Mediterranean Chicken

Over the holidays a good friend of ours gave us a great looking tapenade as part of a Christmas gift and we have wanted to do something with it for the past few weeks.  Now that things have settled down in the new year, we decided to give a stuffed chicken breast a shot and throw in some goat cheese for good measure.  A playoff football watching Saturday was the perfect time to get this kicked off!  This is something both of us like, me the chicken part and my husband (Tom) all of the yummy extra things in the stuffing.  You can definitely make your own tapenade to use in this dish or just pick out your favorite if you want to go the quick route.  We usually like to find a recipe for guidance and then make it our own, however today we just did what we thought sounded good and it came out fantastic!   

Mediterranean Chicken Recipe

Recipe and photos by FT – Food Tasty! 

(2 servings) 

2 boneless / skinless chicken breasts

4 tbls green olive tapenade (use your favorite or make your own)

4 oz goat cheese

6 slices of prosciutto

2 tbls olive oil

½ cup chicken stock

2 tbls vermouth (white wine is also great)

1 or 2 garlic cloves minced

½  lemon (juiced)

salt and pepper to taste (don’t add very much salt since you have a lot included with the ingredients)

Slice the chicken breasts horizontally, leaving a very narrow end attached to open them up.  Once they are butterflied, put plastic wrap over them and pound them out with a mallet or rolling pin so they are even.  

Put ½ of the tapenade and goat cheese on each of the chicken breasts and spread it fairly evenly over each breast. 

Then roll them tightly up and wrap the prosciutto around each 

of them.  Now you are ready to get those flavors heated up.  Take a skillet (I like cast iron) but any oven safe pan will work.  Add olive oil and sear all sides of chicken breast.  Once browned nicely, throw in the oven at 375 for about 20-25 minutes, until cooked through. 

Remove chicken from pan to let rest and get started on your nice light sauce to serve over the chicken.  With the same pan, on medium heat, add garlic and vermouth and scrape the bottom of the pan to get all of the goodness from the earlier roasting.  After a couple minutes add the chicken stock and let simmer for 5 minutes to reduce to your preferred consistency.  At the end squeeze in some lemon juice to freshen it up.  Slice chicken into medallions and drizzle with lovely sauce.  Enjoy!
Click here for a printable version of this recipe.

Sheri (Sister #1, only because I am the oldest)