I love pesto. I mean, how could you not, right? Basil, pine nuts, garlic, Parmesan…the flavors are totally swoon-worthy. Luckily, my fiancé also loves pesto (I would reiterate that duh, it’s almost impossible not to like it, but he doesn’t like bacon. Or French fries. Or peanut butter. So…yeah. His taste in fiancees makes up for it), so I was looking for a fun new way to serve it. Pesto and chicken are a match meant to be, so I thought rolling all that delicious flavor up inside some breasts would be a fun surprise. I tossed in some Mozzarella (more cheese is always good) and sun dried tomatoes and added some tasty Parmesan- bread crumb coating to round out these tasty Pesto Chicken Roulades.
Pesto, Mozzarella, and sun-dried tomatoes wrapped in chicken breast in a tasty Parmesan- bread crumb coating!
Yield: 4servings
Ingredients
4teaspoonspine nuts
½cupbasil leaves
6teaspoonsParmesan cheese, divided
1garlic clove
2teaspoonsolive oil
1teaspoonswater
½teaspoonfresh lemon juice
A pinch of nutmeg
Salt and pepper to taste
4(6 oz) boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1ozshredded 2% Mozzarella cheese
0.5ozsun dried tomatoes, dry packaged & julienne cut (I used Bella Sun Luci)
2tablespoonswhite whole wheat flour, or all-purpose
2egg whites, beaten
6tablespoonsseasoned bread crumbs
Instructions
Pre-heat the oven to 400. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
Bring a small, dry skillet over medium heat and add the pine nuts. Cook for 1-2 minutes, stirring occasionally until nuts are golden brown.
Transfer the toasted pine nuts, fresh basil leaves, 4 teaspoons of the Parmesan cheese, oil, water, lemon juice, garlic clove, nutmeg, salt and pepper to the bowl of your food processor and process until minced together into a pesto paste.
Place the chicken breasts on a cutting board. Using a meat mallet, pound the breasts to a ¼ inch thickness. Spread the pesto evenly across the surface of each breast. Sprinkle the sundried tomatoes and shredded cheese over the pesto. Starting with a short side, roll each breast up and seal the edges shut using a few toothpicks.
Place the rolled and sealed breasts in a Ziploc bag and add the flour (you may want to split this into two batches). Lightly flip the bag around until chicken is coated. Place the beaten egg white in a shallow dish. In a second shallow dish, mix the bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese. Remove each rolled breast from the flour bag and dip it in the egg white, turning to coat. Then move the coated breast to the breadcrumb dish and coat it with crumbs on all sides. Place the completed rolls seam side down on the prepared baking sheet.
Bake for 30-35 minutes. Don’t forget to remove the toothpicks before serving!
Notes
To view your WW PersonalPoints for this recipe and track it in the WW app or site, click here!Nutrition Information:331 calories, 12 g carbs, 2 g sugars, 11 g fat, 3 g saturated fat, 43 g protein, 2 g fiber (from myfitnesspal.com)MyWW SmartPoints per serving: (SP calculated using the recipe builder on weightwatchers.com)Green: 7 SmartPoints/ Blue: 5 SmartPoints/ Purple: 5 SmartPointsWeight Watchers Points Plus: 8 per serving (P+ calculated using the recipe builder on weightwatchers.com)