Double-Stuffed Chicken Breasts

Since finding out that baby #3 was on the way I have been too tired to even think about cooking. I am talking about the kind of tired where you can barely keep your eyes open. Unfortunately for my waistline and our budget that has meant a lot of ordering take-out and no new dishes to post on the blog.

Enough was enough! I got my new Every Day with Rachael Ray magazine in the mail along with my Food Network magazine and told myself that I needed to start cooking again! Not only are we saving money but I also dropped 2 pounds!

This dish, Double Stuffed Chicken Breasts, from the October issue of Every Day with Rachael Ray, says "you'll never have to choose between chicken parm and stuffed shells again!"

Ingredients:
1/2 cup small shell pasta
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup ricotta cheese
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/2 cup coarsely chopped flat-leaf parsley
Salt
2 large eggs
2/3 cup breadcrumbs
Four 8- to 10-ounce chicken breasts
3 cups store-bought marinara sauce (or if you're feeling ambitious you could always make your own sauce!)

The How To:
1. Preheat the oven to 350°. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. In a pot of boiling, salted water, cook the pasta for 4 minutes; drain and rinse with cold water. Transfer to a bowl and add the mozzarella, ricotta, parmesan and 1/4 cup parsley; season with salt.

2. In a shallow bowl, beat the eggs. Place the breadcrumbs in another shallow bowl.

3. Stuff the pasta-cheese mixture under the skin of each chicken breast. Dip the stuffed chicken breasts in the eggs, roll in the breadcrumbs, then place skin side up on the prepared pan. Bake until an instant-read thermometer inserted in the breast registers 165°, about 50 minutes.

4. Meanwhile, in a saucepan, heat the marinara sauce. Serve each breast on a bed of sauce, topped with 1 tablespoon parsley.

The Verdict: I meant to take pictures of the cooking process, however the whole tired thing got in the way, and I was just happy to have a home cooked meal on the table! The Doc, thought that while it tasted great, he would prefer to just have his pasta on the outside! I thought it was delicious and I loved having the pasta in the chicken! The kids even loved it.

I used garlic and herb flavored bread crumbs and used 1 cup of pasta instead of the 1/2 cup because, well we all love our carbs in this house. I placed the extra pasta/cheese mixture so that it surrounded the chicken in the baking dish.

The only downside to this dish is that it's not a 30 minute meal, this dish is going to take at least an hour to prepare/bake. So make sure you give yourself enough time or you'll end up eating at a much later dinner, like we did!