. Copy (right click on the mouse to find it) the whole recipe and open up a new document in Word (or whatever software you have) and Paste it onto the page and then print.