Asparagus-stuffed Chicken

Well, I had been planning on making chicken meatballs, but we had asparagus in our fridge from a dinner that fell through.  I really hate it when asparagus goes bad, so I decided to come up with an entree that would go well with asparagus.  My first thought was chicken Cordon Bleu, but that wasn't quite what I wanted.  However, it provided excellent inspiration.  (If you're unfamiliar with chicken Cordon Bleu, here's a recipe from BHG.)  I decided I was going to stuff chicken with asparagus and cheese and give it a nice crumb coating.

 I decided to use chicken thighs rather than breasts, because I was able to find a package of just the right number of appropriately-sized thighs, and they're generally a bit cheaper than breasts.  This is because they're a bit less desirable.  They're dark meat (chickens use their legs!), and tend to need more cleaning up than breasts.  There's fat and connective tissue, and more than one muscle (and a bone, but I'd gotten  boneless).  I decided to stuff with mushrooms and cottage cheese as well as asparagus.  The choice of cottage cheese was largely for texture.  I wanted something creamy but not necessarily smooth.  Ricotta would have been a good substitute, or goat cheese, if you like the flavor (I do, but others in my family don't).

 To make the Filling:  Chop a couple sprigs of asparagus.  Discard the woody ends.  Place them in a small microwaveable bowl, and place that bowl in a larger microwaveable bowl with an inch or so of water.  Microwave for about 1 minute.  Mince about 8 brown mushrooms and place in a large pan with a bit of olive oil.  (Use a large pan to avoid crowding the mushrooms-- it gives better flavor.)  Saute about 5 minutes, until the mushrooms are cooked down and slightly browned.  Combine asparagus, mushrooms, and 1 cup cottage cheese.  Add pepper to taste.




Trim fat, etc. from 5 boneless chicken thighs (as much as possible), and place a large spoonful of filling inside each thigh, folding the meat over.  Avoid touching the spoon to the meat, so the filling will remain uncontaminated, and do not place excess filling from the chicken back into the bowl.

 Dredging!  I LOVE dredging.  It's one of the simplest ways to prepare meat for in-house cooking, and you can easily change up what flavors you incorporate.  Expect to see frequent dredging on this blog.  For this recipe, I kept it fairly classic-- flour with salt and pepper for the first dredge; 2 eggs for the second; and plain bread crumbs, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and paprika for the third dredge.

Carefully (so as not to dump the filling) drag the stuffed thighs through each of the dredges.  I found this easiest if I grasped the edges next to the filling.

Heat 2 Tbsp oil over medium heat in a large pan.  Add the coated chicken breasts, and cover the pan to keep heat in.  Cook about 10 minutes, until the lower layer of thigh is no longer pink.  (Color isn't necessarily a reliable indicator, but we'll get to that in a moment.)  Flip the thighs and re-cover.

 Cook about 10 minutes more, until a probe thermometer inserted in the folded-over part of the thigh reads 165 F (the minimum safe temperature for poultry).  Be sure to check the center where the filling is, too.  This recipe, unfortunately, has a HUGE potential for cross-contamination if the proper temperature is not reached, because it places raw meat in contact with vegetables and cheese that may not get as well-cooked.  So, measure the filling temperature and the part of the meat that has no direct contact with the pan to be safe.  Seriously, a probe thermometer is a great investment.  Mine cost about $10, so it's not a huge set-back, and it is extremely useful.

 Steam the remaining asparagus.  Once again, be sure to remove the woody ends.  I just whack of a bit with a knife.  My mom is a proponent of snapping the sprigs, so you can be sure exactly where the woodiness ends.  My way is faster, but less precise.  Now, you can buy special asparagus pots.  I have never gotten one.  I don't eat asparagus that often.  Proponents of these pots could probably explain to you exactly what benefit there is to steaming asparagus that are being held upright.  I don't see it.  I've been known to just throw asparagus in a pot with nothing but an inch of water.  This time I actually dug out a steamer basket. Bring about an inch of water to boil, put in the basket, and then the asparagus, and give it maybe 2 minutes to steam.  You know it's done when it takes on a very bright green color.

I served the asparagus and chicken topped with hollandaise sauce (Knorr sells it packets!) and left-over filling.  Pretty tasty!