thank you goats of the world for your delicious cheese

I used to think goats were stinky, ornery creatures who were only good for eating vegetation. Then I started my real food journey and realised I was wrong – they are stinky, ornery creatures who also happen to produce delicious milk, cheese and yoghurt.

And they’re not even that ornery, I met a pregnant goat this week who was very even-tempered.

After making the acquaintance of the amiable goat (whose name was Nancy), I went home and stuffed goat’s cheese with a little sprinkling of chives into a chicken breast for a very easy mid-week meal.

I had it with a mountain of brussel sprouts. I just love those suckers

The key to stuffing chicken breasts is to get very large, very plump ones. This gives you more meat to play with (perhaps play was not the right verb here, but we’ll just go with it) when slicing it down the centre and peeling apart the flaps.

After butterflying my chicken, I gave it a crunchy topping with ground pumpkin seeds. I happened to have a buttload of pumpkin seeds lying around, but if you don’t…or you just don’t fancy ‘em…you can easily substitute a nut topping by grinding up your favourite nuts.

factoid: pumpkin seeds are high in zinc

Happy Friday everyone!

Crunchy Chicken Stuffed With Goat’s Cheese & Chives (serves 2)

• 2 large chicken breasts
• 2 heaped tsps chives, chopped
• 2 oz goat’s cheese, chopped into 1cm pieces
• 2 tbsps extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tbsps pumpkin seeds
• sea salt and black pepper, to taste

1. Slice each chicken breast horizontally so that you make a ‘flap’ in the meat. Fold the sides back to open it like a book. Place between two sheets of cling wrap and beat the living daylights out of it (I used a rolling pin). The idea is to flatten the breast so you’ve more meat when you roll it up.
   

   easy once you get the hang of it

2. Sprinkle a tsp of chives over each and season liberally with salt and pepper. Divide the goat’s cheese into two lots and place along the seam of each chicken.
   

   like so

3. Fold it over like you are closing a book, using toothpicks if necessary to secure it in place.
   

   just remember to take the toothpicks out before serving…

4. Brush the chicken with olive oil. Grind the pumpkin seeds in a processor until they are a rough crumb (you don’t want it too fine) then sprinkle them over the chicken and season.
5. Bake at 375 for 25 minutes.

Like this? You might also like:

• Parmesan & Mushroom Stuffed Chicken
• Walnut & Rosemary Crusted Chicken
• Horseradish Cream Chicken Parcels