Easy, Delicious Stuffed Chicken Breasts

This dish is fast and easy to prepare, and lovely enough for dinner guests.  Made it multiple times for a buffet when having a large party over to dinner.  Just eliminate the fries and veggies and slice on the bias so you can see the lovely colors of the stuffing inside.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Cut six 8-inch pieces of butcher twine.

Ingredients

• 3 tb olive oil
• ¼ c raisins
• ¼ c pine nuts
• 1 tb minced garlic
• 1 lb fresh spinach leaves
• Salt & peper
• ¼ c panko
• 4 boneless chicken breasts (1 ½ lb)
• 2 tb balsamic vinegar
• 1 tb Dijon mustard
• 2 tb water

Put 2 Tb. oil in skillet.  Add raisins, pine nuts, garlic & cook 30 seconds.  Add spinach, sprinkle with S&P, cook stirring constantly until wilted and fairly dry (10 min).  Remove and roughly chop, stir in panko & set skillet aside.

Spread out two chicken breasts on a work surface, place stuffing on top, then top with other breast, end-to-end, the thick side of the top breast on the thin side of the bottom one, so the sandwich is of fairly even thickness.  Tie each stuffed breast in three places with twine.

Sprinkle all sides with S&P.  Use remaining Tb. oil to brown chicken in skillet used for spinach.  Transfer to oven and bake, turning once, until chicken is cooked though (25 minutes).

Remove chicken and tent with foil.  Set skillet over med heat, add vinegar, mustard and 2 Tb. water.  Cook, stirring frequently, until sauce is a thin syrup.  Add pepper.  Remove string from chicken, slice crosswise into thin or thick pieces.  Serve with spoonful of sauce drizzled all over.