Stuffed Chicken Breast...Veggie Style

Grain Free Stuffed Chicken Breast

If you hear the phrase Stuffed Chicken Breast what comes to mind is a bread stuffing of some sort.  I have discovered that bread (wheat, corn, etc.) is not good for me.  Apparently it causes inflammation in my body and I will gain 4 lbs overnight when eating it. YUCK!!! Therefore, I've had to come up with alternatives using non-wheat product like almond flour, coconut flour or Amaranth seed, ground up. My system seems to do rather well on these alternatives.

But I digress.  Back to the Stuffed Chicken Breasts. Last week I went to Sprouts Market, a local grocery store carrying organic grass fed beef, chicken, lamb and other various meats and came away with a package of 4 chicken breasts, honestly the largest chicken breasts I have ever seen. I froze two of them the other two I turned into Stuffed Chicken Breasts. Oh my, but they were good! One breast was large enough to feed both my hubby and me.  We had the other stuffed breast a couple of nights later and it was just as good.  

Equipment: 

Sharp Knife
Genius Vegetable Chopper (Not a must but mighty nice if you don't like chopping all those veggies)
Cutting Board
Wax paper
Meat Mallet
Cast Iron Skillet 12"
Medium size Bowl
Paper Towels
Tongs
Spatula
4 Toothpicks or Cotton Twine


Ingredients:

1/4  medium onion, diced
3     cloves garlic, crushed and minced
4     mushrooms washed, diced
1/4  cup Celery, thinly sliced (Optional)
1/2  large red bell pepper, diced
3     cups fresh spinach
1/2  cup chicken stock (If you can find it, Organic 
       Imagine Free Range Chicken Broth)
2     large chicken breasts, pounded to 1/2 inch thick
2     tsp. Greek Seasoning When I first developed this recipe I used                       Cadavers Greek Seasoning. It contains cornstarch.  I now make my own Greek                         Seasoning included in the above link which is Gluten-Free. 

1/2  tsp. Adobo Seasoning
       Pepper
       Coconut Spray or Olive Oil in a pump sprayer
1    Tbsp. Coconut Oil or Olive Oil 

Step One: 

Turn oven on to 350 degrees.

After all your vegetables have been chopped by hand on a cutting board or a vegetable chopper,

My go to kitchen gadget, a Genius Veggie Chopper

in a non-stick skillet over medium heat, lightly sprayed with Coconut or Olive Oil, saute the first 5 ingredients. Once onions become translucent add spinach and chicken broth, sprinkle with Adobo Seasoning

Seasonings that were used

Wilt the spinach, all the while stirring occasionally, reduce the chicken broth to almost next to nothing.  Remove from heat and pour into a bowl to cool. Wipe out skillet with paper towels for Step 2

My favorite Chicken Broth

Step Two:

Pound chicken breast between two sheets of wax paper with the flat side of a meat mallet until 1/2 inch thick (once pounded out my breast was approximately
6" wide by 8" long.) Size may vary due to size of breast.

Sprinkle Greek Seasoning (approx. 1 tsp. per breast) over chicken breast.

Divide vegetable stuffing in half and spread over each breast. Sprinkle a pinch (your judgement)of pepper over each breast.

Start at bottom and roll up

Start at the narrow end of the chicken and start rolling toward the other end secure with toothpicks or cotton twine (I used toothpicks, just be sure to remove all of the toothpicks before serving). 

In a hot cast iron skillet melt Coconut oil.  Carefully place chicken breast in the hot oil. Lightly brown on both sides about 10 minutes each side reducing heat to medium. It takes tongs and a spatula to turn the chicken breasts, as you don't want to loose the filling. 

Into the skillet it goes

One turned, one added

Ready for the oven

Place cast iron skillet in oven and continue to bake for another 20 minutes. 

Remove from oven and let set for 5 minutes. 

Plate and serve with your favorite vegetable and a salad.

Finished and plated

Peace, Love and Happy Eating...

Where's The Beef...Broth, That Is?

Over the holidays I made a pot roast from an nice piece of chuck roast. Thank you Ree for giving me the idea for fixing roast that night! I had everything, or so I thought. I had failed to purchase a box of beef broth. Duh!  I had the roast searing (sear both sides) in the cast iron skillet, seasoned with Kosher Salt and Pepper and garlic powder, got out the roast pan to put the seared roast in and low and behold...no broth.  I didn't even have any beef bouillon cubes on hand! What to do...What to do?  

Worcestershire Sauce

I looked in my refrigerator and on the top shelf in the far back was a bottle of

Oyster Flavored Sauce

Lee Kum Kee  Oyster Flavored Sauce.  It was brown folks, and flavorful. Then I spied a bottle of Lea and Perrins Worcestershire Sauce. "Ok!" I said to myself "I can do this."   I got out my four cup measuring bowl, put in: 

In A Pinch Beef Broth

2 cups of hot water 
1/4 cup Oyster Flavored Sauce (Contains Cornstarch)  
2 Tablespoons of Worcestershire Sauce 

Whisk it together and WALLAH!  Beef Broth!  I poured it over the roast in the roast pan, lightly browned  the halves of a peeled onion in Coconut Oil and put those in the pan.

I set the temperature on the oven at 300 degrees, put the lid on the pan and we were ready to cook.  I put it on a 3:00 p.m., at 7:00 p.m. I scrubbed up some carrots and cut them into bite size pieces and tossed them into the cast iron skillet with at touch of coconut oil on medium high heat to put a caramel coating on the outside then tossed those in with the roast to finish cooking.  The roast was done when I could take a fork and insert into the roast with no resistance...like cutting room temperature butter with a knife. I fixed cauliflower as side.  

Oh my...that roast was so delicious. The meat just melted in your mouth, and flavor...fabulous!

So the next time you find yourself without Beef Broth...well let's just say Oyster Sauce and Worcestershire Sauce is a good combination. 

Peace, Love and Happy Eating…