What's for Dinner Tonight?: College Edition: Apple Cheddar Bacon Stuffed Chicken Breasts
I'm taking the night off tonight, so I thought I'd give a shout out to my daughter and her roommates at the University of Arkansas and the yummy dinner that they made tonight.
Sadly, my daughter's Christmas vacation came to an end yesterday and she left me. To go back to school. Where she loves her roommates. And campus. And doesn't care that I suffer from extreme separation anxiety when she's gone. Aaaanyway.
This is her sophomore year at the UofA and her first year in an apartment. I was a little worried about her being in an apartment and not having a meal plan. She's able to eat at least six meals a week at the sorority house, so that helps, but, surprisingly, she and her roommates have turned out to be college gourmets. Seriously. Some nights they eat better than I do.
They are all very practical about how they handle the cooking responsibilities with each person finding their niche in the process over the last five months. They plan their meals for the week and usually grocery shop on Sunday, splitting the total bill four ways. It's worked out really well and I love to see what they come up with for their menus each week.
Tonight's dinner?
Apple Cheddar Bacon Stuffed Chicken Breasts, courtesy of Will Cook for Smiles on Pinterest
Ingredients:
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 medium apple, sweet, peeled and cored
10 crispy bacon strips
4-5 oz sharp cheddar cheese (block)
About 2 more oz of cheese for topping, grated
Salt
Fresh cracked black pepper
Some vegetable oil for the baking dish
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350.
Dice apples and bacon and mix it together in a bowl. Set aside a couple of bacon strips to top off the chicken in the end.
Slice cheese into about 1/4 inch slices.
To easily tenderize the chicken, place a chicken breast in a large ziplock bag and pound it with a meat tenderizer (aka the meat hammer) on each side until thinned. Be careful not to hit it too hard so you don't have any holes in the chicken. Also, don't make it too thin or it will rip while you are trying to roll it with stuffing.
Repeat with remaining chicken breasts, one at a time.
Salt and pepper each chicken breast to taste.
Place two slices of cheese in the center of chicken breast. Add some apple/bacon mixture on top of cheese. You'll have to judge how much stuffing to add by the size of the chicken. Each breast varies in size and you should be able to bring edges together with just a little overlap. Once you closed the chicken, place it in a greased baking dish same down.
Repeat with remaining chicken. Add a little more salt and pepper on top.
Bake chicken for 30-35 minutes.
Spread some grated cheddar cheese on top of each chicken pocket and sprinkle some diced bacon over it.
Bake for about 5 more minutes.
Notes:
The girls made more Apple and bacon mixture than the recipe called for and cooked it in the pan so that they had extra to eat with dinner. They served this with asparagus and dinner rolls. Good job, girls!
