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Chicken Stuffed with Pistachio Parsley Pesto

4 cooked and stuffed chicken breast tied together on a bed of cooked sliced carrots with a green onion garnish. White plate. Vertical view.
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EatSimpleFood.com

This stuffed chicken breast recipe pops with pistachio, parsley, and orange pesto.   The pistachio pesto stuffing moistens and flavors the chicken and takes it past your standard chicken breast recipe.

Ingredients

  • 4 (5 ounce) portions of chicken breast butterflied
  • ⅓ cup pistachios, shelled,  unsalted, roasted, chopped
  • ½ cup fresh parsley, chopped
  • zest from one orange
  • 1 medium orange diced, don't use the juice for this recipe
  • 1 Tbsp olive oil
  • pinch black pepper
  • 1/4 tsp salt, divided

Instructions

  • Pre-heat oven to 400F.
  • Butterfly chicken breasts (some stores will do this for you at the meat counter).  Butterflying may sound intimidating but it is basically cutting the piece of meat in half but leaving the end portion uncut (making it look like an open book).
  • Make the pesto: combine all the ingredients (except the chicken!) in a bowl.  Salt and pepper to taste.
  • Evenly divide all the pistachio pesto between the four pieces of chicken towards one side of each piece of chicken.
  • Tie the chicken breast together with kitchen twine or hold it together with toothpicks.
  • Lightly olive oil, salt and pepper each side of the chicken.
  • Sear the chicken on both sides, if desired, on the stovetop (medium high heat pan with light layer of oil) and then transfer chicken (make sure the pan is oven safe) to the oven for ~ 13-16 minutes or until internal temperature reaches 165F.  If you don't want to sear: Bake at 400F for ~ 20-25 minutes or until temp reaches 165F. 
  • Let chicken rest 5 minutes before serving.  Add salt to taste.

Notes

  • Make a pan sauce if you sear the chicken.  Deglaze the pan with 3/4-1 cup white wine or chicken broth and reduce the sauce by half.
  • Confused at how to tie chicken?  Stick toothpicks through the edges of the chicken instead to hold it together.
  • You can pound the chicken between plastic to make it flatter if you need/want to with a meat mallot.  I like to use string to tie it all together.   Conversely, you could also buy this chicken with the skin on and stuff the pesto underneath the skin.

Find it online: https://eatsimplefood.com/pistachio-parsley-stuffed-chicken/