When I posted this photo on Facebook I got a lot of requests for the recipe–and many of my friends wondered what made me stuff chicken with potatoes! The potato stuffing was my ode to the great omelets in Spain that have French Fries in the middle–now that’s one good omelet! But there’s more to the story of this chicken.
It all started when a lot of my friends went on the “lose 10 pounds in 10 days” diet–with great success. I thought I’d give it a try and see if I could lose a few pounds before I go back to Italy and Tuscookany next week. (And happily gain it all back!)
But there was one big drawback to the diet–you had to eat the exact same thing for breakfast, lunch and dinner every day for 10 days. Pretty boring.
I knew I could get through the 10 days, but for dinner I couldn’t eat 1 6-oz chicken breast, 1 cup broccoli, and 3 small new potatoes cooked the same way every day. I challenged myself to see what I could do to make it yummy and still stick with the guidelines, and remembering those potato omelets, this is one of the variations I came up with.
Perhaps I cheated a bit–I added a lemon and a little chicken broth to make the au jus but I think that would pass the test.
The good news–it was really delicious!
INGREDIENTS (this serves 2)
- 2 6 oz. chicken breasts (skinless, boneless, of course)
- 2 cloves garlic, chopped
- 1/3 cup onion, chopped small (another cheat, but no calories)
- 2 small red potatoes, chopped into 1 inch pieces
- 3 small broccolini, tops only chopped into 1 inch pieces
- 1 1/2 TBS olive oil (okay a bit of a cheat) maybe more if needed
- 1/2 cup chicken broth
- 2 whole lemons
- Kosher salt & pepper
- a pinch of paprika
- 1 1/2 tsp Italian seasoning, more if needed
- chopped parsley, for garnish
Preheat oven to 375.
Chop potatoes, onion and broccolini into small pieces.
Heat about 3/4 TBS olive oil in oven-proof saute pan. Add potatoes, cook until almost tender, about 5 minutes.
Add onion and broccolini and cook until tender, about 5 minutes. Season with salt, pepper and Italian seasoning while cooking. Set aside and let cool.
Using a mallet, pound chicken breasts until flat. Don’t pound too thin (I did that the first time) because the filling will leak. Sprinkle Kosher salt on the chicken. Gently place filling in each breast.
Slip three pieces of kitchen twine under the breast. Gently pull breast together (tucking in stuffing) and if necessary, secure with toothpicks while you tie the twine. Sprinkle a little paprika on top of the chicken for color.
In the same pan that you made the stuffing, add the rest of the olive oil and the garlic. Cook for about 1 minute over medium heat. Add the chicken and brown on all sides. When it’s nicely browned squeeze 1 lemon on the chicken and add about 1/4 cup chicken broth to the pan. Stir the juices and put the pan in the oven.
Bake for about 30-35 minutes, until thermometer reaches 165. Remove from oven, squeeze the other lemon on chicken in pan and cover tightly with foil. Let rest like this for 10 minutes.
Move breast to a serving dish. Heat pan juices (you might need to add more chicken broth) and pour over the breast. Garnish with the parsley.
Slice, serve and Enjoy..knowing you’re not consuming many calories, but lots and lots of flavor.
Oh…in case you’re wondering…I only lost 5 pounds, but I’ll enjoy eating pasta and pizza as I put them back on!
I’m so happy to have lots of new readers to welcome this week! Here’s a big Laguna Beach hello to my new friends in Bolivia, Luxembourg and Lithuania. Remember you can read all about Laguna Beach at Stu News.
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Categories: Chicken, Main Dishes
Tags: Jackie Warner diet, red potatoes, stuffed chicken breast, Tuscookany
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