My sister Evie, who is a great cook, but doesn’t have a blog, recently told me about some new recipes she had made. They sounded great and like the good blogging sister that I am, I told her she should take pictures and share what she did with my readers. A few weeks later recipes and pictures arrived in my inbox. Today, I am sharing the first of those recipes. Thanks Evie!
If you have lots of zucchini coming from your garden right now, this is a perfect way to use it up. And I love the zucchini in it because it will keep the chicken very moist.
The last couple of months I felt that I have been stuck in a rut cooking the same few chicken recipes over and over again. I decided to look for a few new recipes to try. We ate some ‘okay’ meals, but I also found a couple great new ones.
When I first came across this original recipe, I admit I was a bit skeptical to try it. I was afraid that the zucchini would be too bland in the filling. As it turns out, I was very wrong about that. The zucchini added a ton of moisture, so the chicken breasts didn’t dry out and it was a nice compliment to the cheese and chicken. I decided to brush seasoning over the chicken, too, which added great flavor.
Although this recipe has several steps, it was fairly simple to prepare. It also looks a bit fancier than regular whole chicken breasts! Overall, we thoroughly enjoyed this recipe and I’m sure I’ll be making it more frequently now that we starting to harvest our own zucchini. I’ve learned I can never have too many good zucchini recipes.
Zucchini Stuffed Chicken
- 4 chicken breasts or 8 chicken cutlets
- 2 tsp olive oil
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 1/2 c zucchini, shredded (1 medium)
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 1/4 c + 2 TB parmesan, grated & divided
- 1 c mozzarella, shredded (I used part skim)
- 1 lemon, juiced (about 2 TB)
- 1 TB olive oil
- 1 tsp Italian seasoning
- Preheat oven to 375. Spray a 9×13 pan with cooking spray.
- In a skillet, heat 2 teaspoons olive oil. Add garlic and sauté until golden brown, about 1 minute. Add zucchini, salt, and pepper. Sauté until zucchini just begins to soften, about 3 minutes. Remove from heat and add 1/4 parmesan. Cool to room temperature. Add mozzarella.
- Using the smooth edge of a meat mallet, pound chicken to about 1/4 inch thick. Try to get them as even as possible. Pat dry with paper towels.
- Lay pounded chicken breasts out. Spread each with about 1/2 cup zucchini filling (1/4 cup each if using 8 cutlets). Loosely roll up and place seam side down in baking dish. If you have problems getting these to stay rolled up, skewer the seam edge with toothpicks.
- In a small bowl, combine lemon juice, 1 TB olive oil, and Italian seasoning. Brush over rolled chicken. Sprinkle with remaining 2 TB parmesan.
- Bake for 40-45 minutes (30-35 for cutlets), until chicken is cooked through.
This dish looks and sounds wonderful, Lynn! I think it will be our dinner tonight. Thanks to you and Evie for sharing!
Shirley
I hope you enjoy it! I think it is a recipe you could easily change up, season different, etc. I can’t wait to try this one myself.
this sounds delicious! can’t wait to try it.
Looks like a great way to use up those extra large zucchini 🙂
it’s summer time and , of course, several of the luckier people have squash issues. BTW I LOVED Evie’s Zucchini Stuffed Chicken! But back to my question. I see lot’s of zucchini related recipes but few for the yellow summer squash and am wondering if it is interchangeable with zucchini in recipes like zucchini bread, pie, etc? I have a killer zucchini (mock apple pie recipe) pie recipe and wonder if the yellow squash would interchange and be as good. I just tried a new zucchini bread recipe that has pineapple, dried cranberries and the option of cocoanut in it. It was a real keeper also. I will be waiting for your reply to my zucchini question and would love to see unusual or different recipes using this garden bonus, especially this time of year. Thanks,
This tasted amazing!! My family ate every bit of them. Thank you for sharing!! Yummy!!
I am so glad that you enjoyed it!