Adventures in Cooking Smart Chicken, Part 1…

Posted by Sarah on March 31st, 2011 at 09:53am

Today I’m bringing you the first part in a special series where we explore cooking with Smart Chicken. What’s Smart Chicken? Well I’m glad you asked it’s personally one of my favorite chicken brands out there, with a taste like no other. This chicken brand really gets it right; they know how to produce a good quality, healthy and fresh chicken product.

They actually pioneered a unique chilling method allowing chickens to be cooled individually with purified, cold air. It’s amazing how much of a difference it makes in flavor and quality. Whether it’s the organic chicken or the veg-fed you’ll taste the difference from the average chicken you eat, I promise you. Can you tell I’m a fan? Guess so!

I’ve been eating Smart Chicken for years, so I was super excited when we were able to collaborate with them for an amazing upcoming giveaway (check back in May for more details on that). But in the meantime I’m going to be featuring a new cooking adventure with fantastic chicken recipes every week leading up to the giveaway, some from Smart Chicken, and some of my own.

First up in this series is a creation of my own, a little something taken from several recipes I’ve tried over the years. I have to say I think this is a fairly easy chicken recipe, even for someone who’s still learning to cook, and it’s fun too. I mean there’s wine involved, when is that not fun?

Feta Tomato & Zucchini Stuffed Chicken

Serves: 2 (but you can easily double or triple this recipe)

What You’ll Need:

• 2 Smart Chicken breasts (or brand of choice)
• 3/4 cup of tomato, chopped
• 1/2 cup onion, chopped
• 3/4 cup zucchini, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup tomato basil or plain feta cheese
• 1/2 to 3/4 cup white wine
• 1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon olive oil
• Salt, basil and pepper to taste

How to Make:

To start make sure you keep your chicken separate from your veggie area (an important practice whenever working with poultry).

Chop the tomato, onion and zucchini and set aside.

Add 1 teaspoon of olive oil to frying pan, turn heat on medium.

Take each chicken breast and cook for 1 minute on each side, or until it just turns white.

Set chicken breasts aside.

Add remaining olive oil to frying pan and turn heat to low-medium.

Add onion and garlic and saute until just tender and aromas are plentiful.

Add tomato and zucchini to pan with 1/4 cup of white wine. Mix in feta cheese and spices.

Continue to saute until veggies are tender, adding remaining wine as it evaporates. (You want to form a nice sauce).

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Once sauce is done, take each chicken breast and slice it carefully down the side, making a sort of pocket.

Stuff each breast until filled with the sauce mixture. If needed secure with wooden toothpicks to hold the chicken together.

Keep the remaining tomato/zucchini sauce mixture warm on the side (you’ll use it as a sauce later).

Place chicken in greased baking pan, pouring a little of the wine on top and sprinkle with spices.

Bake for about 25 to 30 minutes.

Serve the chicken with the remaining sauce mixture poured over each breast.

I hope you enjoyed the first installment in my Smart Chicken adventures series, there’s plenty more to come; including how-to roast a whole chicken and chicken and dumplings. Get ready for a chicken extravaganza!

To learn more about Smart Chicken you can check out their website here.

Tags: casserole recipes, chicken recipes, Quick and Easy, quick and easy dinner, recipes, weeknight

Under Quick and Easy Tags: casserole recipes, chicken recipes, Quick and Easy, quick and easy dinner, recipes, weeknight