Stuffed Chicken with Gorgonzola Cheese, Bacon, and Garlic Chives

As a new homeowner last year, I was super excited for Spring to come around.  I had these grand plans to have a fabulous vegetable garden and to grow all kinds of flowers and herbs.  Well, reality did set in---my intentions were way to ambitious.  

I did make an honest attempt toward growing some vegetables and herbs on the deck in planter boxes.  The vegetables were a disaster, though.  In my greed for fresh noms, I overcrowded what was planted and overwatered (be careful when growing plants in boxes to allow for adequate soil drainage).

Thankfully, the herbs came out all right!  We made heavy use of cilantro for fresh salsa, dill for potato salad, and mint for mojitos.  What stumped me was how to use the fresh garlic chives --- yes, read that correctly: garlic chives --- to make a super tasty meal.  I stumbled upon a recipe for stuffed pork chops with chives, bacon, and blue cheese and thought it sounded amazing.  I gave it a try with chicken and gorgonzola instead.  It is absolutely delicious (and goes well with chardonnay, to boot!).

This was my first experience stuffing meat... making stuffed meat... ahh cannot unthink how dirty that sounds.  Anyway, I am very lazy when it comes to cooking.  The last time I made the recipe, I used thin sliced chicken breasts instead, which meant not having to slice open a pocket in the meat.
 

Ingredients for stuffing

Stuffed Chicken with Gorgonzola Cheese, Bacon, and Garlic Chives
Modified from Blue Cheese, Bacon, and Chive Stuffed Pork Chops

Makes 2.5 servings

Ingredients

• 1 lb thinly sliced chicken breast
• 4 oz Gorgonzola cheese
• 3 slices precooked bacon
• 1.5 tbsp. chopped fresh garlic chives
• olive oil
• salt to taste (I used garlic salt)
• pepper to taste

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine cheese, bacon, and chives in a bowl. Divide into small balls, one for each set of chicken slices.  Place each ball in between two slices of chicken.  Use toothpicks to seal, if necessary.
3. Lightly oil outside of chicken slices.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  Keep in mind that the cheese will be salty.
4. Bake ~30 minutes, until the stuffing is hot and chicken is cooked.  Remove toothpicks and serve.

I recommend using a broiler pan with aluminum foil to catch any drips, which will prevent the chicken from sitting in its own juices. 

Stuffed Chicken with fresh garlic chives and bacon garnish

Time for Yum! Mini chocolate pudding cakes

So, we have this dessert competition every year at work.  Every year I have entered,  and every year walk away empty handed.  Well, now all of that is about to change!  Maybe...

This year I put the dessert to vote and asked which folks would like best:

• Lemon cake with cardamom icing and pistachio garnish
• Banana cream tarts with sweet cream, fresh banana, and ground walnuts
• Chocolate pudding cake with whip cream, topped with raspberry and chocolate shavings

The chocolate pudding cake was voted the winner by a large margin.  The polled audience was a good indicator for the competition, as I walked away with 2nd place out of 9 total desserts---hooray!  Because there are a number of dessert entries that folks consume, we do a "taste" format where everything is bite size.  I tried to find a recipe online for mini chocolate pudding cakes and did not have luck.  Instead, I ended up using a molten chocolate cake recipe (one that specifically called for chocolate bars instead of cocoa powder) and modified the bake time for mini muffin-sized portions.  And here they are...

Assembled Mini Chocolate Pudding Cakes

Mini Chocolate Pudding Cakes

Mini Chocolate Pudding Cakes with Whipped Cream and Raspberry
Adapted from Molten Chocolate Cake recipe from Tasty Kitchen

Makes 24 delicious teeny tiny cakes

Ingredients

Cake

• 4 pieces (squares) Semi-sweet Baking Chocolate
• ½ cups Butter
• 1 cup Powdered Sugar
• 2 whole Eggs
• 2 whole Egg Yolks
• 6 Tablespoons Flour

Toppings

• 1 cup Real Whipping Cream
• 1 Tablespoon Sugar
• Fresh raspberries
• Chocolate shavings to taste (grate some of the chocolate bar)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Spray mini muffin cups generously with non-stick spray.
2. Microwave chocolate and butter in large bowl on high for about 1 minute, until butter is melted. Whisk until chocolate is also melted.
3. Stir in sugar until well blended. Whisk in eggs and egg yolks. Stir in flour.
4. Divide between cups.  Bake 5 minutes until sides are firm and center is soft.
5. Combine sugar and heavy cream and whip until stiff. Top with whipped cream and raspberry.  Garnish with chocolate shavings.