These stuffed chicken breast recipes are all quick and easy to make for a weeknight dinner. Juicy, pan-seared chicken breasts with your choice of 4 stuffing options. Regardless of which one you choose, your delicious dinner will be a kid-friendly, 30-minute meal!
All four of these stuffed chicken breast recipes create one-pan dinners, and all are prepared in a skillet on a stovetop. If your family prefers baked chicken, take a peek at these healthy baked chicken breast recipes.
To stuff the chicken breasts with the filling of your choice, you will first need to butterfly them.
What does it mean to butterfly chicken?
Butterflying is a technique that makes a thick cut of meat thinner, allowing it to cook faster, and/or, as in this case, allowing filling to be placed inside.
How to Butterfly Chicken Breasts
To butterfly chicken breasts, you will need a long, sharp chef’s knife and a sturdy, stable cutting board. To prevent the board from slipping, place a damp kitchen towel underneath.
- Start by placing the chicken breast on the board, one end pointing toward you and the other end toward the top of the cutting board.
- Holding the knife in your dominant hand, place your other hand flat on top of the chicken breast.
- Slice the chicken almost in half, through the long side of the breast, stopping just before you reach the other side. You don’t want to split the breasts in half completely. The purpose of butterflying is to make thinner breasts, but you need to keep the breast in one piece.
Filling Options
When making these stuffed chicken breast recipes, there are four different filling options to choose from:
- Broccoli, mushrooms, and cheese
- Tomato and mozzarella
- Zucchini and sun-dried tomatoes
- Spinach, artichokes, and cheese
Stuffed Chicken Breast Cook Time
When cooking any type of meat or seafood, it is important to cook the food thoroughly, assuring that it meets food safety standards. Failure to do this can have serious consequences, including food poisoning and illnesses such as Salmonella. Using a food-safe instant-read thermometer will assure that your stuffed chicken breasts are cooked to the FDA-recommended internal temperature of 165 F.
To check the internal temperature, place an instant-read thermometer into the thickest part of the breast. Be careful not to push the thermometer completely through the meat. Because these stuffed chicken breast recipes use butterflied breasts, there may not be a portion that is thicker than another, In that case, just place the thermometer through the opening on the side of the breast and take the temperature inside of the filling.
What are good sides for stuffed chicken?
Deciding on a side dish depends on which of the stuffed chicken breast recipes you are making. However, you really can’t go wrong with a healthy green salad. In fact, this Brown Rice Salad will pair perfectly with any of the stuffed chicken recipes.
Stuffed Chicken Breast Recipes
Ingredients
- 4 chicken breasts
- 1/4 cup broccoli florets
- 2 cup sliced mushrooms
- 1 tomato
- 1 mozzarella ball
- 1/4 zucchini
- 3 sundried tomatoes
- 3 artichoke hearts
- 1/4 cup baby spinach
- 3.5 oz melty cheese (mozzarella, Swiss, cheddar, gouda, etc.)
- sea salt
- pepper
Instructions
- Cut chicken breasts in half lengthwise (see video) and lay flat open on a cutting board.
- Prepare vegetables by washing the ones that need to be washed and slicing or chopping the ones that need to be chopped. Make sure everything is thinly sliced or chopped into small pieces.
- Add small pieces of broccoli florets and thinly sliced mushroom to one breast, thinly sliced zucchini and sundried tomatoes to another breast, thinly sliced tomato and mozzarella to the third breast and chopped up artichoke hearts and baby spinach to the last breast.
- Sprinkle all but the tomato mozzarella chicken with about an ounce of grated melty cheese and fold the chicken back to its original form.
- Preheat a large skillet over medium heat and once very hot add a drizzle of oil and then carefully place the stuffed chicken breasts into the pan one by one. Season with sea salt and pepper at this point on the exposed side.
- Cook for 8-12 minutes on one side depending on how thick your breasts are. You want to achieve a nice golden crust, then flip and cook another 8-12 minutes and as soon as you flip them season that side with sea salt and pepper.
- Use a meat thermometer to assure the chicken breasts are cooked through. You want to reach an internal temperature of 155F.
- Remove the chicken breast from the pan and let rest for approximately 5-10 minutes before cutting in. During this time internal temperature will rise to the FDA-recommended 165F.
- Enjoy!
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Me says
The correct temperature for chicken is 165… 😬
Lorena Grater says
Just like explained in the blog post.