The Black Peppercorn Spicing up mealtime!
This weekend is an emotional roller coaster for our family. Yesterday was the funeral service for my wife’s cousin. She was 34 years old. My wife sang at the funeral service and I co-officiated with a pastor friend. It was a wonderful celebration of her life and also acknowledged incredible grace of God. It was sad to say goodbye to Anita.
Tomorrow is my niece’s baptism. Little Grace is 9 weeks old and, as I am typing this post, I am sitting at my brother’s table while he is holding his daughter. I have the honour of being Grace’s godfather. Every time I say that I am the godfather I hear the theme to the Godfather movie in my head. HAHA!
So, this weekend is mixed with grief and joy. The end of life and the beginning of life.
Today’s recipe is something I made earlier this week. Chorizo is a type of pork sausage popular in Spain, Portugal, Mexico and some other Latin countries. It is great on its own, but can also be chopped up and added to a dish. Here are a few great dishes with chorizo:
- Turkey stuffed with a chorizo stuffing
- Scrambled eggs with chopped chorizo and jalapeno
- Chorizo hash potatoes
These chicken breasts are stuffed with chorizo, onion, jalapeno pepper and cheese. It is full of flavour and is oozy and gooey.
Chorizo makes a wonderful stuffing, providing bags of flavour along with the onion and jalapeno.
As you butterfly the chicken breast, do your best to not cut through creating any holes. Melted cheese will ooze through any holes.
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 link of chorizo, diced
- 1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced
- ¼ red onion, diced
- 1 garlic clove minced
- ½ cup monterey jack, grated
- 4½ tbsp cream cheese
- 3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp black pepper
- ½ tsp garlic powder
- ½ tsp cayenne pepper
- Heat the oil in a skillet. Add the garlic, chorizo, onion and jalapeno and cook until tender, about 6-8 minutes. Bring to room temperature.
- Butterfly the chicken breast by cutting lengthwise across the width of the chicken breast. Do not cut all the way through, but stop about ½ inch before the end. Open the butterflied chicken breast and pound it lightly to flatten it evenly.
- Spread 1½ tbsp cream cheese in the middle of the butterflied chicken breast. Scoop some chorizo mixture and grated monterey jack on the cream cheese as seen in the picture above.
- Roll the chicken breast over, squeezing the ends together. Keep all the stuffing inside the chicken. Using string, tie up the chicken breast. Do not make it too tight or else the stuffing will squeeze out the ends.
- Mix the salt, black pepper, garlic powder and cayenne together. Sprinkle it over the chicken breast.
- Grill the chicken breast on medium high heat, turning it every 10 minutes or so. Grill for about 25-30 minutes or until fully cooked. Let rest for 5 minutes before cutting and serving.
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How delicious does this look?!!?! What a fantastic way to add excitement to chicken breast.
mjskit recently posted..Green Chile Succotash
Steve, great filling for the chicken!! I am very sorry to hear about your wife’s cousin… so very young. How sad.
I hope the baptism goes well… congratulations Godfather!. 
Ramona recently posted..Spicy Barbeque Chicken
What an emotional weekend, indeed! For me, it’s comforting to know that when sad things happen in life, there’s joy to comfort and bring hope! This chicken is gorgeous…really lovely. I’m pinning this one!!
Wendy (The Weekend Gourmet) recently posted..Easter Blog Hop…Featuring White Chocolate-Strawberry Easter Cake
I’ve use Prosciutto (the French version) but now I have to try chorizo…. sounds fantastic
Katie recently posted..Spaghetti Pie, Defending Betty Crocker
What a week for your family. The circle of life surrounds us all. You have a great attitude.
I love your chicken!
Maureen @ Orgasmic Chef recently posted..Bulgarian Pitka Bread
Oh my, this looks delicious! The Monterey jack especially seems like a perfect kick. Well done, Sir.
Kiri recently posted..Curried Lentils, Tomatoes And Acorn Squash
I just bought some really good chorizo and have been trying to figure out what to do with it……these look amazing, but I’m wondering how these would be if they were smoked…….think I must try!!!! Thanks for the post and many condolences to your family!
Tracy Lawson recently posted..Peach Smoothie
Stuffed poultry always makes the day:)
Italian Notes recently posted..Torta di burro Danese
This looks like a wonderful take on the classic chicken cordon bleu recipe and frankly we think the chorizo might be an improvement! On a more somber note, we offer our condolences for your family’s loss, especially of someone so young.
Really great site you have here, I can tell I’m going to love what you’re cooking. Thanks for stopping by my blog, and if you spent any time you know this chicken dish is a “must make” for me. I’m a new subscriber.
I nominated y’all for a Versatile Blogger award for all your great posts!
i’m so sorry for your loss, but that’s wonderful about the baptism! oh, and this chicken looks absolutely delicious. we will definitely be trying this on the grill one night soon!