Recipe of the Week: Spinach-Stuffed Chicken Rolls

Jake and I had our friends Steve and Ashlee over for dinner. My intention was to have dinner in the oven when they arrived, but time got away from me so Ashlee ended up helping me prepare and cook this recipe. In the end, I think our evening turned out better that way!

Steve and Ashlee

Spinach-Stuffed Chicken Rolls
makes 8 servings
2/3 cup chopped onion
2/3 cup chopped fresh mushrooms
2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tablespoons butter or margarine

1 10-ounce package frozen chopped spinach,
thawed and well drained
3/4 teaspoon dried oregano, crushed
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
8 skinless, boneless, chicken breast halves
(about 2 1/2 pounds total)
2/3 cup fine dry bread crumbs
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon paprika 2 eggs, beaten
1 tablespoon water
3 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9x13-inch baking pan or baking dish; set aside. For filling, in a large skillet cook onions, mushrooms, and garlic in the 2 tablespoons hot butter until tender. Stir in spinach, oregano, salt, and pepper, set aside.

2. Place each chicken breast half between two pieces of plastic wrap. Using the flat side of a meat mallet and working from the center out, pound each half lightly into a rectangle about 1/8 inch thick. Remove plastic wrap.

3. Divide the filling evenly among the breast halves. Fold in sides; roll up each piece into a spiral, pressing edges to seal. If necessary, secure with wooden toothpicks.

4. In a shallow dish combine bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese, and paprika. In another shallow dish combine eggs and the water. Dip chicken rolls in the egg mixture; coat with bread crumb mixture. Place rolls, seam sides down, in a prepared pan or dish. Drizzle with the melted butter.

5. Bake, uncovered, for 20 to 25 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink.

Recipe found in 9X13 The Pan That Can cookbook.

Our meal: Spinach-Stuffed Chicken Rolls, garlic bread,
and roasted sweet potatoes, broccoli, and cauliflower

Jake and myself

From my experience: There is quite a lot of prep work with this recipe, but I didn't realize it until I started reading it. It was partly my fault since my chicken and spinach hadn't finished thawing and I had old bread I wanted to use for breadcrumbs. The main prep work goes into getting the chicken cleaned and ready to fill. I only made 6 chicken breasts since they were pretty large and thick. Consequently when beaten, our chicken didn't flatten to what the recipe called for nor result in the shape of a rectangle. Nevertheless, they rolled just fine. We ended up just folding over the skinnier end of the chicken once like a sideways taco, then securing it with two toothpicks. To make the topping, I mixed the breadcrumbs with Parmesan cheese since I didn't have any paprika. To make the process easier, I simply patted the breadcrumb mixture on top of the chicken, then flipped it and repeated on the other side totally avoiding dipping the chicken in any egg mixture. The breadcrumb topping stuck to the chicken well without it. Overall the chicken tasted really good, even our guests thought so. I will definitely make this chicken recipe again. Next time I will make sure to have everything chopped and ready before I start cooking so it won't take as long. Also I would add some salt to the breadcrumb mixture. Enjoy!