Cheese Stuffed Chicken Breasts

Not long ago, I saw a recipe on Pinterest for stuffed chicken breasts. I already have a recipe for something similar, so I almost overlooked it. But something inside me said, "Try this one." Okay, it may have been my growling stomach. But wherever it came from, I listened.

And I am SOOOOOO glad I did.

I made this recipe (and followed the original fairly closely), placed it on the table, and waited for the response.

I believe hubby's words were "restaurant worthy".

Wow.

He is always complimentary but I don't remember ever hearing something like that!

I will be making this again. Probably soon since I only got one serving.

Ingredients:
Chicken breasts (I did use 6 and probably could have had 8 since there was NONE left over)

1 block cream cheese (I used light...oh, the original recipe doesn't call for that much. I made a creative change for my taste buds :)

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, grated (And I did do freshly grated)

1/4 cup minced fresh Basil leaves (so thankful for the spice "singles" I can buy in produce at the grocery store)

1 clove minced garlic

2 (or so) tbsp olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Using a knife, cut a slit in one side of the chicken breast. It is like a little pocket.

Salt and pepper to taste.

Mix the garlic, Parmesan cheese, softened cream cheese, and minced basil leaves together.

Spoon some of the mixture into each "pocket" chicken breast.

Heat oil in a skillet on the stove (medium high heat?).

Place each chicken breast on the skillet, cooking about 3-5 minutes, until chicken is browned.

Flip the chicken breasts and cook another 5-10 minutes.

At the end of that 10 minutes, I checked the chicken to make sure it had cooked all the way through.

Then I spooned all remaining mixture ingredients over the chicken AND into the skillet so it became a rich, cheesy sauce. Yum. (This was a little different than the original recipe)

I let it simmer a couple more minutes until the sauce was heated through, then I removed from the heat and let it rest a few minutes.

We ate ours atop a bed of angel hair pasta (the sauce and the pasta was REALLY good) with a side salad and some garlic knots.

Like I said, no chicken left in the end.

Always a sign of a good meal!

Reba