Chicken Filets With Tomato-Feta Cheese Stuffing
- For the marinade:
- 3/4 cup scallions, finely chopped
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1 cup dry white wine
- black pepper freshly ground
- For the stuffing/sauce:
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 3/4 cup scallions, finely chopped
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 1 tablespoon sun dried tomato paste (or concentrated tomato paste)
- 1 1/2 lb (700 gr) tomatoes, coarsely chopped, or 1 (14- to 15-oz = 400-500 gr) can whole tomatoes in juice, including juice
- 1/3 cup water
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- 1 small red chili pepper, finely chopped
- salt & pepper
- 11 oz (300 gr) feta cheese, minced with a fork
- 1/2 cup fresh basil leaves, chopped
- For the chicken:
- 4 medium size boneless chicken breast halves without the skin
- a few pointed toothpicks
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- salt
- Marinade:
- Remove "tender" (fillet strip located on either side of where breast bone was) from each breast half, keeping rest of chicken breast intact, and reserve tenders for another use. Cut a deep pocket horizontally in long curved side of each chicken breast half. Put the chicken and all the marinade ingredients in a sealable plastic bag and refrigerate overnight.
- Sauce:
- In a medium-size saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the scallions and simmer until wilted, about two minutes. Add the garlic and the sun dried tomato paste, stir and cook for another two minutes. Add the tomatoes, water, sugar, chilli pepper and season with salt and pepper. Let simmer until the water evaporates and the sauce is thickened, about 25-30 minutes.
- Turn the heat off and add the crumbled feta cheese. Stir to distribute evenly in the pan so that the sauce takes a creamy texture. Let the sauce cool and add the chopped basil leaves.
- The sauce can be made one day ahead and refrigerated. Actually it is better if made one day ahead, so that the flavors of the ingredients develop to their full extent.
- Chicken:
- Remove the chicken breast halves from the bag and pat them dry. Discard the bag with the marinade. Fill each pocket of the breast halves with 2 tablespoons of the sauce and use pointed toothpicks to close the pockets.
- Heat a well-oiled ridged grill pan or any other pan large enough to accommodate the chicken filets over moderately high heat. Sear the chicken filets max. 2 minutes from each side. Remove the filets from the pan and let cool.
- Preheat the oven to 400o F (200o C). About 25 minutes before you are ready to serve, remove the toothpicks and cut the chicken filets in slices. Place chicken slices carefully in a sheet pan lined with baking paper and season with salt. Bake for 20 minutes, remove from the oven and let stand for 5 minutes. Heat the remaining sauce over moderately low heat and serve with the chicken.
marinade, scallions, garlic, olive oil, white wine, black pepper, ubc, scallions, garlic, tomato paste, tomatoes, water, sugar, red chili pepper, salt, feta cheese, fresh basil, chicken, chicken breast halves, toothpicks, olive oil, salt
Taken from www.epicurious.com/recipes/member/views/chicken-filets-with-tomato-feta-cheese-stuffing-1223241 (may not work)