Fresh chicken breasts can go on sale many times during the year. Even though I normally have them in the freezer at home all the time, I will still take advantage of the sales because the price is right and the quality is unbeatable. The tender white meat is also very workable, so you can use it for wide variety of creative recipes.
One of my favorite uses for fresh chicken breast is to stuff it. You could pretty much stuff a chicken breast with what ever you like, but a good combination for me is asiago cheese and sautéed spinach. When you unwrap your breast turn up the underside and lightly score it with your knife so that the breast opens up a little bit, creating a wider cavity for stuffing. Don't cut through the piece of meat as you want a nice clean server-side to put face up on the plate.
I like to sauté my spinach first and squeeze out any extra moisture, as too much liquid inside the chicken stuffing will cause messy oozing. You can season the spinach with a little salt and pepper, or perhaps some garlic salt. Take a chunk of cheese may be the equivalent of a tablespoon and place it in the cavity with the spinach. Now wrap the chicken and tuck the opening on the underside. Often times, like in this recipe I will wrap my chicken with a single slice of prosciutto. Prosciutto is a delicious, salt cured pork cut that not only adds a bit of zesty flavor to your chicken breast, but also helps to secure it in position when cooking.
Take your chicken and sear the outside of it in a hot pan brushed with a little bit of olive oil. Gently turn it over so that each side has gotten some exposure to the heat and a little bit of coloring. I like finishing the chicken breasts in the oven, so at this stage I'll remove them from the pan season it a bit more with perhaps some garlic seasoning or dry Italian herbs, and then put it in the oven at about 350° for about 10 min.
You can check if your chicken is done by looking underneath to see if there's any pink meat, there shouldn't be, and also see that the juices running from the chicken meat are clear rather than cloudy or tinged of red or pink. Chicken breast is a very tender meat but can dry out fast so it's important to not over cook your meat.
For service, I like to slice chicken breasts right down the middle and open them up so that who's ever eating this amazing meal can see how this stuffing is formed inside of the chicken breast. With something like spinach is while there is such a color contrast that will jump out at them on the plate. For a sauce I will often pick something very mild and creamy and just nestled the chicken on a puddle of sauce on the plate. That is a very effective presentation for delicious stuffed chicken breast dinner.
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