Easy Recipes for Stay-at-Home-Dads: Chicken and Cream Cheese
Man does not live by meat alone (I suppose if he did, the makers of Lipitor would be raking in more cash than they already do) so it helps to have a few chicken, pork and fish dishes in your back pocket if you’re cooking as a stay-at-home-dad.
When I first started cooking (and doing the food shopping) for the family I was always on the lookout for a way to save a few bucks. Combining chicken, a Costco membership and a freezer in the garage was certainly one way. We buy chicken breasts in bulk keeping most of them in the freezer.
One style of recipe to spice up chicken breasts is to cut a “pocket” into a breast and fill it with something before popping it on the grill. Since winter is still with us (at least where I live) I have taken one of my grilling recipes and reconfigured it for the oven.
As with some of my other recipes for dads cooking for kids, this meal has the additional advantage that, should your kid not find cream cheese, peppers or onion items he wants inside his chicken, you can cook their piece separately without the filling.
Ingredients:
½ a skinless chicken breast per person (this portion size also works for our son)
8 oz. packet of cream cheese
½ onion finely chopped
½ red or green bell pepper chopped
2 slices of bacon per person
Wooden toothpicks
Directions:
1. After spraying the inside of a baking dish (big enough for the chicken breasts) with Pam or some other “greasing” agent, set your oven to 350 degrees.
2. If you and your diners like their bacon crispy cook the bacon in a skillet for about two minutes per side until it crisps but is still pliable. Place the bacon on paper towels to dry. (If, like me, you like your bacon soft, you can skip this step.)
3. Mix the cream cheese, onion and pepper in a bowl with a fork.
4. Cut about 3/4 of the way through each breast so that you form a pocket.
5. Divide up the cheese mixture so each breast gets an equal portion.
6. Wrap two pieces of bacon around each breast and secure each end with a toothpick.
7. Place breasts in the baking dish and then into the oven for about 35 minutes. The breasts are done when you poke them with a fork and the juice runs out dry.
8. Pull out the toothpicks and serve.
We usually serve with a salad and baked potato or couscous.
