Bacon, Spinach & Pine Nut Stuffed Chicken

This meal ended up being one of the best baked chicken recipes I have tried.  It's hard to ever go wrong with bacon and the flavor of toasted pine nuts is just awesome.  I served this with some simple pasta with sage infused butter for the sauce. 

Bacon, Spinach & Pine Nut Stuffed Chicken

Ingredients:
4 chicken breasts (boneless and skinless)
5 Tbl unsalted butter
2 Cups chopped fresh organic spinach
2 Tbl minced shallot
2-3 cloves of minced garlic
4 Tbl toasted  pine nuts (4 minutes at 350 degrees was perfect for me)
2-3 strips of crisp and crumbled bacon
1/2 Cup parmesan cheese
1/2 Cup gruyere cheese
1/8 Cup dried bread crumbs (I made some from my sourdough bread)
2 Tbl fresh chopped basil
1 large egg yolk
Sea salt and fresh ground pepper

Melt 4 Tbl of the butter in a large saute pan.  Add the spinach to the butter in the pan and stir for a minute or so.  Then add the shallots and garlic and cook a couple of minutes until the shallots are soft and translucent. Add the toasted pine nuts, bacon, parmesan, bread crumbs, basil, and egg yolk.  Season with the salt and pepper.  After everything is thrown together remove the pan from the heat and mix everything together well. 

Pat dry your chicken breasts.  Then with a sharp knife, slice a deep pocket into the sides of the breasts for holding the stuffing.  Season the inside of the pocket with salt and pepper and then proceed to stuff them with the bacon goodness you just made. 
 

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.  Grease, with the remaining butter, a large baking dish.  Line up the chicken in the dish so they don't overlap and sprinkle with more salt and pepper.  Add the gruyere cheese on top. 

Bake for 20-30 minutes.  Or if you have a hand-dandy meat thermometer like I do, cook the chicken until 165 degrees, assuming you're using healthy pastured chickens.  Otherwise, you better stick with the USDA recommended 180, but who likes dry chicken!  This baked chicken was moist and very tasty with this amazing stuffing.  I highly recommend!

Enjoy!

** We linked this post at Simple Lives Thursday at GNOWFGLINS **