CATHERINE TIDD
About the Recipe
I knew I was onto something with this recipe when my son unexpectedly walked in the door from college over the weekend and ate the entire thing. Yes, he's been eating dorm food for a while, but I still took it as a good sign.
I tried this recipe with both a bone-in, skin-on chicken breast and a boneless skinless chicken breast. I was surprised that I liked the boneless better because I usually like baking bone-in chicken more. Using the boneless chicken made it much easier to eat and it still stayed very juicy cooking it this way. And that's good because it's not always easy to find a bone-in, skin-on chicken breast.
This cornbread mixture is an easier version of the southern cornbread dressing I grew up with. This really took hardly any time at all but it's still packed with flavor. Jimmy Dean makes a breakfast sausage WITH sage, but I have come to realize that using fresh sage with the regular sausage is amazing. And, yes, I know you're only using a small amount from the tube, but I recommend making some biscuits and gravy the next morning with the leftover sausage and sage. You won't be sorry!
Ingredients
1 boneless skinless chicken breast
3/4 cup of chicken stock
1 cup of cornbread stuffing from a box
1 Tablespoon butter
1 Tablespoon chopped yellow onion
1 Tablespoon chopped celery
1teaspoon fresh chopped sage
1 Tablespoon uncooked breakfast sausage (like Jimmy Dean)
salt and pepper to taste
Preparation
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Melt butter in a small saucepan and add onion, celery, and sage. Sprinkle on salt and freshly ground pepper. Saute until onioin and celery are transluscent. Add uncoooked sausage and brown in veggies, breaking it up into small pieces.
In a bowl mix cornbread and heated chicken stock until desired consistency (use slightly more chicken stock to make sure it binds together if needed). Add cooked sausage and veggies and stir to combine.
Butter a small rimmed baking dish and sprinkle salt and pepper on the bottom.
Split chicken breast down the middle to make a pocket - don't slice all the way through. Put stuffing mixture inside and close the breast. Place in baking dish and salt and pepper the top.
Cover the dish with foil. Bake at 375 for 20 minutes. Remove foil and return to oven for an additional 20 minutes or until chicken reaches an internal temperature of 165 degrees.
What I'm Listening To
I'm completely obsessed with Brandi Carlile's memoir right now. Not only does she tell an amazing story, she interweaves accoustical versions of songs that mean something to her. It's just amazing.
