Cooking With Chef Chan

Yesterday I didn't know what I was going to make for lunch,but I knew I had some ricotta cheese & frozen spinach. As I thought about it I decided to mix the cheese in with the spinach n put that inside of the chicken and that's when I came up with this recipe.

Ricotta & Spinach Stuffed Chicken Breast

Ingredients:

1 pkg of Chicken breast

1 (8oz cup)of ricotta cheese with whole milk

1 cup Parmesan cheese

linguine noodles (preferably Barilla)

Nutmeg (1/4 tsp-teaspoon)

Toothpicks

1/2 cup of frozen spinach

salt and pepper to taste

3-4 cups of Preggo Tomato sauce (my preference)

a skillet that you can put in the oven

Method of Production:

* Put water in a pot n let boil until ready to cook pasta*

*Preheat oven for 350 degrees.

*Soak about 15-20 toothpicks in water (don't skip this step because your toothpicks will burn in oven)
*Defrost your spinach. Once defrosted get you a kitchen towel put spinach in center squeeze and ring out the extra liquid.

*Combine and set aside ricotta cheese, spinach, add only 1/2 of the Parmesan cheese, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper, and 1/4 tsp of nutmeg.

*Preheat skillet to med high heat

*In the meantime, clean n pat dry chicken with a paper towel. Take your chicken breast and split it in half but not going all the way through. You want it to look like a book which is called butterflying.

*Season both sides of chicken with salt and pepper.

*With the chicken split in half add only 1 good tablespoon of the mixture and spread thinly on chicken breast.

*Take chicken breast n roll up tight like a burrito.

*Secure it with the toothpick (you will probably need about 2-3 toothpicks per chicken breast.)

*Put 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil in skillet place the top of the chicken breast down first

(here's why: you want your chicken to be a golden brown color so you would need to put the top piece down first cause when you put it on plate you want your golden side to be your presentation side. People won't pay attention to the bottom. Also: we eat with out eyes first)

*You won't cook the chicken all the way through on top of the stove that's why you're going to finish it in the oven. (you just want to get the golden color on top of chicken)

*If you don't have a skillet that you can put in oven then you can just transfer it to an oven safe dish. Cook for about 20-25mins 

*While this is cooking around the last 15 mins on the chicken. Go ahead and drop your pasta in the water, drain, and set aside. Add a little of extra virgin olive oil to pasta so they won't stick together.

*Heat up spaghetti sauce.

*How to plate: put your pasta down first, slice your chicken, add pasta sauce, and top with  parmesan cheese.

(NOW YOU'RE READY TO EAT)