Couscous Stuffed Chicken

It’s been raining a lot lately, so the cooking has come back indoors. It’s been happening quite a bit, but there have been a lot of repeats, so nothing worth really putting on here.

However, the other day I was watching the Food Network, and Guy’s Big Bite (Hosted by Guy Fieri) was on. Guy made some chicken breasts that he stuffed with a plain couscous and feta cheese, so I decided I was going to take that idea and run with it. In my normal fashion, I can’t make something simple, so I took the basic idea and tweaked it a little bit.

For starters, get your oven preheated to 375. While that’s happening, trim up your chicken breasts and prepare your couscous. The basic recipe for making couscous is like making stuffing. Boil 1-1/4 cups of water with a splash of Olive Oil and seasonings of your choice, then add the couscous, remove from heat and let it sit for 5 minutes.

For the chicken, we’re looking for some big, thick breasts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

After you’ve trimmed them, you’ve got to cut a “pocket” that you’ll fold your couscous mixture into.

Try not to go all of the way through, but if/when you do, it’s not too big of a deal. It just makes things a bit more messy.

Now that they chicken is ready, and the 5 minutes of rest time is going on the couscous, it’s time to add a bit extra to the mix.

I decided to use a few cloves of garlic, and some fresh basil and flat-leaf parsley from out garden on the porch.

With a mezzaluna, the chopping of everything goes very quickly. I’d really recommend getting one if you don’t already have one. So, in the 2nd picture above, I’ve got the basil, parsley, and garlic chopped and about a half cup of feta.

Toss the feta, parsley, basil, and garlic in with the couscous and mix everything together until equally distributed.

After mixed, just grab a spoon and stuff the pockets of the chicken with your mixture. Try to leave enough room to be able to somewhat close each breast. After they’re stuffed, you’ll have a bunch of extra couscous left over, but don’t worry, we’ll use that. For now, get a large pan going on medium heat with enough Extra Virgin Olive Oil down to make one loop around the pan. After the pan is up to temperature, it’s time for the chicken to go in.

You’re going to let the chicken go for about 3-5 minutes on each side, just enough to make them slightly browned. While you’re doing this, grab a 9x13 or something similar (I used a Pyrex), and put the remaining couscous in the bottom of the pan. Give it a drizzle of olive oil as well, and a tablespoon or so of water.

Once the chicken is browned like above, go ahead and put it on top of the bed of couscous in the baking dish, give it a dash of salt and pepper, and cover it in foil.

You can see, the chicken is still pink, but that’s why it’s going in the oven, so don’t worry too much about that. Cover in foil and bake at 375 for 20-25 minutes.

When they come out, cut each breast in half to serve, and of course, you can also make sure that they’re cooked all of the way through at this time. Serve with the couscous from below each piece of chicken.

The dish is amazingly simple to make, and rather easy on the palate as well. No one flavor is overpowering and you could easily serve this with almost any vegetable of your choosing. I was thinking while we were eating dinner that next time, I’d like to try this with a smearing of pesto on the chicken as well.

Also, you could easily make this south-western-like by adding a few peppers to the mix and maybe a few tomatoes… it really seems to show off the versatility of both the chicken and the couscous, as you can do almost anything with either of them.