Goat cheese-stuffed chicken breasts, two ways

 

I had stocked up on goat cheese before Christmas, but a few plans fell through, so I was left with inventory to redeploy. I decided to try a new recipe, the version with mushroom sauce, which then led me to haul out a former stand-by recipe from back before boneless, skinless breasts became nearly mandated in culinary circles. 

This one would make a perfectly admirable Valentine's dinner entree, especially since you can do the bulk of the prep work ahead.

Chicken breasts with goat cheese and rosemary

From Bon Appetit, December 1995, a recipe attributed to Dave Tyson of Kingston, Wash.

Ingredients
2 teaspoons butter, divided
2 tablespooons chopped shallots
1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary
3 ounces soft goat cheese
½ teaspoon pepper
2 large chicken breast halves with skin and bones

Method
Preheat oven to 425. Melt 1 teaspoon butter in a small skillet over medium low heat. Add shallots and rosemary and sauté until shallots are tender. Remove from heat. Stir in goat cheese and pepper, and season to taste with salt.

Loosen chicken breast skin enough to create a cavity. Stuff each breast with half of goat cheese mixture. Seal edges of skin down with toothpicks.

Rub remaining teaspoon of butter over chicken skin. (At this point, you can refrigerate chicken for a day before proceeding if you’re trying to make this ahead.)

Arrange chicken on baking sheet or roasting pan. Bake in preheated 425 degree oven until cooked through, about 25-30 minutes. Serves 2.

Rating: Tasty, fast to fix, advance prep option. No wonder it used to be an easy go-to party entree from back when I did that kind of thing.That goat cheese stuffing? I was reminded how amazingly good that stuff is. I'm pretty sure that's going to have to be made on its own and smeared on some crostini very soon.

 

Chicken breast with herbed goat cheese and wild mushroom sauce

Adapted from the “Sexy Forever Recipe Bible” by Suzanne Somers. Any source of a plausible recipe is fine.

Ingredients
3 ounces goat cheese
2 teaspoons chopped parsley
2 teaspoons fresh marjoram leaves, or ½ teaspoon dried
2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves or ½ teaspoon dried, plus leaves from 2 sprigs, divided
2 chicken breasts with breastbone removed, skin on
3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 clove garlic, thickly sliced
1 cup fresh wild mushrooms
¼ cup white wine
½ cup chicken broth
1 tablespoon butter

Method
Mix goat cheese with parsley, marjoram and 2 teaspoons thyme leaves. Pull back an edge of chicken skin to form a pocket. Stuff half of goat cheese mixture under skin and smooth back down. Season chicken skin with salt and pepper.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Heat olive oil in an ovenproof skillet. Brown chicken skin side down over medium high heat. Flip chicken over and brown the other side for about 3 minutes. Put pan in oven and roast for 10 to 12 minutes until cooked through.

Meanwhile, heat remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil in a sauté pan over medium heat. Add garlic and cook until fragrant. Add mushrooms and leaves from 2 sprigs of thyme. Sauté until mushrooms are golden brown. Add wine to deglaze the pan and cook until reduced by half. Add chicken broth and cook until reduced by half. (This took longer than I expected, so plan accordingly.) Whisk in butter. Season with salt and pepper. Serve sauce over chicken.

Rating: Separately, the sauce and the chicken are fine, although I give the edge to the first stuffed chicken recipe from Bon Appetit. The sauce has merit as a quick mushroom sauce -- on something else. The two just didn't seem to go together, somehow. They were fine, but  the chicken didn't really need a sauce, and if it did, it needed a different one, preferably without mushrooms. So a fine enough meal, but I'll stick with the top recipe.