A fancy, restaurant-style dinner perfect for date nights in! While traditional parmesan risotto is cooked on the stove, chicken breasts stuffed with a mixture of spinach, roasted red pepper, and parmesan cheese bake in the oven until they re flavorful and tender.
I know. The title is obnoxiously long, but every ingredient is essential in this so-delicious and fancy, but completely possible and do-able date night in menu! I created this meal for our Valentine s Day dinner (who wants to go out when you can eat risotto in your yoga pants?) and it was a hit. I asked Garrett how much he d pay for it in a restaurant and he reminded me of his policy to never order chicken when he s out to eat. It s as romantic over here as you think it is. Now, if I were a better food blogger, I d have given y all this delicious date night menu a few weeks before Valentine s Day so that you could be prepared to wow your sweetheart. But, I ve got some things on my mind, and we re really just winging it over here. True life.
When I was first learning to cook, I found it really difficult to time my dishes so that everything would be ready and hot together. I tried so many times in the early years of our marriage to create fancy, restaurant-inspired meals and more often than not ended up in tears and frustration. It s hard to pull off a romantic date night in when half of the ingredients just finally made it in the oven and the chicken you ve been cooking on the stove is long past overdone! If you re in that place where it s hard to time all your dishes, know you aren t alone. Practice and experience will be your best friend, but you can also boost your confidence by cooking menus like this one that are specifically written to be cooked together. So a few notes on how to make this menu a success because I believe in you and know you will knock this out of the park. 1 Preparation is 90% of success on this one. Measure out your rice and wine and butter and chicken stock and chop all the ingredients before you do anything else. 2 Think of this meal as two parts of one dance. We re going to start by prepping the ingredients for both the chicken and the risotto. We ll also preheat the oven and start heating a cast iron skillet and a heavy pan on the stovetop. The cast iron will be for the chicken and the second pot (I love a Dutch oven or braiser for this) will hold our risotto. Once we have the ingredients prepped and everything is heating, we ll focus completely on the chicken. You ll carefully (please, carefully) cut deep pockets into the sides of each breast and stuff them with the spinach and roasted red pepper mixture. The breasts will be heavily seasoned and seared in the skillet then moved to the oven. Once that s done we ll focus completely on the risotto and forget about the chicken.
3 Risotto. We ve discussed before how risotto can be a little bit difficult, but always feels fancy and worth the effort. You can make risotto, provided you A) use Arborio rice and B) lovingly and slowly stir in the chicken stock. Risotto gets its signature creamy texture when the Arborio rice slowly absorbs liquid and releases its starch. The starch thickens the rice and liquid, creating a creamy, saucy, happy texture. Risotto takes time (about 30 minutes) and some stirring. Give yourself over to it and take the time to pray for the people you love and RELAX. Your date night will be better for it. 4 Cook the chicken. There is no shame in cutting open your chicken to make sure it s cooked through. Repeat after me: cutting open the chicken is more romantic than serving raw chicken. And, in this case, we re slicing the chicken before serving it anyway. So cut away and if it s not done, pop it back in the oven. 5 Timing. Okay there are three scenarios when you are in the final five minutes of making this menu. The first is that you ve timed it perfectly and the chicken is well rested just as the risotto becomes its happy, creamy, delicious self. You slice the stuffed chicken breasts, serve it over a huge helping of the risotto, pour some wine and light some candles. Or it might be that the risotto isn t quite done when your oven timer goes off. That s okay you ll see in the recipe below that I want you to remove the chicken, cover it, and let it rest a bit. Do that. Suppose the risotto is done and the chicken still needs to cook? NOT A PROBLEM! Turn the heat down on the risotto and add a little more chicken broth. If that absorbs and the chicken needs more time, add a little more. You ve got this!
I hope you ll give this a try. I think you ll love this flavorful, tender stuffed chicken breast over parmesan risotto! Invite your favorite person over or put the kids to bed early and enjoy this fancy, restaurant quality, you-can-definitely-absolutely-make-this dinner. 5.0 from 3 reviews Print Spinach and Roasted Red Pepper Stuffed Chicken Breast with Parmesan Risotto Author: Jessica Wood Prep time: 25 mins Cook time: 35 mins Total time: 1 hour Serves: 4 A fancy restaurant style dinner perfect for date nights in! While traditional parmesan risotto is cooked on the stove, chicken breast stuffed with a mixture of spinach, roasted red pepper, and parmesan cheese bakes in the oven until it's flavorful and tender. Ingredients Stuffed Chicken Breasts 2 chicken breasts (1.5-2 lb) Handful of spinach, chopped 1 roasted red pepper, chopped (from a jar) 2 tbsp greek yogurt 1 dash of Worcestershire sauce Salt Pepper 2 tbsp shredded parmesan cheese Parmesan Risotto 1 clove garlic, minced 1 shallot, minced 1 cup arborio rice 1 cup white wine
3 cup chicken stock 4 tbsp butter, divided 1 tbsp olive oil Salt ¼ cup shredded parmesan cheese Instructions 1. Preheat oven to 375. 2. Heat cast iron over medium-high heat. 3. Pour chicken broth in a small saucepan and heat over low-medium heat. 4. Heat a heavy bottom pot or braiser over medium heat. 5. PREPARE THE CHICKEN: In a small bowl, mix chopped spinach, chopped roasted red pepper, greek yogurt, parmesan cheese, and a pinch of salt and pepper. Set aside. 6. Using your sharpest knife, place your palm on the top of the chicken breast and very carefully slice a pocket in the side of the breast. Don t worry if you accidentally cut through the chicken it happens to everyone. 7. Divide the spinach mixture between the two breasts, stuffing as much into the pockets in your chicken breasts as possible. Use toothpicks to seal the pockets, about 3 for each breast. Liberally season chicken with salt and pepper. 8. Sear chicken in hot cast iron for three minutes (be sure to season bottom side). Turn chicken over and move pan to oven. Cook chicken 30 minutes or until cooked through. Once chicken is cooked, remove from oven and cover with foil or a lid to keep warm and let it rest before slicing. 9. PREPARE THE RISOTTO: While chicken is baking, make the parmesan risotto. In the heated pot or braiser, melt 2 tbsp butter and add 1 tbsp olive oil. Saute minced shallot and garlic for about 1 minute in oil and butter. Add arborio rice to pan and cook over medium heat for a minute or two. Pour in white wine. Stir continuously until wine has evaporated. 10. Over the next 25-30 minutes, you ll slowly combine the risotto and chicken stock, one ladle at a time. When the wine has cooked down, add your first ladle of chicken stock and stir the rice continuously until there is very little stock remaining. Then add more chicken stock and repeat. As the rice absorbs the chicken stock, it will slowly release its starch, creating a creamy and tender risotto.
11. FINISH THE DISH: About the time you have added all of the stock, the chicken should be ready to come out of the oven. Remove the chicken from the oven and allow it to rest. Finish the risotto by adding the remaining butter and stirring in the cheese. Taste for seasoning you may need to add more salt. 12. Slice the chicken breast and serve slices of the stuffed chicken breast over the parmesan risotto. 13. Enjoy!