The other day at a meeting for the Mangoes at the Moana event (see pupu platter or previous posts), chef Rodney Uyehara said he’d be demonstrating a recipe for chicken breasts stuffed with goat cheese and mangoes. Oh, yum. I couldn’t get that image out of my mind.
So yesterday when I was thinking about dinner (yes, I was actually going to cook dinner!), I decided to stuff a chicken breast with goat cheese and a blend I learned about some years ago from a Seattle woman who marketed a spread made of goat cheese, sun-dried tomatoes, capers and spices. The stuff is delicious, easy to make at home and is great served with sliced baguettes, crostini, crackers or lavosh. The proportions are up to your taste; use a smooth, spreadable chevre.
That was my plan until I realized that my local grocery store doesn’t stock chevre anymore (grocery strore-redlining; I live in Kalihi and Foodland apparently assumes that no one there buys any goat cheese other than feta — grrrrrr). So, change of plan 1: I bought some feta.
Got home and, change of plan 2: I didn’t have any capers (what happened to that huge jar I bought at Coscto? Cupboard mysteries.)
Change of plan 3: The chicken breasts I bought were kind of manini, more tenders than breasts, and when I sliced them open, they weren’t roomy enough to stuff.
No fear, I made up a mixture of Greek yogurt, oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes (drained) and lots of chopped parsley and whirled it in the mini-processor. Stirred in the feta. Quickly seared the chicken breasts in olive oil and dusted them with salt and pepper. Opened them up and spread the cheese mixture on top. Baked them at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, I deglazed the chicken pan with chicken broth and reduced the liquid by half and, with the liquid just warm, stirred in cold butter to make a beaurre blanc (bad, bad, Wanda; supposed to be cutting back on fats! you can skip the butter, if you want).
Put the chicken on plates, poured the sauce over.
Husband sounded like a hyena over his kill, grunting and making unintelligible noises. He REALLY liked it. He’ll like it even more when I get the right ingredients someday!
* A note about Greek yogurt. As I’ve reported here before, I make my own by draining a full tub of natural yogurt through a plastic sieve (you can use multiple layers of cheesecloth); drains overnight on counter. Put the Greek yogurt, which is kind of tangy and very creamy, back in the tub and store in fridge. You can use lowfat but not nonfat yogurt. Bad Wanda uses full fat. I like it with crunchy cereals stirred in, or spread on toast or combined with lemon zest capers to make a very quick cocktail spread.
Wanda, that sounds soooo ono! I don’t think I’ve ever had anything but the feta, which I don’t especially like. But the other kind I would give a try.
I also always enjoy your descriptions of your husband’s delight in the successful meal offerings.
By the way, from one carb/fat addict to another – doesn’t even the Bible tell us to “delight thyself in fatness”? 😉
Sounds terrific! Even your improvised version. Did you serve it with a spring greens kind of salad or something? That would be terrific too.