Who Cares If It's Not Low-Fat?

You know what drives me crazy? When people feel the need to tell me how unhealthy something is. Even worse, when they feel the need to read off the nutritional information. I know what's good for me (fresh fruits and veggies, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, etc.) and what's not (fats, salt, etc.). You know what, though? I eat well most of the time, so it's okay if I want to indulge once in a while.

Today's recipe should go next to "indulgence" in the dictionary. Mike and I have started doing half of our dates at home, which works out great because every at-home date night is an opportunity for me to try a new recipe. This was from Claire Robinson's show "Five Ingredient Fix".



Bacon and Blue Cheese Stuffed Chicken Breasts
8 oz (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temp
4 oz blue cheese, crumbled (recommended: Maytag or Point Reyes)
4 slices smoked bacon, cooked until crisp and finely chopped
2 tsp chopped fresh chives
4 skin-on, bone-in organic chicken breasts
Pinch freshly ground black pepper

In a large bowl, using a rubber spatula, mix the butter, blue cheese, bacon, and chives together until combined. Dollop half of the compound butter along the long edge of a 12-inch piece of parchment or waxed paper. Roll into a log, twisting opposite ways on both ends of the paper to create a tightly wrapped log of butter. Refrigerate or freeze for another use.

Preheat the oven to 425° F.

Using your fingers, carefully loosen the skin from chicken breasts. Stuff about 1/4 of the remaining blue cheese butter under the skin of each breast; smoothing the skin to evenly distribute the butter over the surface of the breast meat.

Put the chicken on a rimmed baking sheet and rub any remaining butter over the skin. Season each breast with just a pinch of freshly ground black pepper.

Roast the chicken breasts, skin sides up, in the center of the oven until skin is crisped and chicken is cooked through, about 35 to 40 minutes. An instant-read thermometer should register 165° F when inserted into the thickest part of the meat. Remove from the oven to a serving platter. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

If you follow this blog regularly, you may have noticed I've been cooking with bacon a lot lately. Mike and I recently discovered this great brand of bacon. It's a little pricey, but you buy it in a two pound pack and the bacon is really thick cut. Always remember that, when you don't use a whole lot of ingredients, you need to make sure that what you do use is really high quality.

Here is my compound butter mix. Bacon, blue cheese, and butter. No, it's not healthy, but it's date night and it's delicious!

Let's not forget about the chives. I find cutting these with scissors is far easier than trying to chop them on a board.

Drool...

I love a recipe that gives back. Most of the prep work is taken out of the next time I make this dish...and trust me, there will be a next time.

Tadaa! The star of the show: Chicken! I know the recipe calls for breasts, but I love dark meat, and thighs work just as well. Oh, did you know dark meat has more fat in it? Do I look like I care?

Before you can stuff, you need to get your fingers up under the skin and separate it from the meat. After that you can simply drop the compound butter into the little skin pocket and then press on top of the skin to squelch it around. That's a technical term.

Seriously, how can this not be good?

Trick question. There is no way!

Now, don't get me wrong. I don't like my food swimming in fat. That's where some paper towels come in.

See! Not a completely unhealthy meal. I steamed up some broccolini and had a good, heaping helping of that.

And that, friends, is a lesson in balance. Do I really need to tell you that this is a great date night meal? It's a little fancy and a lot of delicious. P.S. cooking for a date is a really good way to impress them. All of that to say, let us practice moderation in everything, including moderation. Enjoy!

WANTED: A recipe for Cuban Coffee
There's a great little tapas place back home in VA that I go to every time I visit. While the food is fantastic, the biggest reason I like this place is the Cuban Coffee. I think it's called Cordadito or something, but I'm not really sure. It's served in little cups and is really sweet, and I need a recipe. If you know of one, please share!