fall cooking: goat cheese chicken

We’re deep into autumn, and I have safely fallen into nesting mode. There is a short period between Thanksgiving and the ramp-up of holiday parties that I relish in. We enjoy weekends at home, redecorating, reading the million coffee table books we have and of course, cooking. I move a little slower and welcome the pace. The frenzy of summer has faded, and I feel relaxed.

This short window of time also re-introduces a new weekly menu. We move away from grilling everything to heartier meals like bakes, casseroles, and stews. We still use the BBQ into the autumn and through the winter, but we crave meals cooked slowly, with a lot of love. We make big batches of soups, stews, chilis and one-pot dishes that render generous leftovers that we can re-purpose in creative ways or freeze for later. I look for recipes that take a little longer to prepare, meals I can enjoy a good portion of a bottle of wine making.

The meals I start making in the fall, while cozy, tend not to be as lean as meals I cook up in the summer. While my body craves the heartiness and warmth of said meals, I do look for ways to add more veggies and keep them relatively healthy. This Goat Cheese Chicken recipe is one that I have had in my rotation for years; it happens to be one of Doug’s favourites. You can drop the pasta and cook the chicken in sauce and on a bed of spinach and serve with a side of roasted broccolini, as I have done many times when we’re on a no carb kick.

Goat Cheese Chicken

This recipe can easily be modified based on preferences. The raw garlic stuffed in the chicken gives it a good punch, but you could easily add sauteed garlic for a sweeter flavour or drop it if it’s not your vibe. I have added sun-dried tomatoes to the recipe before which are great, and I also have made it with Boursin cheese, which was a dream.

Ingredients

3 tbsp olive oil
1 yellow onion, thinly sliced
3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
4 chicken breasts (butterflied)
¼ cup basil
1 jar your favourite pasta sauce, I will usually make Marcella Hazan’s quick sauce
⅓ cup red wine
300g farfalle pasta
1 140g package of goat cheese (i typically use plain, but you can use herbed or peppercorn)
2 cups spinach
Salt and Pepper

Method

Preheat oven to 375 F
Heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a pan on high. Add in the chicken breasts; this may need to be done in batches to avoid crowding. Brown for 2-3 minutes on each side.
Bring a pot of salted water to a boil and cook pasta. You want the pasta cooked just under al dente as it will cook in the oven as well.
Once the chicken is browned, remove from pan and add in the rest of the olive oil and the onions. Cook for 1 minute and then add the wine to scrape up the brown bits. Turn the heat down and cook onions for 5-7 minutes.
Stuff the chicken breasts by spreading a generous amount of goat cheese on one half of the breast, add some slivered garlic, salt and pepper and fold over. I sometimes use toothpicks to secure them, so they don't open during baking.
Toss half the sauce with the pasta and spinach and place in the base of a casserole dish.
Nestle the chicken breasts onto the pasta and pour the rest of the sauce over the chicken.
Sprinkle the onions over the entire dish along with the basil with any remaining goat cheese. Leave a little bit of basil for serving
Bake for 20 minutes, until chicken is cooked through.
To serve, spoon some of the pasta into a shallow bowl, top with a chicken breast and sprinkle with fresh basil