Balsamic Bacon Blue Cheese-Stuffed Almond-Crusted Chicken
Yeah…so that’s a lot of adjectives but that’s what the meal was and if I left any of those delicious words out, it would just be less awesome. For sure. Right?
This time around on the sugar detox, I am letting myself have dairy. I know it’s TECHNICALLY sugar (lactose, yadda yadda) but wine is TECHNICALLY just grapes and they still don’t like you to explain it that way when you’re asked to stop dancing on the bar, mmmmkay?
I mean, without my wine or daily banana, I’m already a nutcase, so take away my cheese or heavy cream in my coffee and I’m pretty sure the villagers would have pitchforks.
I used sliced almonds pulsed a bit in the food processor to get the coating. It’s a little coarser than almond meal and gives the crunch and quality of oven-fried chicken. The “stuffing” is an easy mixture of just a few ingredients and I used the small amount of balsamic at the end to deglaze the pan. I flattened out the chicken breasts with a mallet while imagining the chickens were Kit Kat bars taunting me (WHAT? THIS NO-SUGAR THING IS NO JOKE) and then used toothpicks to hold the chicken together. A quick dip in an egg wash and rolled in the almonds and that’s it and the flavors were awesome together.
Recipe: Balsamic Bacon Blue Cheese Stuffed Almond Crusted Chicken
Ingredients
- 2 large or 4 small chicken breasts
- 6 pieces of bacon, diced
- 1/4 c. red onion, finely diced
- 1 tsp. garlic, finely minced
- 1-2 tbsp. balsamic vinegar
- 1/2 c. crumbled blue cheese
- 1 c. sliced almonds, pulsed and roughly chopped
- 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp onion powder
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 2 eggs, beaten
Instructions
- In a skillet on medium, add the chopped bacon and cook until it’s giving off a good amount of fat.
- Add in garlic and onions and cook 5-10 minutes until bacon is crispy and the onions are soft.
- Add the vinegar (be careful, it will bubble and sputter) to de-glaze the plan and scrape everything you can from the pan into a bowl.
- Add mixture to bowl, stir in blue cheese, and set aside to cool a bit while you prepare the chicken.
- Between two pieces of plastic wrap, use a kitchen mallet to flatten the chicken to 1/4-1/2 an inch, enough to roll up.
- Take a heaping spoonful of the bacon mixture and place it in the middle of the chicken and as best as you can, roll up the chicken tightly.
- Use toothpicks to secure to make sure no mixture is oozing out. (Just remember the toothpicks later!)
- On a large plate, mix together the crushed almonds, onion powder, garlic powder, and salt.
- Dip the rolled chicken in the beaten egg and roll in the almond crust mixture.
- Place on a baking sheet/dish or rack. I prefer to have the chicken on a rack in a dish with foil underneath to catch drippings; it seems to keep the entire chicken crispy.
- Bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes or until the internal temperature reaches 170F.
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This sounds SO yummy! If I’m not a blue cheese fan, what other kind of cheese would you suggest?
I bet Fontina would be good. loved it with balsamic v in the old days with fig and proscuitto pizza.
Thank you JoJo, I’ll try Fontina!
This looks AMAZING. I am totally pinning this recipe.
as far as cheeses go, blue cheese is pretty low in lactose (it’s considered GAPS diet legal and I can eat it without getting sick) so you’re not steering too far away from your sugar detox!
That looks amazing! I actually think I have everything I need at home – making this tonight!
Just made this for dinner tonight. It was AWESOME! My husband said it was the best chicken dish I have ever made and my picky 2 year old ate every bite. Thank you so much! I LOVE your blog!