Stuffed Chicken Breasts

Joanna got a membership to Cooks Illustrated Online, the online version of the magazine of the same name. She's been letting me browse through the site and I've found some great stuff on there. What I really like about it is that they provide you with tips and techniques which make one more apt to try something new. They also have great product comparisons and reviews. Since this recipe comes off their paid site, I'm going to approximate what I did so as not to infringe on copyrights. If you like what you see, spend the $15 bucks for the one year membership. As my friend Jimmy would say, it's a fine deal.

This required a lot of prep work so you gotta REALLY like cooking or have a bit of a masochistic streak. In other words, this will never end up on Rachael Ray's 30 Minute Meals. We have dijon mustard, oil, white wine, chicken broth, mushrooms, leeks, garlic, parsley, thyme, lemon juice, butter, and butterflied chicken breasts pounded to about a quarter inch.















The first step is sauteing the mushrooms. I love mushrooms. They are one of the many things I hated as a child but tried again as an adult and now adore. Spinach falls in the same category. Let that be a lesson to you. You should give pretty much all food experiences a shot...with the exception of eating bugs. That's just gross.
















Once the mushrooms are good and cooked, toss in those leeks. This made me want to make potato leek soup, so I shall. Leeks taste like a mild onion. If you didn't know, now you do, and knowing is half the battle, or so they tell me.
















Now let's make all this jibber jabber aromatic by tossing in garlic and parsley. Thyme came late to the party. Rosemary and sage stayed home that day.
















Once this all got cooked, I set it aside, deglazed the pan with white wine, and set that aside. This doesn't look like much but it's the beginning of a beautiful sauce.
















Our lovely mushroom, leek, garlic, parsley mixture gets together in the cozy mini food processor. As in real estate, cozy means ridiculously small.















Mix that up with some chicken I pureed left over from trimming the breasts, the rosemary, and some salt and pepper and voila! You have stuffing. Either I have Parkinson's or my camera stinks at focusing.
















Spread this out among 4 flattened breasts like so, and then roll and tie them up tight. I wasn't kidding when I said this was labor intensive.
















I made a little baby one because I could. So there.















After browning them on all 4 sides (yes I know a circle doesn't have sides), you cook them in the white wine and broth for about 18 minutes. As the recipe says, you need an instant read thermometer to make sure the stuffing is cooked too since it has raw chicken in it.
















Mmmmmm...look at that. They can chill out for a minute while I make some sauce.
















In goes the mustard and it gets reduced down. Once it has reduced, the butter and lemon juice are added along with salt to taste. If I had one critique of this recipe, it would be not enough sauce. Next time I'll double it because it was phenomenal.
















Cut it into medallions and drizzle with sauce. I served it with white rice and green beans I blanched and then tossed in a simple reduction of butter and balsamic vinegar. The white wine was already open so might as well drink it, right? You never want to cook with a wine you wouldn't drink...except maybe Marsala. I think that would burn off the lining of your stomach. Anything called "fortified wine" kinda scares me.
















And, of course, what is dinner without dessert? Joanna made Dulce de Leche cheesecake/custard. That was her gig so I didn't document it. I really just forgot to as I was busy licking the spoon after she made the caramel in the first step.
















Holy crap it was good.



L'Chaim!