"Good"a Chicken

I have a funny story about Gouda cheese. My husband and I got married in 2007 and went to Jamaica for our honeymoon. We stayed at two different places just to change it up a bit. The second place we stayed was Sandals Ocho Rios. We had an incredible first half of our week relaxing, sight seeing, shopping, and eating/drinking good! We arrived at Sandals and had a frozen drink while we waited for our room. Well it never fails that The Hub has something mess him up on every vacation. This time it must have been the ice in our frozen drink...he couldn't eat ANYTHING for the rest of the week...except Gouda cheese and Jack Daniels! So whenever I think of Gouda cheese...that's where I go.

Anyway, we both love smoked Gouda...I saw a recipe on Recipe Girl that was called Gouda stuffed chicken with apples...BINGO!! Sounded great to me...I just added a little different seasoning to mine. Chicken is one of those meats that you really need to flavor up or else its just boring and flavorless. If you can stuff it with something and make a light sauce to go on top, that really does the trick. Since I also watch my calories (a little bit...I just don't over do it) I thought that this would be pretty healthy. Like I've said before everything in moderation so just a little bit of cheese won't hurt.

The easiest way to stuff chicken is to just cut a pocket into the side of the chicken breast, but not to go all the way through. I sliced a small piece of cheese (maybe an inch and a half), stuffed into the pocket, dusted the chicken with seasoned flour, seared it in a little olive oil and stuck it into the oven while I made the sauce. Voila...dinner served!

Ingredients
3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
3 pieces of gouda cheese
1 cup flour, salt, pepper, garlic powder
2 apples, Golden Delicious or Granny Smith, cored and thinly sliced
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup apple juice/cider
1 clove garlic, minced
few dashes of cinnamon
1 T honey (or you could use pure maple syrup or agave nectar)

Preheat oven to 300. Heat 2 T olive oil in medium saucepan. Rinse and pat dry chicken breast. Cut a pocket into the side of chicken. Stuff with cheese. In separate plate, season flour with seasonings and toss chicken in to cover. Cook chicken until browned on both sides, approximately 5 min per side. Put chicken on a baking sheet and place in oven.

While chicken is in oven, discard oil from saucepan and pour broth, juice/cider, and garlic. Turn to high heat and bring to a boil. Let boil about 10 min or until thick *I typically add a slurry to thicken more (1 T cornstarch and 3 T water, combine in separate bowl and add to sauce...will thicken instantly). Add apples, cinnamon, and honey and cook for 5 minutes. TASTE! Adjust seasoning...you may need some salt or pepper, more honey, more cinnamon, or even a splash of cider vinegar...make to your liking.

Remove chicken from oven and serve with apples and sauce. ENJOY!!