Spinach & Mozzarella Cheese Stuffed Chicken with Saffron Risotto & Mushrooms

Chicken is a typical default dinner. When you run out of food and need to cook, chicken is one of the top things that comes to mind. Chicken with a side of potatoes, rice, or veggies is the one home-cooked meal that helped me survive university. It can get boring pretty fast, but the great thing about chicken is that it’s incredibly versatile. There are so many different ways to cook it. Lucky for me I met Daniel who not only introduced me to complete new different dishes, so dinner is no longer ever boring, but also new variations of my go-to chicken dinner. This spinach and mozzarella cheese stuffed chicken breast recipe is a fantastic variation that’s still very easy to cook, but adds new flavours to change up your routine. The saffron risotto is also a bit of a twist as a side dish to make things more exciting. Check out the recipe and let us know what you think!

Servings: 4

Time: 45 minutes

STUFFED CHICKEN

Ingredients:

• 4 chicken breasts with skin

• Spinach to fill

• Mozzarella cheese to fill

• Salt and pepper

• Olive oil

• Two sprigs of thyme

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Prepare chicken breasts for stuffing, by slicing a pocket for the filling. Fill the pocket with spinach and shredded mozzarella cheese. Use toothpicks to close the pocket so the stuffing doesn’t fall out.

2. Season with salt and pepper on both sides. Fry the chicken breasts skin first in a pan with olive oil along with some fresh thyme, until the skin is golden brown and crispy. Flip it and give it a quick sear on the other side until golden brown.

3. Transfer chicken to an ovenproof dish and place in oven for 30 minutes or until cooked through (depending on the size of the chicken breasts).

SAFFRON RISOTTO

Ingredients

• 1 small onion

• Olive oil

• 1 cup of risotto rice

• ½ cup of white wine

• ½ cup chicken stock

• Pinch of saffron

• ½ cup of parmesan cheese

Instructions

1. Finely chop the onion and sautée in a pot on medium heat with olive oil until translucent.

2. Add risotto rice to the pot and sautée until translucent (be careful that it doesn’t burn - so keep stirring).

3. Deglaze with the white wine and bring to a simmer, continuously stirring, until rice has absorbed most of wine.

4. Add the chicken stock and the saffron and continue to simmer and stirring until rice has absorbed most of the liquid. The rice should be al dente and golden yellow, moist and creamy (if it is not al dente, add some more chicken stock and continue to simmer and stir).

5. Once the risotto is ready, add the parmesan cheese and a drizzle of olive oil and mix it into the risotto. Serve and enjoy!

MUSHROOMS

Ingredients: mushrooms, thyme, salt and pepper

Instructions: On high heat with olive oil, sautée mushrooms and season with thyme. At the very end season with salt and pepper. Do not add the salt at the beginning, because it extracts the water in the mushrooms, and makes them mushy. It essentially stops the frying person and boils them, and we don’t want that!

Bon Appétit!