Chicken stuffed with Goat Cheese & Basil

I always order this dish at one of my favorite restaurants in Richmond, Mezzanine. Now I typically wouldn’t order baked chicken out because that’s just boring, but throw some goat cheese in and that’s a different story. It’s so delicious. If you don’t like goat cheese, you won’t like this recipe. Luckily I LOVE goat cheese.....and really, a lot of other cheeses too. I don’t discriminate against my cheeses! I believe I ran across this recipe on Pinterest and it was love at first sight. Look at that picture, didn’t you fall in love just a little?? Well, let’s get busy. I know you are dying to know how to make this one and I really can’t blame you. You can thank me later.

The recipe called for chicken breast, but I had chicken thighs in the freezer so I went went those. I’ll try chicken breast next time because they have more skin area to stuff and that equals more goat cheese!

Ingredients

2 bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts or 4 thighs

7 ounces goat cheese – you can use herbed or plain.

4 - 6 large basil leaves. I chopped these instead of  putting in whole.

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 1/2 teaspoons of salt

3/4 teaspoon of black pepper

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375° F.

Wash each chicken breast and pat dry with a paper towel. Place in a pyrex or ceramic baking dish.

With your fingers, loosen the skin from the meat on each breast, leaving one side attached.

Slice the goat cheese into rounds and place half of it under the skin on each breast. It might be easier to crumble so you can get it into every crevice. Place two basil leaves under the skin of each breast. I had some fresh thyme and added that too. It can’t hurt, right?

Drizzle a tablespoon of olive oil over each breast and evenly sprinkle breasts with salt and pepper.

Bake chicken breasts for 40 to 45 minutes, until cooked through.

Serve and enjoy!