Almond-Stuffed Chicken

Even though we are eating out of the freezer, I am using recipes that I have found in Cooking Light, Mix and Match. Cooking light is owned by Sunset magazine in CA. I stopped taking Cooking Light as I found my favorites were in Sunset and it took about 137 pages of ads to get to a recipe in Cooking Light The nutty cheesy filling of the chicken breasts was wonderful. However, I was using Purdue Chicken Breasts that are frozen and I know that they remove the chicken tender. So they are very thin and it took a lot of toothpicks. Buy regular skinless breasts from the store and your life will be easier. Also I froze ½# of green beans without steaming them, didn’t work. They were really tough. If you have left over green beans, cook them and freeze;. nuke to defrost and serve.
Ingredients:
1/3 C light garlic and herbs spreadable cheese
¼ C slivered almonds, toasted, coarsely chopped, and divided
3 T chopped fresh parsley, divided
4, 6 oz skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
½ t salt
¼ t peppers
1 ½ t butter (I can’t stand cooking only in butter. I used half EVOO)
Directions:
1. Combine spreadable cheese, 3 T almonds, and 2 T parsley in a small bowl. Set aside
2. Cut a horizontal slit through thickest portion of each breast half to forum a pocket. Stuff 1 ½ T almond mixture into each pocket; secure each pocket with a wooden pick. Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper.
3. Heat butter/EVOO in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add chicken to pan; cook 6 minutes on each side. Remove from pan; cover and let stand 2 minutes. I put all the stuffing inside, but if you divide tic, top the chicken evenly with 1T almonds and 1T parsley.
The suggestion was green beans and couscous. I boiled fingerling potatoes and as above we did serve green beans. As followed the chicken is 428 cal. Per serving. Jim loved this meal.
He served a Glen manor, 2008 Cabernet Franc from VA with the meal. It was really good