Tuesday Night

Last night we had one of my creations. I made this recipe once before but this time I improved it. Though I used the internet for some inspiration- this recipe is mine. The chicken turns out great but I still think the pistachio coating needs another spice- let me know if you find the missing ingredient!

Pistachio-Encrusted Chicken Breasts with Goat-Cheese Stuffing

The coating:

1/2 c unsalted pistachios

pinch of coriander powder

1/2 tsp of cinnamon

1/2 tsp of cumin

salt and pepper

4-5 chicken breasts

The stuffing:

goat cheese

dried cranberries (some cut up fig would be good too)

honey

mint

Preheat oven to 375 F

Grind the pistachios in a coffee grinder- do not grind too long, you want some bigger crunchy bits in there and you don't want it to turn into a paste. Put the ground pistachio on a large plate and add the spices. Mix and set aside.

Fold a piece of saran wrap in half, place your chicken inside and grab a hammer or a mallet and pound away. Make sure to think of someone when you're doing it. Make sure you the chicken is thin enough that you can roll it up, the maximum thickness is probably about 3/4 of an inch thick, stop pounding if the chicken starts breaking apart. Get a baking pan ready (you may want to put aluminum foil underneath). Cover your chicken with the crust and lay it out on the pan. Take a bit of goat cheese and put it in the center, place about 10 cranberries on top of the goat cheese on each piece of chicken, top with some fresh or dried mint and draw a line of honey across your filling. Roll up and fold in the ends of the chicken, you may want to hold them together with broken up skewers but you don't have to.

2 on the left are the chicken before folding

1 on the right after folding

Bake in the oven for 20-25 and then broil them until they are nice and brown on top- this doesn't take long so keep an eye on them!

Enjoy! And let me know if you've improve the spice mixture!