Stuffed chicken breast sealed with a lemon wedgie. The tomatoes, from our local farmer's market, were so sweet I thought I had sliced an apple, and it's only May! 

Stuffing Meat: What's good for the pig is good for the chicken

From a recent issue of Cook’s Illustrated I’ve been making a stuffed pork chop recipe with great success. The idea of stuffed pork chops first intrigued me about a year ago while living in Los Angeles. At a local meat market I noticed a row of swollen pork chops with their stuffing mixture garishly disgorging from their sides. The chops had been butterflied, allowing the stuffing to push out all along their perimeters. I asked one of the butchers about them and he promised me I would love them. He said to put them in a covered casserole dish with some apple juice or other liquid and bake them in the oven for 30 to 40 minutes. Not wanting to insult a glib butcher (they’re all this way) I accepted this without question even though everything I knew about cooking pork chops told me this would not produce something tender, moist or flavorful. That night, in the spirit of deference to a guy who has been cutting and selling meat longer than I’ve been old enough to ride the Matterhorn at Disneyland, I cooked them just as he said. They sucked. Sorry, but I don’t know how else to put it. They were gray, tough, dry and flavorless, just as I thought they would be. I pretty much forgot about the idea of stuffed pork chops until the Cook’s Illustrated article appeared. CI addressed the oozing stuffing issue by showing a nifty technique where you pierce the non-bone side of the chop with a knife then swing it back and forth to form a pocket without splitting open the whole side (sort of the cooking equivalent of laparoscopy). You then stuff the pouch with a stuffing mixture that actually tastes good and seal up the modestly-sized orifice with a lemon wedge that keeps all the good stuff inside. The salted and peppered chops are browned in a hot, oiled pan on the stove for about 3 minutes a side then the whole thing goes in the 450 degree oven for about 15 minutes. If not overcooked, the results are delicious. A couple nights ago I needed to do something with some boneless, skinless chicken breasts so I figured the pork chop stuffing technique might work. For moisture, flavor and because I had the time I brined the chicken for an hour (1/4 cup salt, two+ cups water in a Ziploc bag with the breasts in the fridge, rinse and dry thoroughly when removing). Cutting the pocket for the stuffing was tricky because chicken breasts are much more delicate than pork chops but by being careful I didn’t poke through anywhere. I made up a logical stuffing mixture and used the same browning-then-roasting technique from the chops recipe. They baked for about 25 minutes at a lower temperature (350)and the internal temperature was plenty safe for my salmonella concerns (which are probably less than most people’s). They were a solid and really not that much work. The trickiest part is making a big pocket without cutting through the side walls or all the way through to the other side. Going slowly and using a sharp knife helps a lot. I also recommend a lower oven temp (i.e. 350) than the chops take (450). It will take a little longer but I think 450 degrees will start to burn the outside of chicken breasts before they are cooked through. There is something kind of exciting about an entrée that is stuffed. It’s like getting a little gift inside your meal. Maybe it reminds us of the exhilarating childhood memory of bashing open a piñata and clawing at the cheap candy and trinkets that pour out of its belly. Or maybe not.

When the meat pulls away from the bone like this the meat will be "fall off the bone" tender and the excess fat will have melted away. Think of these as prime riblets.