Smoked Chicken Breast with Cheese Filling and Chimichurri Sauce
If you have ever wondered how to smoke a chicken breast, well it could not be simpler. It doesn’t matter if you have a pellet smoker like a traeger, an electric smoker, Big Green Egg, or an offset smoker. Smoking a chicken breast it both easy and delicious.
With this recipe, we have a boneless skinless chicken breast that has been rubbed with an herb and garlic seasoning. It is also stuffed with chimichurri infused cheese filling and drizzled with more chimichurri sauce!
There is so much flavour in every single bite.
It is smokey! It is gooey! It is even a little spicy!
As great as the chicken is, and it is amazing, the chimichurri sauce just puts this on another level.
Time to prep!
To get things going you will first want to make the chimichurri sauce. It is a snap to make. Pull out your food processor and add the chimichurri sauce ingredients. Press the pulse button and release. That should cause the blades to spin a few times and stop. You don’t want to just start the food processor and let it run as that will turn it into a puree.
Press and release the pulse button a few times. You are looking for a fairly rough consistency, like chopped up herbs, as you can see in the photos. Continue until you achieve that texture. Mix 2 tablespoons of the chimichurri sauce with the cream cheese. Put the rest in the fridge until after the chicken is finished smoking.
Use a knife and carefully cut a deep pocket into the chicken breasts. Spoon some of the cheese mixture into each chicken breast. This is seriously delicious and super gooey once it is smoked. Rub the chicken breasts with the herb and garlic seasoning.
Time to smoke!
Now it is time to set up the smoker! There are lots of great types of wood for chicken, including, hickory, pecan, apple, maple, cherry and more! I tend to go with pecan or apple more often when smoking chicken.
When it comes to smoking temperature, I like to smoke chicken breasts at 250F. I find it to be the perfect temperature to give an awesome smokey flavour and yet not dry out the white meat.
You want to smoke these chicken breasts until the internal temperature reaches 165F. Every smoker is different so use a digital thermometer to monitor the time. For me, it took about 3 hours.
Take them out of the smoker and spoon some chimichurri sauce on top. Seriously incredible! Serve with any of these great side dishes!
Great side dish ideas:
Smoked Chicken Breast with Cheese Filling and Chimichurri Sauce
Ingredients
- 4 chicken breasts , boneless and skinless
- 1 tbsp dried oregano , divided
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp salt , divided
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 3 garlic cloves
- 1 cup cream cheese , softened
Chimichurri Sauce
- 1 jalapeno pepper , cored and seeded
- 2 cups fresh cilantro , packed
- 1 garlic clove
- 1 tsp red chili flakes
- 1 lime , juiced
- 1 tbsp dried oregano
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3 tbsp olive oil
Instructions
- Make the chimichurri sauce by adding the fresh cilantro, jalapeno pepper, 1 garlic clove, chili flakes, lime juice, 1 tbsp dried oregano, 3 tbsp olive oil and 1/2 tsp salt to a food processor. Press the pulse button and release. Continue to do this to finely chop the cilantro. The sauce resemble finely chopped herbs.
- Place the cream cheese in a bowl and add 2 tablespoons of the chimichurri sauce. Set aside the remaining chimichurri sauce for later. Use a fork to mash the cream cheese and chimichurri sauce until well combined.
- Holding knife horizontally, insert into the thick end of each chicken breast and cut to make a deep pocket. Be careful not to pierce through the other end.
- Spoon the cream cheese mixture evenly into the pockets of each chicken breast.
- In a small bowl mix together the remaining 1 tbsp oregano, 1 tbsp olive oil, 1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp black pepper and minced garlic. Rub all over the chicken breasts. Place the chicken on a smoker rack.
- Set the smoker to 250F using wood chips of choice. Hickory, pecan or apple for chicken would would great in this recipe.
- Smoke the chicken until they reach an internal temperature of 165F, should take around 3 hours.
- Place the chicken breasts on a plate and spoon remaining chimichurri sauce on top.