Monday, June 27, 2011

Nana's Last Meal: Stuffed Tomato & Basil Chicken w/ Bacon

Stuff tomato and basil chicken wrapped in bacon
Some things are just worth waiting for. Case in point ... last night was Nana's last night with us, so I wanted to make a special "send-off" dinner for all of us. I have a lot of fresh basil from our balcony, so I hopped online to look for a recipe made with basil. I ran across this recipe and it sounded D-Lish!

My timing wasn't the best, however. I still needed to get to the grocery store for a few ingredients, and then marinate the chicken breasts as well. I think by the time we were seated at the table it was pushing almost 9:30pm. Oops .... it better be good! In the end, it was worth the wait.

This recipe sounds like it would be hard, but it was actually pretty easy and very tasty. You need 30 mins to marinate, and then about 30-35 minutes to bake. I cooked the brussel sprouts at the same time in the oven and had the corn boiling above on the stove. While it was all cooking, I was able to tidy up the kitchen so there wouldn't be much to do afterwards and we could enjoy our stuffed bellies. tic-toc, tic-toc, tic-toc ...

I'm not the biggest fan of actually handling chicken, so if you have that fear *gasp* this may not be for you. To prepare, you need to butterfly the chicken breast to marinate, and then stuff them with:  1) tomatoes, 2) fresh basil, and 3) provolone cheese. The final touch is wrapping each one with 3 strips of bacon. For a more healthier bend, you can definitely forgo the bacon, or use turkey bacon or bacon bits ... options! Even though it is a chicken dish, it can be paired with a red wine. I opted for a white last night, and it was perfect!

We sat around the dinner table and enjoyed this wonderful meal as Kyler slept after a packed day of playing with his Nana. Dinner was a success and will definitely be making another appearance in our home in the future. If this tickles your fancy like it did mine, you can see the entire recipe on Allrecipes.com and search for "Stuffed Tomato Basil Chicken." 

-M2B