These split boneless chicken breasts are stuffed with roasted cremini, morels, shallots, herbs, spinach and Garlic and Fines Herbs Boursin cheese, then rolled up and roasted to moist, tender and delicious perfection. You can bake them in the oven or indirectly on the grill. Serve them with a reduced sauce from the roasted mushrooms and you have a fancy dinner that doesn’t take all day!
You can really choose just about any filling you like for this dish, and we have substituted arugula for the spinach, which we also love. For a Mediterranean flair, stuff them with a mixture of sun-dried tomatoes, feta, Kalamata olives and fresh tomatoes, or toss in a little arugula or spinach in with this mixture too. The sky is the limit, and all you really need to know how to do is how to roll them up and bake them!
When you are at the store, look for the boneless, whole split chicken breast. This means you really get both breasts, and they are still attached. You then place the filling right in the middle, roll them up and tie them with string for baking.
These are not quite roulades, which are pounded chicken breast rolled around the filling, but rather the full split chicken breast folded around the stuffing and wrapped up in string. This allows the chicken to stay nice and moist and tender.
We bake them on the barbecue indirectly for about 35 minutes over medium heat, or in the oven at 350°F for a little bit longer, about 45-50 minutes or until the meat thermometer registers 165°F for either method. That is the easiest way to know that they are cooked through, but not getting dried out.
To serve, slice the chicken breast rolls into 1 1/2 inch slices and serve with rice or potatoes.
Stuffed Baked Chicken Breasts
Equipment
- Kitchen string
Ingredients
Roasted Mushroom, Spinach, Shallot, Boursin Filling
- 5 oz. dried morel mushrooms, reconstituted in boiling water
- 8 large cremini mushrooms, sliced
- 3 tbsp. olive oil
- 4 large shallots, peeled and sliced into strips lengthwise
- 1/2 cup parsley, minced
- 6 oz. fresh spinach or arugula
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/2 tsp. lemon pepper
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1/2 tsp. pepper
- 2 oz. Boursin Cheese (Garlic and Fine Herbs)
Stuffed Baked Chicken
- 2 split boneless chicken breasts, skin on these come still attached, so this would actually be 4 individual chicken breasts
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1/2 tsp. ground pepper
Sauce
- 1 cup mushroom-shallot broth
- 1/4 of the roasted shallots
- 1/4 cup dry white wine
- Salt & Pepper to taste
- 2 tbsp. Boursin Cheese (Garlic and Fine Herbs)
Instructions
Stuffing Directions
- Preheat oven to 400°F. Spray a baking sheet with 1-inch sides, with cooking spray or rub with olive oil.
- Toss mushrooms and shallots with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Turn out onto prepared baking sheet. Roast for 25 minutes, or until the mushrooms and shallots begin to brown on the edges. The shallots may take a little bit longer, so just remove the mushrooms and place on a plate until the shallots are roasted.
- Remove both mushrooms and shallots from roasting pan and set aside to cool. Pour 1 cup of boiling water over the entire pan and scrape up any brown bits to use in your sauce. Place the liquid and brown bits into a frying pan along with 1/4 of the roasted shallots.
- When veggies are cool, place them in the bowl of your food processor and pulse until chopped but still a little bit chunky.
- Add parsley, garlic and spinach or arugula and pulse again to make the stuffing mixture. Add Boursin and pulse just until integrated.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F or the barbecue to medium-low to medium, if baking on the grill.
- Lay chicken breasts out flat on a cutting board, with the skin side down. Spoon the stuffing in the middle right between the breasts from top to bottom.
- Cut 12 pieces of kitchen string, long enough to wrap around both sides of the chicken breast. Now, using one string at a time, roll the two sides of the split breast together and tie around in three or four places, making sure to keep as much of the stuffing inside the chicken roulade.
- Then, bring the ends toward the center and tie two strings lengthwise around the rolled chicken breasts. Now you should have nice, neatly rolled double chicken breasts with the stuffing tucked inside.
- Place stuffed breasts in a pan and bake at 350°F for 40-45 minutes in the oven until a meat thermometer reaches 165°F when inserted into the thickest part of the chicken. Then turn the oven to broil and cook just another minute or two under the broiler to give it some good color.
- If you are grilling the chicken indirectly on the barbecue, heat the two side burners to high, place the stuffed chicken breasts in an aluminum pan and place the pan over the middle burner, which is turned off. Grill for 35 minutes, or until a meat thermometer reaches 165°F when inserted into the thickest part of the chicken. Then, take the roulades out of the pan and cook directly on one of the high burners for 1 minute per side for color.
- To serve, slice the stuffed breasts into 1 1/2-inch slices and drizzle sauce over the top.
Sauce
- Heat the mushroom broth with the shallots over medium heat, until hot. Add white wine and bring to a boil until very slightly reduced. This sauce will be very thin. You can also add 2-3 tablespoons of Boursin cheese to the sauce, if you prefer a thicker sauce.