Recipe #1 - Cream Cheese & Bacon Stuffed Chicken Breasts

Due to a few unexpected circumstances, this first recipe post took much longer than anticipated. I apologize to my dedicated followers for the wait, but I can assure you this first recipe is well worth it!

Most of my recipes will be adaptations from what I've found on the allrecipes.com website. I happened to stumble across this last year when searching for Truffle recipes. The thing I love about this site is the amount of user reviews, and modifications that they've made to suit their specific tastes. So rather than follow the recipe word for word, I like to read through the reviews and modify to my own specific tastes.

The first recipe I came across was for a Philadelphia Cream Cheese Recipe contest. Chicken had been my college and post-college staple for a while now, almost to the point where I haven't even considered new chicken recipes. But this stuffed cream cheese recipe caught my attention, and I had to try it.

I've modified slightly from the original post, taking in suggestions from other reviews:

Cream Cheese & Bacon Stuffed Chicken Breasts

*3 chicken cutlets (cutlets minimize the time to pound and flatten typical chicken breasts)
* 1/2 package of reduced fat Philadelphia Cream Cheese with chives
* 3 slices of cooked bacon
* 1/2 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
* 1 T melted butter

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
Cook 3 slices of bacon, not too crispy.
Crumble bacon and mix with cream cheese and mozzarella cheese. Divide mixture into 3 balls.
Place 1 cream cheese ball mixture in the center of each butterflied chicken cutlet. Fold the chicken over the cream cheese mixture and secure with toothpicks. Arrange the chicken in a baking dish. Pour the butter over the chicken.
Bake 30 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the chicken is no longer pink and juices run clear.

I served this along with 2 servings of steamed Edamame, and it was absolutely delicious! The cream cheese & bacon make this dish very rich, so be careful with what you pair with. It doesn't take much to satisfy a strong appetite!

In prep:




Cooked:




Original Recipe:

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/cream-cheese-garlic-and-chive-stuffed-chicken/detail.aspx

This is the first time I've attempted stuffed chicken breasts, and I couldn't be more pleased. Adam's also approved this for future dinner options, so I have to declare this an overall success! What stuffed chicken recipe would you recommend?

Welcome to Jen's Belly!

After brainstorming for what seemed to be hours (ok, it was about 5 minutes), I came up with what I found to be a charming, er, catchy title for yet another amateur's cooking blog. Since cooking initially originated as a creative and more delicious means to feed the human belly, I thought it was only appropriate for my very first cooking adventure to capture that same sense of simplicity.

OK. That's not exactly true. What I thought to be my more creative options had somehow been taken. "Taste and Tell," now who else would have thought of that??

So why did I decide to begin this blog? Something inside of me recently sparked a strong desire to take on more projects than I can possibly handle. But somehow that's always how I've operated best. Moving into a new house with a fantastic kitchen designed for a chef may have contributed slightly.

And, voila! Another cooking blog is born.

I've thrown around various theme ideas: Cooking Around the World, A to Z Masterpieces (yes, masterpieces may be a little optimistic), Taste of the Week. I'm still debating on what I like best, and it's highly likely that themes will change throughout this adventure. I guess we'll leave it up to Jen's Belly to decide!