Spinach, Parmesan, and Avocado Stuffed Chicken Breast

Tonight I wanted to make some chicken for dinner but didn’t want it to be something I’d made recently – felt I needed to spice it up a bit.  So I set out to Pinterest to pull up some recipes I had saved.  However, after scanning the 50 best chicken breast recipes, nothing sounded good.  So I figured out dinner the normal way – by looking in my refrigerator to see what I have.

Spinach is a staple with me so I knew I could do something with that.  I also had some Parmesan I bought for another recipe and it had been sitting in my fridge for a bit; I figured I should probably finish that. [I don’t care for Parmesan – yes, I know, most people tell me I’m crazy – but I may have changed my mind with this recipe.]  I figured I could do something with these two ingredients and decided on a stuffed chicken breast.  To make the mixture sticky so it would work, I needed something else.  Previously I’ve used cream cheese when stuffing chicken breast, but I rarely have that in my house.  Something I do have almost all the time is avocado!  Mmm, avocado is by far one of my top favorite foods.

I should say that I was a bit weary of how this would taste once done – I don’t think I’ve ever cooked avocado in anything before.  Well, the result was surprisingly delicious.  I will be making this again.

Ingredients (makes 2 servings):

• 1 large chicken breast defrosted and cut in half width wise.
  • Use 2 chicken breasts if normal size
  • 1 large handful of spinach (tightly packed)
  • 1 small clove garlic
  • ½ cup Parmesan cheese (I may have used a bit less – I didn’t measure because I just used what I had left)
  • ½ an avocado
  • 1 egg
  • Bread crumbs (I used Panko since I had them in my cupboard – though I think homemade whole wheat bread crumbs would have been just as tasty)
  • Dash of pepper

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350degrees

Place the ½ cup Parmesan in a small mixing bowl.  Chop spinach until it’s very fine and add to mixing bowl.  Mince garlic and add to the mixture.  Next mash the avocado and then mix in with the spinach and Parmesan until well combined.

Break an egg into another small bowl and add a dash of pepper and then mix lightly.  On a plate, pour some breadcrumbs.

Now you have everything ready so it’s time to flatten the chicken breasts.  I placed saran wrap over the top and gently pounded them until they were fairly thin, but not so thin that they were about to rip.  Once this was done I put half the spinach mixture on each piece of chicken and rolled them up (start from the narrow side).  After the chicken is rolled up, brush with egg and then roll in bread crumbs to coat.   Place chicken in foil lined dish.  Bake for 30 minutes, or desired length of time needed for how thin/thick the chicken breast was when flattened.

I had broccoli and sweet potato as sides, but think this would be even more amazing with rice and lemon pepper asparagus.