Goat cheese is pretty much the best thing ever.

Disclaimer: I already mentioned that I do not follow recipes. As a result, sharing recipes is not very easy for me. Every recipe/ingredient amount on this blog will probably just be my best guess. If you do decide to make something from here, I hope you play around with the ingredients, anyway, since that’s the best part of cooking.

Tonight, Tom and I had chicken stuffed with a mixture of prosciutto/goat cheese/mushrooms, and a side of pesto potatoes.

I really like stuffed chicken and you can pretty much stuff it with whatever you want (but in my personal opinion, some type of cheese is always necessary). I pretty much just go with what I have on hand. I try to have goat cheese on hand at all times because, well, like the title of this post says, it’s pretty much the best thing ever.

Chicken Stuffed with Prosciutto, Mushrooms, and Goat Cheese

2 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
flour, seasoned with salt and pepper (enough for dredging)
2 ounces creamy herbed or plain goat cheese
1 tablespoon butter
2 ounces prosciutto, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
2 large mushrooms, chopped
1 tablespoon sour cream (optional)
1/4 tsp. Italian seasoning
salt and pepper to taste
olive oil

In a small saucepan, melt butter. Add chopped mushrooms and prosciutto and cook for about 2 minutes. Add garlic and cook for an additional minute.

Pour saucepan mixture into a small mixing bowl. To that bowl, add the goat cheese, sour cream, and Italian seasoning. Stir to combine ingredients and season to taste.

Now, for your chicken breasts, you have a lot of options. You can pound them thin and place stuffing on half of the breast and fold over (probably the easiest way, but not as aesthetically pleasing…this is what I normally do). You can cut a pocket into the chicken breast and stuff it that way. Or, you can pound the chicken thin, cover the whole breast in the stuffing mixture and then roll it up. Any way you do it, you’ll probably want to secure them with a toothpick or two.

Roll or lightly cover the outside of the chicken breasts with seasoned flour.

Heat olive oil in a pan over medium heat. Add chicken to pan. Brown all sides of chicken evenly. You can choose to cook the chicken breasts completely in the pan, or you can move the pan to the oven to finish cooking.

For this meal, I let the chicken finish cooking in the oven, putting it in the last 10 minutes the potatoes were baking.

Pesto Potatoes

1 lb. potatoes (I prefer Yukon gold, but redskins and russets work just fine)
cooking spray
1 cup fresh basil
3 tablespoons pine nuts, toasted
2 cloves garlic
1/4 cup parmesan reggiano cheese, divided
extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup chicken broth
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 375* and spray a small baking dish with cooking spray.

In a food processor, process toasted pine nuts and garlic until combined well. Add basil and 3 Tbsp parmesan cheese, and process until all ingredients are combined and basil is in small pieces. Stream in olive oil and pulse until desired consistency. Salt and pepper to taste. 

Peel and slice potatoes in 1/4″ thick circles. Place slices next to each other in baking dish, forming one layer. Top layer of potatoes with layer of pesto. Continue layering, ending with a layer of pesto.

Pour chicken broth over potatoes. Cover with aluminum foil and place in the oven.

Bake for 30 minutes. Remove foil, sprinkle with parmesan cheese, and bake another 5-10 minutes.