Spinach Feta Chicken Roll

When it come to stuffing chicken breast, there’s a couple of way to go. The popular route is to take a whole breast, make a pocket and fill it with a stuffing. Don’t get me wrong, it’s delicious. It’s not the taste though. It’s the ratio of meat to stuffing that bothers me (yeah, I do have some issues). However, there is another way to stuff chicken breast. Spinach Feta Chicken Roll

I have the most delicious creamy cheesy recipe for feta spinach stuffed chicken breast. It’s an easy weeknight recipe and it’s good, but, I have a few issues with it. And obviously it’s not the taste. When you slice it up and serve it on the plate, in some places it’s half stuffing and half breast, that’s great. But in others it’s all chicken breast and hardly any stuffing, that’s not so great. I had to find a solution.

Then I figured it out. Using the same ingredients, just a slightly different prep. If I butterfly the breast, and then pound it flat with a hammer, I have like a tortilla that I can spread the stuffing onto then roll up the breast and tie it with string to hold it together. Such a simple solution, I wish I could find other simple solutions to my other problems

So why pound meat flat?

Pounding out meat to flatten it or to tenderize it is nothing new. There are really only two reasons to pound out meat. One is to tenderize. Where by using a tenderizing mallet (the one that has similar to little spikes on the face) to soften of break apart the tissue. This is used to make a tough cut of meat more palatable. Personally I just cook tough cuts of meat longer to break down the tissues. My slow cooked pulled pork recipe is a good example. The other reason to pound out meat is to make it more uniform in thickness so it cooks more evenly. Chicken breast is not even, it is thicker on one side more so than the other.

The flattening method

So, start with a whole chicken breast, lay it on the cutting board, lay your hand flat on the breast to hold it in place, and to keep your fingers out of harms way. Using a sharp knife, slice the breast from the thin side to the thick side till about 1/2-3/4” from the thick edge. Now open up the breast as you would a book. There, you have a butterflied chicken breast. Now for the fun part.

Firstly, make sure the surface you’ll use is solid and secure. I usually lay a folded towel on the counter, and put my cutting board on that, otherwise the neighbor downstairs gets angry. The next thing is to cover the chicken. Some say to put it in a baggie without closing it. I’ve found Saran Wrap works fine. So lay out a sheet of Saran Wrap, lay the breast on it, and fold the Saran Wrap over it, leaving room for expansion. Also, the technique to pounding is to angle the hammer slightly towards the edge of the breast, so it slides a little and pushes the meat out. This will make a more even thickness, to help with this, sprinkle a little water on the Saran Wrap, it’ll help the mallet to slide. Now you have a nice even chicken cutlet ready for the stuffing. Sprinkle with a little salt and pepper and set aside to relax. Remember, when handling raw meat to clean everything really well, including hands. Please read my safe food prep post, it’s very important

And now for the Feta Spinach stuffing

The best option is to use fresh spinach and wilt it. Sometimes you don’t have any fresh, but still want some spinach feta chicken roll, so use frozen if you have to. But for fresh, heat some oil in a pot, put in the fresh spinach leaves and keep turning with a set of tongs till all the leaves are wilted. Transfer to a bowl, add the rest of the ingredients mixing well.

And now to put everything together

Cut some lengths of kitchen string and have, them handy. Lay the breast on a flat surface you’ll notice that one side of the breast is a bit thinner than the other, that’s OK, make note of the thinner end, and spread half the cheese spinach mixture evenly over the whole surface of the breast. Gently roll up the breast starting at the thinner end, it rolls up easier that way. Tie string in about three places and lay in an oven safe dish lined with parchment paper. Place on a preheated 350 degree oven for about 45 mins, 165 degree internal temperature. When done, remove from oven and rest the spinach feta chicken roll for 15 mins. Slice each roll into 4 and serve