Stuffed Chicken Breast

Chicken is one of those foods that I’m very picky about. My chicken has to be flavorful, it has to be seasoned and it has to be without skin and bone. Growing up this is actually a quick and easy dish my mother would throw together for dinner. It’s not complex in the least and it’s minimally seasoned (at least for what I consider ‘seasoned’) but the flavors go together so well that it’s perfect every time.

The chicken breast can be assembled in two ways – cutting a large chicken breast down the middle (not all the way but open like a hot dog bun) and stuffing it with the stuffing OR you can go the easier way out topping the stuffing with the chicken breast.  I prefer the second option because each serving is perfectly portioned.

This is one of my boyfriends favorite dishes … and he’s NOT a gravy guy. He doesn’t like it on his food, but he loves it on this dish because it’s not truly recognizable but it keeps the chicken and stuffing moist.

 

To create the dish all you need are a few simple ingredients:

• Stove Top Chicken Stuffing
• ~ 1 ½ pounds chicken breast
• Low fat chicken gravy (I use Heinz jarred gravy)
• McCormick Montreal Chicken Seasoning
• Black pepper
• Oregano

Preheat your oven at 350 degrees.

Clean your chicken breast and set aside.

Mix together your stove-top stuffing per the microwave directions. I simply use water and a few squirts of spray butter and mix and combine.  I made 7 servings of chicken, so I evenly divided the stuffing onto a baking sheet that was sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. (Evenly dividing I got 1/3 cup servings, plus roughly 1 tbsp per 7 servings).

Top your stuffing mounds with quarter pieces of chicken breast. I evenly distributed my chicken over the mounds to make them as visually even as possible.

Sprinkle each chicken breast with oregano, black pepper and montreal chicken seasoning.  Top each chicken breast with 1 ½ tbsp chicken gravy (smooth the gravy over the chicken trying to cover the whole surface of it).

Bake the chicken in a 350 degree oven for roughly 30 minutes (or longer depending on the thickness of your chicken).

My chicken came out to 5 points plus a serving – as long as the chicken was 2.8-3 oz cooked.

Butter Fried Chicken

Growing up my mother used to make this chicken she fried in butter once in a while for dinner. It’s always been a delicious crowd pleasing dish. What really makes the dish pop is the “dressing” added to it when serving. It’s not your typical dressing … it’s more along the lines of a salad. It’s a tomato, scallion (green onion) and Italian dressing salad. The combination of the salad over the moist buttery chicken make for what I call a party on a plate.

I’ve of course gone through and cut down on the recipe where I could to make it “point friendly”. I cut the butter way down just to have enough to brown the chicken, give it flavor and I added in a tad of olive oil to get it just a bit crispier on the outside.

6 Points Plus Values. Serves 5. 2 ¾ oz serving.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/8 lb  boneless skinless chicken breast, cleaned and cut into chunks
• ½ cup flour
• 2 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tbsp oregano
• 2 tsp black pepper
• 2 tsp salt
• 3 tbsp Smart Balance Light Butter
• 2 tbsp Imperial Vegetable Oil Spread
• 1 tsp olive oil

Clean all fat off chicken and cut into chunks. Once all chicken is clean, lay pieces between parchment paper or plastic wrap and gently pound/tenderize. You don't want the chicken to be too thin, but slightly thinner than it was before pounding.

Combine together flour, garlic powder, oregano, black pepper and salt in a paper bag. Shake to combine all ingredients together.

Rinse chicken under cold water then drop chicken pieces into the bag. Hold the bag tight and shake to coat all sides of the chicken with the flour batter. Remove chicken from bag and set aside, discarding the bag with the remaining flour.

Place light butter and margarine into a non-stick skillet. Heat pan over medium-low heat – as the pan warms gently swirl the butter around. Place chicken pieces into the heated skillet and allow cooking without moving or flipping until chicken is cooked half-way through. Gently flip the chicken and allow cooking on the uncooked side.

At this point the butter will start to dissipate in the bottom of the pan, so gently drizzle the 1 tsp of olive oil over the chicken in the pan and give the pan a gentle shake.  When the cooked side down begins browning, gently flip the chicken onto the other side to allow the chicken to be fully browned and crisped on each side.

When done, remove from the pan and serve alongside the sides of your choice. I highly recommend serving with mashed/baked potato and serving the chicken with the tomato and scallion salad (Italian – original, light, low fat, fat free – whichever you choose) tossed with the salad.

Asian Glazed Chicken

My mother used to make a similar marinade for chicken wings and it was literally the BEST marinade and was truly the only reason I would eat chicken wings. One night I wanted to make an Asian influence dinner but was trying to figure out what to do with the chicken I had out.  I then decided to use the similar marinade on the chicken and bake it off in the oven.  The one difference in the marinade I made was that I cut back on the sugar and reduced the orange juice because I wasn’t making enough chicken for a party.  I also only marinated my chicken for a few hours versus a few days.

I decided to serve the meal up with Trader Joe’s Chicken Egg Rolls, Trader Joe’s Chicken Fried Rice and steamed green beans.

Serves 5 (roughly 3 oz a serving). 4 points plus values (if more than ½ the marinade is discarded after removing the chicken from it)

• 1 ½ pounds boneless, skinless chicken breast, chunks
• ½ cup low sodium soy sauce
• 1 tbsp minced garlic
• ¼ cup brown sugar
• ½ cup orange juice
• 1 tsp sesame oil

In a medium bowl add in soy sauce, garlic, brown sugar, sesame oil and orange juice. Mix to combine.

Add chicken to the bowl, mix and cover then place in the refrigerator for 1-3 hours to marinate.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Add chicken to a foil-lined pan. Discard remaining marinade. Bake for 25-30 minutes until chicken is cooked.