This is a simple way to an elegant gourmet meal that will leave your guests wondering what culinary institute you trained in. The only real trick is flattening the breasts, which can be done with a simple rolling pin and some film.
Ingredients
- 4 chicken breasts – boneless, skinless, and flattened
- 3 cups fresh spinach – or 1 1-oz package frozen
- 1/2 cup feta cheese – crumbled
- 3 cloves garlic – minced
- 4 strips thick bacon
- ½ cup mayonnaise
Process
- Mise en Place – measure and prepare ingredients prior to starting.
- Prepare spinach – either saute the fresh spinach with olive oil or thaw the package of frozen chopped spinach and drain our the excess moisture.
- Preheat oven to 375 deg F (190 C).
- Mix mayonnaise, spinach, feta cheese, and garlic. Set aside.
- Prep Chicken
- Let chicken warm to room temp and trim away any fat.
- Taking each breast in turn, put between two pieces of film and pound down with a tenderizing hammer (wooden) or a wooden roller. Flatten until ~2x size. Do not beat the meat too hard, just firm tapping. Work from center to edges and try to get to an even thickness.
- Optional to lightly salt and pepper both sides of the meat.
- Evenly divide spinach mixture onto each chicken breasts.
- Tuck sides to prevent leakage then roll breast (like a burrito).
- Wrap each with a piece of bacon, and secure with a toothpick.
- Place in shallow baking dish and cover with foil.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 1 hour, or until chicken is no longer pink in the center and the juices run clear. An instant-read thermometer inserted into the center should read at least 165 deg F (74 C).
- Allow to cool ten minutes before serving.
Note: if you don’t want to tenderize the chicken between two pieces of film, you can butterfly the breast (slice in half along the thickness), but be careful not to slice all the through so you can create a pocket (like a Peta).
