PEAR SAGE AND GOAT CHEESE STUFFED CHICKEN AND ORZO

“BOY, AM I STUFFED” — Chicken

Winner winner chicken dinner! I got to thinking about using the chicken in my fridge for dinner and was immediately bored by the thought. There’s something about chicken breast that can be so “meh, the same”. Then I thought about the other day when I remade my husband’s super successful Coconut Tikka Masala Crusted Chicken experiment—that was an exciting chicken dinner!

Hmm, so, I kept thinking. I could try hasselbacking and stuffing some chicken (and probably will at some point) but the chicken in my fridge was thin sliced and wouldn’t make for deep enough cuts for stuffing. This led me to the idea of sandwiching it. I really don’t love folding or rolling chicken, it just doesn’t seem terribly appetizing, so I cut each piece in half and used those halves to sandwich a filling I’d want to have on bruschetta—in this case that is a mixture of goat cheese, pears, sage, salt, pepper, and honey. Continuing my thought process, I decided that I didn’t want a separate side that had it’s own flavors, so I put the side directly in the pan before finishing off the dish to have everything meld together. This dinner is pretty epic! You will love! Happy eating!

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PEAR SAGE AND GOAT CHEESE STUFFED CHICKEN AND ORZO

Yield: 4 Servings

Author: Michelle Williams

Prep time: 20 MinCook time: 30 MinTotal time: 50 Min

Ingredients

• Thin Cut Boneless Skinnless Chicken Breast (1 lb, washed and dried)
• Plain Goat Cheese (8oz)
• Walnuts (2/3 cup, finely chopped. I used a Diamond Nuts bag of them already finely chopped—AWESOME!)
• Bosc Pears (2, Pealed and finely diced. Divided)
• Fresh Sage (4 1/2 tbps finely chopped. Divided. Plus 8 whole leaves for the topping)
• Fresh Thyme (1 tsp, chopped, divided)
• Honey (1 tbsp)
• Salt
• Pepper
• Grapeseed Oil (Roughly 4 tbsp for coating your pan for frying)
• Orzo (1 cup)
• Unsalted Butter (2 tbsp)
• Chicken Stock (1 cup)

KITCHEN ITEMS

• Cutting Board
• Chef's Knife
• Medium Mixing Bowl
• Rubber Spatula
• 12 Inch Ovensafe Frying Pan
• Metal Spatula
• Metal Or Silicon Cooking Tongs
• Saucepan or Pot (for boiling 3 cups of water)
• Strainer
• Meat Thermometer

Instructions

TO OPTIMIZE YOUR COOKING

1. Fill your pot with 3 qts of water, liberally season it with salt, and set it over high heat to begin boiling while you get the rest of the recipe started.
2. Preheat your oven to 375º.

TO MAKE YOUR GOAT CHEESE STUFFING

1. In your mixing bowl combine your goat cheese, walnuts, 1/2 a pear diced, 2 tbsps of chopped sage, 1/2 tsp thyme, honey, and a pinch of salt. Use your rubber spatula to fold it all together until you have an even mixture. Set aside.

TO PUT YOUR CHICKEN TOGETHER

1. Lay your slices of chicken on your cutting board.
2. Season the fronts and backs of your chicken with salt, pepper, and your remaining sage and thyme. Use your hand to pat the seasonings firmly onto the chicken.
3. Cut each slice of chicken in half horizontally.
4. Scoop your goat cheese filling onto the bottom half of each of your original pieces (you will have a little extra filling left over). A total of four of your eight pieces of chicken should be covered in your goat cheese filling. Then use your remaining pieces of chicken to sandwich in the goat cheese. You should now have what looks like sandwiches where instead of bread you’re using chicken.

TO COOK IT ALL

1. Once your water is boiling, put your orzo in it. Cook to your box’s instructions for al dente. Mine took 9 minutes. While that’s cooking…
2. Over medium-high heat, coat your frying pan with a thick layer of grapeseed oil. Once it’s hot, use your tongs to place your chicken sandwiches into the oil. It should sizzle when your chicken touches it. If it doesn’t, it’s not hot enough yet.
3. Cook your chicken until the first side is golden brown—about 5 minutes. Then use your tongs to flip your chicken and cook it until the other side is golden brown—roughly another 3 minutes.
4. Use your tongs to transfer your chicken to a plate. To note, your chicken isn’t fully cooked yet.
5. Carefully clean out any excess oil and burnt cheese from your frying pan.
6. Over medium heat, melt your butter in your frying pan.
7. Add the rest of your pears into the butter and use your rubber spatula to occasionally move them around to cook until they are softened—about 5 minutes.
8. Strain all of the water from your orzo.
9. Add your orzo to your pears in your frying pan. Season with salt and pepper and mix it all together so your pears are evenly dispersed in your orzo.
10. Pour your chicken stock over your orzo.
11. Place your chicken into your orzo.
12. Place dollops of your goat cheese on top of your orzo.
13. Place your whole sage leaves on top of your orzo.
14. Put your frying pan into the oven and bake until your chicken reaches an internal temperature of 155º. Use your meat thermometer to check the middle of the thickest part of your chicken. Make sure you are checking the top half of your chicken sandwich and not going all of the way into the cheese. ALSO, poultry is technically fully cooked at 165º but it continues to cook when you take it out of the oven. Taking it out at 155º will keep your chicken from getting dried out. If you take it out at 165º it will continue to raise in temperature and dry out a bit.

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