CRAB-STUFFED CHICKEN BREASTS
This recipe is loaded with calories, but if you plan only to make the dish once or twice a year there should be no cause for tears. The ingredients are relatively inexpensive and the outcome will astound you. Your family and friends will think they have eaten at a five-star restaurant.
When you bake these crab-stuffed chicken breasts, you might want to serve them with asparagus and rice, but probably any vegetable would do just as well. They may even be served with pasta as an alternative to rice.
If you have a Turbo Chopper Express, break up the heels from the ends of a loaf of bread into inch-size-pieces and place them into the Turbo shaker top. Blend until the bread crumbs have the consistency of "corn meal." Place the bread crumbs in the oven for not more that 10 minutes or until they dry out.
If you do not want to get your hands all messy, you might consider wearing plastic gloves of some type when dipping the chicken breasts in the eggs mixture and then coating them with flour and bread crumbs. By the time you finish with all the preparations, you may look like the Pillsbury Dough boy, but the outcome will be well worth the effort.
INGREDIENTS
1 tablespoon of margarine or butter
2 tablespoons of olive oil
3/4 cup of dry bread crumbs
2 thoroughly beaten eggs
1/4 cup of flour (white or all-purpose)
5 boneless and skinless chicken breasts halves (ensure all bones are removed)
1 envelope of Lipton Recipe Secrets Savory Herb with Garlic Soup Mix
6 ounces of crabmeat (may use can crabmeat, but drain and flaked)
1 package of cream cheese (6 to 8 ounces), softened
DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350F
In bowl, mix cream cheese, crabmeat and savory herb with garlic soup mix and put aside.
Slice horizontally through each chicken breast (placed on a cutting board), after stopping 1 inch from the opposite edge; open up breasts. Spread, evenly, each breast with the cream cheese mixture. Close the edges of each chicken breast securely with wooden toothpicks.
Dip the chicken breasts in flour, then the eggs batter, then the bread crumbs. Coat well.
In a frying skillet, heat the oil and margarine (oleo) over medium-high heat and cook chicken breasts for about 10 minutes or until the breasts are golden brown. Turn only once. Take the chicken breasts and place them in a 3 X 9-inch baking dish and bake uncovered for 20 to 25 minutes or until the breasts are done.
Remove the toothpicks before serving. Makes about five serving.