Apricot Goat Cheese Stuffed Chicken
Chicken in a bright basil citrus marinade, stuffed with creamy goat cheese, fresh basil and sweet, dried apricots!
Ingredients
Basil Citrus Marinade:
- ½ cup olive oil
- 1/3 cup Nakano Citrus Seasoned Rice Vinegar
- 2 tablespoons honey
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil leaves
Chicken and Stuffing:
- 4 (6 oz each) uncooked boneless, skinless chicken breasts, (1 ½ lbs total)
- 4 oz goat cheese, softened to room temperature
- 1 tablespoon sliced fresh basil
- 6 dried apricots, chopped
Instructions
- Combine all of the marinade ingredients in a blender (I put mine in a cup and used my immersion blender) and blend until ingredients are well combined. Transfer the blended marinade to a gallon Ziploc bag and set aside.
- Place the chicken breasts on a cutting board. Using a sharp knife, slice the breasts from the side (creating a top and bottom) almost all the way through (we’re doing this before marinating so we don’t have to cut slippery marinated breasts). Add the chicken to the bag and seal. Use your hands to massage the chicken through the bag and make sure the breasts are evenly coated with marinade. Place the bag in your refrigerator and allow the chicken to marinate for 6-10 hours, turning the bag once or twice if possible to make sure the chicken is evenly coated by the marinade.
- When the chicken is done marinating, pre-heat your oven to 400 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Remove the chicken breasts from the marinade and transfer to the baking sheet. Open each breast at the slit and spread one ounce of the goat cheese across the bottom inside surface of each breast. Sprinkle the sliced basil over top of the goat cheese in each breast and follow with the chopped apricots. Close the breast, folding the top half back over the apricots and cheese.
- Place the baking sheet of breasts into the pre-heated oven and bake for 30-35 minutes until chicken is cooked through. Serve warm.
Notes
To view your WW PersonalPoints for this recipe and track it in the WW app or site, click here!
Nutrition Information*:
333 calories, 10 g carbs, 6 g sugars, 13 g fat, 5 g saturated fat, 43 g protein, 1 g fiber (from myfitnesspal.com)
MyWW SmartPoints per serving*: (SP calculated using the recipe builder on weightwatchers.com)
Green: 8 SmartPoints/ Blue: 5 SmartPoints/ Purple: 5 SmartPoints
Weight Watchers Points Plus*:
8 per breast with toppings (PP calculated using a Weight Watchers brand PointsPlus calculator and the nutrition information below) *Just a note about the nutrition information and Weight Watchers points for this recipe: If you plug the full amounts of the marinade ingredients listed into a nutrition calculator you will get different nutrition info than I have listed. Since so much of the marinade gets thrown out, I weighed the marinade before adding the chicken and then again after removing the chicken. That way I was able to calculate the nutritional values based more closely on the amount of marinade that actually gets consumed. The totals above should be pretty accurate reflections of what actually makes it onto your plate!
8 per breast with toppings (PP calculated using a Weight Watchers brand PointsPlus calculator and the nutrition information below) *Just a note about the nutrition information and Weight Watchers points for this recipe: If you plug the full amounts of the marinade ingredients listed into a nutrition calculator you will get different nutrition info than I have listed. Since so much of the marinade gets thrown out, I weighed the marinade before adding the chicken and then again after removing the chicken. That way I was able to calculate the nutritional values based more closely on the amount of marinade that actually gets consumed. The totals above should be pretty accurate reflections of what actually makes it onto your plate!