Chicken roll-ups with roasted vegetable stuffing

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As a big proponent of healthy living and eating, I tend to do a bulk of my weekday munching at home where I can control my calories a little better. Last night I had a craving for chicken and vegetables (no surprise there), but wasn’t thrilled with cooking the same old same old. That’s when inspiration struck and I ended up making chicken roll-ups with pan-roasted vegetable stuffing and a balsamic glaze. The recipe for 4 servings and what it cost me out of pocket below. Enjoy!

Ingredients

• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts – butterflied and pounded flat (easy how-to video here).
• 1/2 medium zucchini – diced
• 1/2 medium onion – diced
• 1/2 red bell pepper – diced
• 2 roma tomatoes – seeds removed, diced and dried
• 1/2 C baby bella mushrooms (diced)
• 2 large cloves garlic – minced
• 2 sprigs fresh rosemary (a little under 1/2 T if using the canned stuff)
• 1 T fresh basil – minced (I love basil so feel free to use less)
• 1 t sage (used the canned stuff)
• 4 T balsamic vinegar
• extra virgin olive oil
• salt
• pepper
• toothpicks
• Feta cheese (optional)

Instructions

• Turn a burner on your stove to medium heat and turn your oven to 450 degrees.
• In a medium pan, add a bit of olive oil and put on the burner. Once hot, add onion, garlic and bell pepper with some salt and pepper.
• Once the onions start to sweat and the bell pepper starts to soften add the zucchini, mushrooms, tomato, rosemary and sage. When everything is close to done add the basil.
• Lay your butterflied chicken breast on some wax paper. Generously salt and pepper both sides.
• Evenly distribute the vegetables across the chicken breasts.
• Roll the chicken up tightly and secure with toothpicks (I used 3 per).
• Turn your burner up to high, place pan on, add olive oil and let it get screaming hot before adding chicken to brown (pic below).

• Brown chicken on all sides (about a minute per side).
• Add 1 T balsamic across each breast and place pan in oven (if using stainless, otherwise, relocate to baking sheet).
• Let cook in oven around 7-10 minutes depending on thickness of chicken (the balsamic glazes across the top).
• Remove, plate and dress with Feta or goat cheese if you’re into that kind of thing.

The finished product is below, but first here’s what this meal cost me.

Items already in house: garlic, onion, herbs, salt, pepper, balsamic, salt, pepper, olive oil, Feta, chicken breasts
Items needed to be purchased: zucchini, bell pepper, tomatoes, mushrooms – $8.46

The meal is extremely healthy and filling. It was the perfect post workout meal for me and keeps well for leftovers the next day (hooray lunch!). I definitely plan on experimenting with the basic idea. Maybe try it next time using an apple walnut stuffing instead for a completely different flavor profile. Get creative with it and enjoy!

About Post Author

joe

Joe Flowers was born in West Virginia, raised in Texas, classically educated in music and academically educated in journalism. He spends his free time blogging about digital strategy, the Dallas food scene (burgers and tacos), healthy living, Crossfit, distance running and his strange, almost perverse love of cardigans.

unhatched@gmail.com

http://unhatched.posterous.com

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