This Blueberry-Stuffed Chicken Breast makes for an elegant summer meal. I stuff a plain, boneless and skinless chicken breast with goats cheese, basil leaves and tons of fresh blueberries. If that doesn’t sound good on its own, its get even better when the whole stuffed chicken breast gets wrapped in Italian prosciutto! Serve this with some extra blueberry sauce on the side and your summer dinner party is taken care of!
Servings: 4
Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 30 minutes | Total Time: 45 minutes
Ingredients:
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1/2 cup goats cheese
- 2 cups fresh blueberries
- 12 basil leaves, fresh
- 8 slices prosciutto, thinly sliced
- 2 tablespoons water
- 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Directions:
Set the oven to 350 degrees F. Coat the bottom of a baking dish that is large enough to hold all of the chicken breasts with olive oil. Set aside.
Begin preparing the chicken. Place the chicken breasts on a cutting board. Use a sharp parking knife to slice into the thickest part of the breast, creating a 2 to 2 1/2” pocket for the filling. Do not cut all the way through the chicken breast or else your fillings will fall out. Repeat for the rest of the chicken breasts.
Sprinkle the chicken breasts evenly with the pepper both on the outside and inside.
Set aside 1 1/2 cups of blueberries in a sauce pot for making the blueberry sauce. The remaining blueberries will be used to stuff the chicken breasts. Separating the berries now will avoid cross contamination.
Next, we will stuff the chicken breasts. Divide the goats cheese evenly into four pieces (about 1/8 cup or 2 tablespoons per breast). Use your hands to spread the goats cheese evenly across the bottom of the breast. Next, add the blueberries. Divide 1/2 cup of the fresh blueberries among all the chicken breasts and fill each one. Next, add 3 basil leaves on top of the blueberries and gently pull the top of the chicken breast over all of the filling ingredients to seal them inside. Repeat for the rest of the chicken breasts.
Finally, wrap the chicken breasts with two slices of prosciutto each. wrap them so that the ends of the prosciutto are all tucked in underneath the bottom of the chicken breast so that you get a nice smooth presentation on top. Once wrapped, place the chicken breasts in the oiled baking dish.
Bake in the oven for 30 minutes. In the meantime, prepare the blueberry sauce.
Add the 1 1/2 cups of blueberries to a small sauce pot with the water, nutmeg and the cinnamon. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Once the blueberries have boiled, reduce the heat to low and continue to simmer the sauce for 10-15 minutes, or until all the blueberries have burst open and released their juices. Set aside to cool.
Once the chicken has baked for 30 minutes, set your oven to broil and bake the chicken breasts for an additional 2-3 minutes or until the top of the prosciutto becomes nice and golden brown and crisp. Remove the chicken from the oven and let it cool for 10 minutes. This cooling process is important as it will let the chicken finish cooking. If you want to make sure that the chicken is cooked, use an instant read thermometer- the temperature should measure 170 degrees F.
You can serve the whole chicken breast on a plate, or you can slice it up into rounds for a more elegant presentation. I recommend serving this with rice or quinoa (pro-tip: mix in any pan juices into these to really flavour the rice with more chicken and prosciutto flavour!) and some extra blueberries and basil sprigs for garnish. Don’t forget the blueberry sauce as well- this is best served warm!
Enjoy!