Guacamole and Feta Stuffed Chicken Breasts

 

Tonight we made these amazing guacamole and feta stuffed spiced chicken breasts for dinner.  It's based on this recipe that I found on Pinterest- but I have a very limited spice tolerance and we can't afford fancy goat cheeses, so we changed it around a bit.  Here's what we did:

Ingredients:
* About 3 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts
* 2 very ripe avocados, chopped
* 1/2 tsp onion powder
* 1 Tbsp lime juice
* 1/4 tsp garlic powder
* 1/4 tsp salt
* 3 Tbsp chopped sun-dried tomatoes
* 4 oz pkg of feta cheese plus 2 oz of plain yogurt blended together into a kind of chunky cheese/yogurt paste (this is to replace the 6 oz of expensive goat cheese called for in the original recipe.  You can probably just guesstimate with a couple spoonfuls of yogurt, but we used the meat scale and actually measured it out to equal 6 oz). 
* 2 Tbsp olive oil
* 1/2 tsp chili powder
* 1 tsp (kind of heaping tsp) garam masala powder (you can probably substitute cumin, or maybe 1/2 tsp cumin and 1/2 tsp curry powder if you can't find garam masala and don't want to make your own, but seriously- find the garam masala if at all humanly possible.  It's amazing!)
* 1/2 tsp (kind of heaping on this one, too) garlic powder
* 1 tsp salt
*1/2 tsp pepper
* toothpicks

Directions:
1.  Preheat the oven to 350º.  Place the chicken breasts in a 9 x 13 baking pan- if you want easier cleanup you can line the pan with foil or parchment paper first, but we usually don't bother with that.  Use a boning knife to cut a deep horizontal pocket through the center of each chicken breast.  Make sure it runs the length of the breast, but doesn't cut all the way through.  Alternatively, if you have exceptionally flat chicken breasts like we sometimes end up with (buying cheap  20 lb boxes means you can never tell what the breasts will end up like), you can use the flat side of a meat mallet to flatten the breasts into a rectangle.

2.  Blend the avocados, onion powder, lime juice, 1/4 tsp garlic powder, and 1/4 tsp of salt in a small bowl to make guacamole.  Alternatively, you can just use 8 oz of storebought guacamole.  Combine 8 oz of the guacamole with the feta/yogurt paste (set the excess guacamole aside to serve with the chicken, or you know, just to munch on while you're waiting for it to finish).  Mix the sun-dried tomatoes into the cheese and guacamole.

3.  Spoon the filling inside each chicken breast and carefully close them, using a toothpick to secure the gap in each breast.  If you had really flat chicken breasts and took the alternate meat mallet route, you'll spoon some of the filling into the middle of each rectangle and then roll the chicken breast up around it and use the toothpicks to hold it closed.  You'll likely have a little bit of excess filling.  We put it in a heap in the 9 x 13 pan to cook with the chicken.  I probably shouldn't recommend that, given that the filing will have chicken juices and you'll risk of food poisoning, but the meat thermometer did show that our got hot enough not to be dangerous.  So, maybe, follow that part at your own risk. :)

4. Mix the chili powder, garam masala, 1/2 tsp garlic powder, 1 tsp salt, and pepper in a small bowl.  Rub the oil over the chicken breasts to coat.  Sprinkle the spices over the chicken and gently rub in with the back of a spoon.

5.  Bake the chicken at 350º for 30-40 minutes until the juices run clear, and a meat thermometer reads 165º.