Oh my goodness! A homemade dinner of chicken breast stuffed with cheddar and asparagus that uses only 4 ingredients! Yep, that’s correct. Allow me to explain…
Only 4 ingredients!
How do we make such a tasty recipe with only 4 ingredients? Simple, we let some zesty Italian dressing do the heavy lifting for us. I absolutely love being able to use a common ingredient like this to bring the life to a recipe and it’s perfect as a marinade for our chicken.
We start with boneless, skinless chicken breasts. You can buy cutlets, thin sliced, or you can slice in half if they’re large in size. Next, it’s always important to tenderize the meat and the best way to do that is to pound it with a meat mallet. If you’re using cutlets, just a few taps are necessary. If you’re slicing larger chicken breasts in half, you’ll need to pound them thin anyways so use the meat mallet and pound the meat to less than 1/2 inch in thickness. Then place the chicken in a large ziploc bag with 3/4 cup of zesty Italian salad dressing. I personally like the Kraft fat free Zesty Italian dressing. We don’t need to use any additional seasonings, the dressing does it all. I usually marinade the chicken in the dressing the night before I cook them. If you can’t do overnight, try to at least give them an hour so soak up the flavors while marinading in the refrigerator.
To stuff these chicken breasts, I like to use slices of mild cheddar cheese. I like mild because it compliments the asparagus the best without becoming the dominant flavor. And speaking of asparagus, I always use fresh. Not frozen and definitely not canned. Cut the asparagus stems down, then we need to jump start the cooking on them a bit. Place the asparagus in a microwave safe container with just a few tablespoons of water and microwave for 2 minutes. This really helps the asparagus cook to perfection while inside the chicken.
Then it’s time to wrap everything up. Have a large glass or casserole pan ready and layout a chicken breast, place a slice of cheese on top, then add a few pieces of asparagus. there’s no perfect number, but 6 or so is about the perfect amount. Then wrap the chicken around the asparagus and secure with a couple of toothpicks. Once they’re all wrapped up, into the oven they go at 425 degrees F for 30 minutes.
- 4 chicken breast cutlets or thin sliced (or pounded thin) boneless, skinless chicken breast
- 4 slices mild cheddar cheese
- 1 lb fresh asparagus
- ¾ cup zesty Italian salad dressing
- Marinade chicken in zesty Italian dressing for at least an hour (overnight is best).
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
- Layout marinaded chicken breast and add a slice of cheese to each.
- Cut woody stems from asparagus and place in a microwave safe container with 3 tablespoons of water and microwave for 2 minutes.
- Let asparagus cool for a minute and add on top of cheese slices on the chicken. Wrap each one up and secure with wooden toothpicks.
- Bake in oven for 30 minutes.
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