Stuffed Chicken Breasts

It's another Slow Cooker Sunday!

Up this week another recipe from a cook book we got at our family white elephant party. The last recipe we tried out of this book was the Herbed Cannelloni recipe last week and it wasn't a big hit- so we were hoping this was better. Otherwise the book goes in the trash!

INGREDIENTS
7 oz fresh ricotta cheese
1 cup chopped arugula (I used a salad mix with spinach and arugula)
1/4 cup toasted pine nuts (didn't use this- I think they're still on recall at Wegman's)
3 oz roasted red pepper, chopped
salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 chicken breasts, skin on
2 TBS butter
1 cup chicken stock
2 TBS minced garlic (not included in the recipe, but I'm sure that was an oversight on the publisher's part.)
DIRECTIONS
Combine the ricotta, arugula, pine nuts, bell pepper and salt and pepper in a small bowl and mix together until smooth.

Place 1-2 TBS of ricotta mixture under the skin of each chicken breast. (Now here is where I had my first issue. The picture in the book shows a boneless chicken breast with skin. I have no idea if your grocery store sells boneless skin-on chicken breast... but mine doesn't. Either they're boneless/skinnless or they have bones and skin. I could forsee a problem already. Bone-in chicken takes a lot longer to cook. But moving on...)

Place the chicken breasts in a slow cooker set on high, sprinkle with more salt and pepper. Place 1 tsp of butter on each breast and pour the stock around the chicken. Cook for 2 hours on high.Serve the chicken with juices and a arugula salad.

VERDICT
Turns out the concern over the cooking time being inaccurate wasn't a problem after all. I cooked two chicken breasts in my smaller crockpot and they were cooked perfectly after 2 hours. The chicken was tender, the filling was delicious, and the meal was a hit with my husband.

Next time I'll probably skip the whole skin-on chicken thing and just cut a pocket into a regular boneless, skinless chicken breast. But this recipe is definitely a keeper.
NUTRITION

Calories: 291
Protein: 34g
Fat: 12g
Carbs: 4g