Yes, I’ve been playing with my food again. I had dabs of this and bits of that, and had a lot of fun pulling them all together into one creative and delicious dish! This only made one large dish, but it was plenty for two, and I’ve doubled the recipe below for two actual servings for you. The chicken breast that I used was MASSIVE, so large ones, or even medium-sized, should work well for you.

My hubby and I did our own “Battle of the Burgers” last week, and I had some ingredients leftover to play with. And since we hadn’t had chicken in awhile, that’s what I decided to dress up!

I didn’t want to bake the chicken “naked”, but I also didn’t want to over-season it, either. I wanted to keep it simple, moist, creamy and flavorful, so I whipped up a basic aioli sauce of sorts just to keep it from drying out in the oven.

It baked up absolutely beautifully! The aioli kept it moist and made the chicken so tender and juicy! I could’ve easily stopped right there and just served it with some steamed broccoli!

But I had items in the fridge left over that really needed to be used before they had a chance to go bad.

Since the chicken breast was MASSIVE in size, (that poor chicken!), it took a half of a loaf of frozen, thawed bread dough to wrap everything inside!

I filled it to the gills starting with an easy spinach mixture with a little blue cheese, a touch of spicy brown mustard and a hint of sweetness from honey! Then I toped that with some swiss cheese, spicy salami, that humungo chicken breast, and a nice piece of kale!

I brushed the small boulder-sized  hunk of poultry with a slathering of garlic butter, then popped that beauty into the oven and crossed my fingers!

It baked up beautifully and filled the entire house with mouthwatering aromas!

But I didn’t stop there! 😉

I then topped it with a little more swiss cheese and a slice of crisp-cooked and crumbled bacon, and popped that baby back into the oven until the cheese was melty and the bacon was re-crisped!

Quite a masterpiece if I do say so myself!

And all from bits and dabs of leftover “scraps”! 😉

This was absolutely fabulous! And ridiculously easy to make, too!

And such a company-worthy presentation! All of the flavors really played nicely together, and nothing was overshadowed or overpowering, either. Because this monster was so big, my hubby and I split this for supper along with a nice salad and we were stuffed! So keep in mind the size of the chicken breasts to determine how many you would like to make.

And believe me, you are going to want to make these very soon! With all of the spring weddings coming up, this would be wonderful for a rehearsal dinner, or frankly, for a slightly casual wedding even! You could easily switch out the salami for some ham or even prosciutto, if you would like it to be a bit more fancy. And the swiss cheese can be upped with a slice of brie if you’d like.

On the other hand, it also isn’t “stuffy” enough that it can’t be enjoyed for a simple weeknight supper, either. 😉 An all-around great tasting, fantastic looking, and easy to prepare main dish for just about any occasion!

Hope you’ve enjoyed, and have a beautiful day!

Yield: Serves 2

Chicken en Croute with Spinach, Spicy Salami, Swiss & Blue Cheese

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Ingredients

• 2 medium to large boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 2 Tbl. mayo
• 1 Tbl. very finely grated parmesan cheese
• 1 Tbl. vinegar & oil-style Italian salad dressing, "robust" flavor

For Spinach Layer:

• 1 (10 oz.) box frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
• 2 - 3 Tbl. blue cheese crumbles, or to taste
• 1/4 cup heavy mayo
• 1/2 tsp. spicy brown mustard
• 1/4 tsp. pure honey

Rest of Ingredients:

• 1 loaf frozen bread dough, thawed overnight
• 6 slices swiss cheese
• 4 thin slices spicy salami
• 2 kale leaves torn to size
• 2 Tbl. melted butter
• 1/4 tsp. garlic powder
• 2 slices lean quality bacon cooked crisp

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350º F.

In small bowl, mix together the mayo, parmesan and salad dressing. Coat chicken breasts with mayo mixture and place into a sprayed baking dish. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove from oven to rest.

In medium bowl, mix Spinach Filling ingredients.

Cut bread dough in half. Stretch into large circles and place onto a sprayed baking sheet.

Spread each with the spinach filling.

Top each with a slice of swiss broken in half. Then salami slices then chicken breasts. Top each with a leaf of kale.

Pull dough up and over each, pinching and twisting to seal. Turn over to be seam side-down.

Brush each with butter melted with garlic powder.

Bake in preheated oven for 18 minutes.

Remove from oven, top each with 2 slices swiss cheese and crumbled bacon.

Pop back into oven and bake until cheese has melted and bacon has re-crisped, about 3 minutes.

Slice in half with a sharp chef's knife if desired. Serve hot with a nice rice pilaf, simple buttered pasta with parmesan, or a cool, crisp summer salad!