My newest chicken recipe

[Fairportfan]

So one of the local stores had a sale on boneless/skinless chicken breasts for $1.99 a pound. I bought a five-pound (more or less) package, that had seven half-breasts in it.

I put them in a plastic box with a lid along with a bottle of cheap Italian dressing and one can of imitation Ro*Tel diced tomatoes with green chilies (i used the lime-and-cilantro kind, but you could use the hot or the original or even the mild if you like). After they'd been marinating for a day or two in the fridge, i whipped up a package of stuffing mix. (I used a store-brand chicken flavoured mix - if i'd spent about 40% more on Shake-n-Bake i could have got herb flavour, which i really preferred. So i added some commercial Italian Seasoning to the mix.)

I put part the stuffing in the bottom of the Le Creuset franch oven, put in four pieces of marinated breast on that, added more stuffing, added more stuffing, then the other three pieces, then the rest of the stuffing, then poured a quarter-cup or so of the marinade over all. Before i covered the pot, stuck the remote-sensing probe for my electronic oven thermometer in the fattest piece on the bottom layer and set it to signal at 160F.

I covered the pot, and stuck it in a 400 F oven.

Meanwhile, i prepared a dish of fresh broccoli and cauliflower florets(with about two or three tablespoons of water.). When it looked as if the chicken was getting on toward done, i stuck the loosely-covered dish in the microwave, and punched its "Vegetables" sensor-cook setting. (It senses steam coming from the veggies cooking and uses that to pretty accurately determine cooking time.) Drained it, sprinkled on some lime juice and added butter.

When the chicken was cooked, i discovered that i had slightly miscalculated - the package directions for the stuffing mix say that, if you're going to cook a bird with the stuff in it, you need to prepare it normally before you stuff the bird with it. So i prepared it normally for this.

Unfortunately, a LOT of liquid sweated out of the marinated chicken, and between that and the little bit i had added at the beginning ... it was closer to savoury herb-seasoned mush than stuffing.

Other than that, though, it came out wonderfully - firm but tender, juicy and very tasty.

I'll be making it again, but next time, i think i'll use two packages of stuffing ... and i won't prepare it beforehand.

[Jabberwonky]

The only one word for it...

I"m coming to dinner at your house.

[Fairportfan]

It'd work pretty good with thick cut boneless pork chops, too, i think.

Only use the hot Ro*Tel (with Habeñeros rather than green chilies) in the marinade.

[Fairportfan]

[bmonk]

Reminds me of the time a brother called up a new restaurant to decide if they wanted to try it. They asked whether they had fresh chicken that day.

They heard a hand put over the phone mic, and the person at the restaurant cry out into the kitchen, "Mama, we got chicken tonight?"

In that instant, they knew they were going there.