Welcome back! Last time I showed you how to make one of my favorite desserts, this time I am going to show you how to make a great dinner to serve before you dazzle your guests with your perfectly prepared lava cakes.
The tricky part of this meal is the preparation of the chicken breasts. The easiest way that I have found to stuff chicken is to use a good knife and slice the breast down the middle. Start by laying the breast down on a cutting board, and gently slicing the side of the breast from the thick top part to the thinner lower part. They key to this is to use finesse and not force, anytime your cutting meats, take your time and don't try to power through it, otherwise you may end up with
a nasty cut, and I mean a cut on you, not this chicken. Once you have your fist cut you can peel the chicken open and continue to cut the breast in half, but don't cut it all the way through. The goal is to lay the breast open like a butterfly, in fact that is what this is called, butterflying the chicken breast.
Now that you have a nicely opened chicken breast, we can put the filling inside. Take out the frozen spinach souffle and cut it into whatever sized pieces you want to use. I typicall
y cut the souffle in half and save one half in the freezer for next time. Once you have cut up your desired amount of spinach, lay it in the center of the breast and fold it closed. That's it, your chicken is now stuffed! At this point I take a nice length of bacon, wrap it around the breast and use a toothpick like a safety pin to hold the breast shut.
My favorite meal is a simple baked chicken breast stuffed with a spinach souffle, wrapped in bacon. I typically make an artichoke salad to serve along side the chicken. This meal will please the whole family, and even though it has spinach in it, your kids may love it as well, and if no one is around to see how easy it is to make, they will think you really worked hard to make this dish.
To make the Chicken you will need: Chicken breasts, bacon, and one package of Stouffers frozen spinach souffle, olive oil, chicken broth, lemon juice, and garlic.
To make the Chicken you will need: Chicken breasts, bacon, and one package of Stouffers frozen spinach souffle, olive oil, chicken broth, lemon juice, and garlic.
The tricky part of this meal is the preparation of the chicken breasts. The easiest way that I have found to stuff chicken is to use a good knife and slice the breast down the middle. Start by laying the breast down on a cutting board, and gently slicing the side of the breast from the thick top part to the thinner lower part. They key to this is to use finesse and not force, anytime your cutting meats, take your time and don't try to power through it, otherwise you may end up with
a nasty cut, and I mean a cut on you, not this chicken. Once you have your fist cut you can peel the chicken open and continue to cut the breast in half, but don't cut it all the way through. The goal is to lay the breast open like a butterfly, in fact that is what this is called, butterflying the chicken breast.
Now that you have a nicely opened chicken breast, we can put the filling inside. Take out the frozen spinach souffle and cut it into whatever sized pieces you want to use. I typicall
y cut the souffle in half and save one half in the freezer for next time. Once you have cut up your desired amount of spinach, lay it in the center of the breast and fold it closed. That's it, your chicken is now stuffed! At this point I take a nice length of bacon, wrap it around the breast and use a toothpick like a safety pin to hold the breast shut. 
Heat some olive oil in a skillet, add some garlic and brown the chicken on each side for about 5 minutes or until you like the color of it. I use some nice silicon tipped tongs to turn the chicken gently in the pan, being careful to not squeeze too much so you don't lose too much filling. After the chicken is nicely browned, place it in a baking pan and bake on 350 for about 35 minutes, check with a meat thermometer for doneness.
While your chicken is baking you have an opportunity to make a very nice sauce to spoon over it. Your pan has lots of nice flavors left in it, bacon, spinach, chicken and garlic, add a cup of chicken broth, a couple tablespoons of lemon juice and some ground mustard to the skilett. Bring the mixture to a simmer and let it reduce while your chicken bakes. It will cook down to a tastey gravy that you can use on the chicken. Of course the chicken is awesome by itself, so if you don't want to mess with making a sauce, thats okay too.
Now lets talk about the artichoke salad. While the chicken is baking and your sauce is simmering it is a perfect time to throw together this salad. Get one can of artichoke hearts, a jar of roasted red peppers, a jar of kalmata olives, mayo, basil, and italian salad dressing.
Chop up the aritcokes, peppers and olives into chunks. I use the entire can of artichokes, a few peppers, and about 8 olives. Kalmata olives have a very distinct taste and a little goes a long way. I would not reccomend using a food processer, I tried that once to save time and the result was a too finley chopped salad that didn't taste as good. This salad is meant to be chunky! 
In a bowl combine about a half cup mayo with two tablespoons italian dressing and mix in your chopped vegitables. Pepper to taste and add in about two or three tablespoons of basil, stir it all together and your done.
The one thing that no kitchen should be without is a meat thermometer, chicken is my favorite thing to cook with, but you must always make sure it is done. I picked up a digital meat thermometer at Walmart for around 8 bucks, and I use it constantly. Poultry should be at least 165 degrees in order to make sure all the internal bacteria is cooked out. Always stick the thermometer into the thickest part of the breast because that part will take the longest to cook through. Once your chicken reaches 165, your done and you can plate it and spoon the sauce, if you chose to make it, over the chicken.
I hope you enjoy the dish!
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