Jalapeño Popper Stuffed Chicken

Hey, how was your weekend!?  Our was fantastic.  We traveled to our small home town for the guys alumni basketball tournament.  Mr. Schwartz and my older brother both play so it's pretty exciting to watch.  Although they didn't fare as well as they did last year, I think they both had a great time.  

As usual, we also stayed up until the weee hours of the morning playing cards and having a "few" cocktails and glasses of wine.  Let's just say I was moving a bit slower yesterday and went to bed at about 8.  I'm old.  

Guess what's not old.  This awesome new recipe I concocted last week.  Seriously fantastic.  Mr. Schwartz and I agreed it is one of the best I have made to date.  It's so easy and really not very spicy at all.  You can really just taste the flavor of the jalapeno and not the spice.  I was a little nervous considering I used fresh jalapenos but it turned out fantastic.  Mr. Schwartz said that it would be even better with a bit more kick.  Try these, I promise they won't disappoint.  

Musical Selection: Runaway Baby by: Bruno Mars.  I'm obsessed with this song after the Grammys. 

Start by dicing up the jalapeno.  I used my food processor since I am notorious for cutting up peppers then touching my eyes or taking out my contacts.  I regret it every.single.time.  I need some surgical gloves.

They should look like this.  You want it to be pretty fine.

Combine the peppers with cream cheese.  I bet you could even use the reduced fat/fat free for this recipe.

Add some cheddar.  I used cheddar and supplemented with a Mexican blend because I didn't have quite enough.

Stir it up.  It should be thick. Set aside.

And bang the heck out of some chicken breasts.

Like so.  You want them really thin so that they don't take forever to cook.

Take a few spoonfuls of the cream cheese mixture and plop it on the chicken.

Flatten it with your hand.

And roll it up.

Roll it in some bread crumbs.  I used Italian Seasoned bread crumbs.

Ha, this made me laugh.  So, I had some left over stuffing since I was only using 3 chicken breasts (that's all I defrosted).  I wasn't about to throw it away so I popped it into a little baking dish and sprinkled it with bread crumbs.  It made for a pretty tasty dip this weekend when we were playing cards.

Okay, moving on.  Preheat a skillet on medium heat and drizzle some olive or canola oil in the pan.  Brown these babies on every side exept for the side that has the cheese coming out.  As you can see, that is the side that is up on the chicken closest to the bottom here.  I browned them on each side for about 2 or 3 minutes.  I then placed them in a 350 degree preheated oven for about 30 minutes or until they were fully cooked.

Seriously unbelievable.

Cheesy, gooey, goodness.  And you see those scalloped potatoes, yeah, I'm going to post that this week too.

I want to go back to this exact moment. Lordy, lordy. 

Jalapeno Popper Stuffed Chicken 

(Makes 4 stuffed chicken breasts) 

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

2 or 3 jalapeno peppers

1 8 oz block of cream cheese

1 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese 

1 1/2 cup bread crumbs (I used Italian Seasoned but you could use regular or Panko too)

Finely (FINELY) dice the jalapenos.  I used a food processor.  Combine the jalapenos with the cream cheese and shredded cheddar cheese.  Set aside. 

Place the chicken breasts in a large zip top bag and use a meat tenderizer or large pan to flatten the chicken.  You want these very thin.

After you pound the chicken, take one breast and place it on a cutting board.  Spoon 1/4 of the cream cheese mixture onto the chicken and flatten this with your hand.  Roll the chicken up and press gently so it stays together.  Roll in the breadcrumbs.

Preheat your oven to 350 and preheat a skillet on medium heat.  Drizzle skillet with olive or canola oil.  Place the chicken into the pan.  Brown every side except the one that has the seam.  You don't want the cheese to burn.  

After you have browned each side of the chicken, place in the oven for about 20 minutes or until the chicken is completely cooked.  

Enjoy! 

Recipe by: Mrs. Schwartz  Inspiration from: here