Goat Cheese and Mozzarella Stuffed Chicken Breasts

I've been feeling rather exhausted lately, and when I'm not feeling 100%, I get lazy with my cooking. Sunday afternoon I ended up falling asleep on the couch, and when I woke up, it was time to think about dinner. Not wanting to put on "real clothes" (non-sweatpants clothes) to go to the grocery store, I started thinking about what I could make with what leftover food we had. What I ended up with was a recipe that was much better than what I anticipated. Not that I thought it was going to taste bad, but often when you throw things together it's either a fail or proud win. This was most definitely the latter.

Even though I was only cooking for two (my boyfriend and I), I made four pieces of chicken (think lunch for work the next two days), which fit perfectly in my oval dish. I trimmed the fat and cut a slit in the top of each piece of chicken, careful not to cut through the entire way. I find it is much easier to stuff a chicken breast this way rather than cutting the side open and waiting for all the insides to run out when I bake it.

Each piece was stuffed with a mixture of mozzarella, goat cheese, garlic, salt and pepper, basil, lemon juice and heavy cream. I lightly coated the tops in mayonnaise and sprinkled with breadcrumbs and more basil. The mayo makes sure the chicken stays moist and breadcrumbs stick. Then I added a few springs of rosemary and baked it for 30 minutes at 425F. This was the perfect timing for the amount and sized pieces of chicken I had. If you have smaller or larger pieces, you will want to adjust the time a few minutes so your chicken doesn't end up raw or dry (both pretty gross).

I served the chicken with broccoli florets that were sauteed with olive oil, red pepper, garlic, salt, and Porto wine vinegar. 

This meal also passed the boyfriend inspection. He was curious how I cooked the broccoli and said the thyme in the chicken tasted great (except it was rosemary and basil). Despite the wrong herb, I am always happy to receive positive feedback...especially on new recipes...especially when they've just been thrown together.