Chicken, a family favourite made fun and tasty with sort of pizza topping ingredients, you've probably seen dishes like this in cookery books that have lists of ingredients that you don't have, I menu plan before shopping but there's always bits that get left so a couple of times a week I open the fridge and look at what needs eating and adapt it, you can add whatever you have in your fridge, pepperoni, ham or maybe a little chopped aubergine, you're the boss of your kitchen and life's an adventure! #enjoywhatyouhave
For three of us I used:
3 Chicken Breasts
A piece of pepper - about 1/3, cut into strips
About 1/2 a small red onion - finely sliced
4-6 Cherry tomatoes - quartered
Garlic to suit taste - finely diced (I used 1 chunky clove)
Grated Mozzarella cheese - I had about 50g-60g
Heat oven to 180
Cut the chicken down the side but not all the way through and open it out, the best way to explain is how you open a book, it should resemble wings, hence why it's called 'butterflying' then between 2 sheets of greaseproof paper lightly 'bash' each chicken breast to flatten a little and spread it out.
In a pan add a little oil, I used vegetable oil but its fine to use what you have, gently saute the peppers and onion until they start to soften, add the garlic and the oregano and cook for a couple of minutes, again if you don't have any oregano don't worry leave it out or maybe if you have it you could add a little thyme, remember no rules this is an adventure!
Into a bowl add the ingredients from the pan, the tomatoes and about half the cheese and gently mix. Next place a spoonful of the mix in the centre of each chicken breast, bring the top and bottom 'end' to the middle and then bring the sides up over the edges to make a parcel, don't worry this is a bit messy and secure with skewers, place in a baking tray and sprinkle a little cheese over. Cook in the centre of the oven for 30-40mins.
Remove skewers and serve, we had some home made potato wedges and a mixed salad but this would work well with vegetable rice if you have veggies to use up... remember no rules!
NOTE: If you don't have any skewers wrap each stuffed chicken breast in baking parchment/greaseproof paper to hold together during cooking, miss the next step of covering with cheese and bake for aprox 30mins then take out of the paper, sprinkle cheese over and return to the oven for 10mins to make the cheese melty and delish!)
As always if you don't have or don't like any of the ingredients I've used then use what you have in your fridge, be creative, these filling are on my list to try: Aubergine, tomato & onion or broccoli, courgette and carrot, maybe tomato, spinach and ricotta mmm that sounds good and you could use frozen spinach just make sure you drain excess water off, or a bit of a combination of these with what ever 'bits' need eating up!
Take care lovely friends x
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