Goat Cheese-&-Olive-Stuffed Chicken Breasts

From EatingWell: Winter 2004, The Essential EatingWell Cookbook (2004) — Subscribe Now!

The hard part of making this elegant dish is choosing the filling. Making a pocket in the chicken breast to hold the stuffing is easy, particularly if you use a good, sharp, thin-bladed knife. Browning the chicken in a skillet before baking gives it a beautiful golden color. Finishing it in the oven ensures that it cooks evenly throughout.

Goat Cheese-&-Olive-Stuffed Chicken Breasts Recipe

4 servings

Active Time: 25 minutes

Total Time: 50 minutes

Nutrition Profile

Ingredients

2 tablespoons creamy goat cheese
1 tablespoon chopped black olives
Freshly ground pepper, to taste
4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves, (1-1 1/4 pounds total)
1 large egg white
1/2 cup plain dry breadcrumbs
2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil

Preparation

Preheat oven to 400°F. Coat a rimmed baking sheet with cooking spray.
Combine goat cheese, olives and pepper in a small bowl with a fork.
Cut a horizontal slit along the thin, long edge of a chicken breast half, nearly through to the opposite side. Open up each breast and place one-fourth of the filling in the center. Close the breast over the filling, pressing the edges firmly together to seal. Repeat with the remaining chicken breasts and filling.
Lightly beat egg white with a fork in a medium bowl. Place breadcrumbs in a shallow glass dish. Hold each chicken breast half together and dip in the egg white, then dredge in the breadcrumbs. (Discard leftovers.)
Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken breasts; cook until browned on one side, about 2 minutes. Place the chicken, browned-side up, on the prepared baking sheet. Bake until the chicken is no longer pink in the center or until an instant-read thermometer registers 170°F, about 20 minutes.

Nutrition

Per serving: 235 calories; 7 g fat (2 g sat, 3 g mono); 72 mg cholesterol; 10 g carbohydrates; 31 g protein; 1 g fiber; 248 mg sodium; 341 mg potassium.

1/2 Carbohydrate Serving

Exchanges: 1/2 starch, 4 lean meat, 1/2 fat