Blue Cheese and Cranberry Stuffed Chicken Breasts

Sometimes, chicken bores me.

I like it. It's good. Joey loves it. We eat a lot of it. But sometimes I sort of think cooking it is a drag.

Last Saturday night I got a little fancy with the chicken because I didn't want to fall into the "let's just grill it" trap. Grilling is great. I love grilling. But sometimes I get bored with it. Sorry, but it's true.

I opened up the fridge and was inspired by a package of cranberry blue cheese that hadn't been used yet. There was spinach and red onion around too, so I thought a stuffed chicken breast might make a nice Saturday night dinner. It was very, very easy, so don't let the "stuffed" part of the recipe make you think it's terribly hard or complicated. It's not. So easy, anyone could do it. Plus, it's fancy enough to serve for a fancy get together, but easy enough to serve on a quiet Saturday evening at home.

I don't have pictures of this one, but rest assured that it is terribly good. If you don't have cranberry blue cheese, just use regular blue cheese and stuff a few cranberries in the chicken along with the cheese crumbles. I don't think it'd be much different. Also, I don't really have measurements for this one because you don't really need them. Just use as much of the fillings as you can get into the breast and still pin it closed with a toothpick or two.

Ingredients:
3 large chicken breasts, cut in half and split open
cranberry blue cheese crumbles
spinach
red onion, thinly sliced
salt & pepper
onion powder
plum jam

Method:
Slice open the chicken breast halves so that you have a nice flat piece of meat. Lay a few spinach leaves on top of the whole breast. Toss on a few slices of red onion, then top with cheese crumbles. Fold chicken over itself so that you sort of have a raw chicken sandwich (raw chicken on two sides, filling on the inside). Pull the chicken close to itself so that it seals the filling inside. This won't be perfect--some pieces will work better than others, so just do the best you can. Secure with a toothpick or two, and place in a greased casserole dish. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and onion powder.

Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes-1 hour. Brush plum jam on top of the chicken pieces when there's about 15 minutes left to go. The jam should carmelize a bit and make the tops look just lovely.

I served this with mashed sweet potatoes a simple salad of red leaf lettuce, cranberries, pecans and balsalmic vinegar dressing, but it would pair nicely with a variety of things, I'm sure.