I love browning chicken breasts in a saute pan before letting them finish cooking in the oven. It always gives the chicken much more flavor and color than just baking it, and it’s super easy and painless, as long as you don’t try to grab the handle of your fresh-from-the-oven saute pan with a bare hand when you’re getting ready to plate your chicken. Seriously, don’t do that. I’m just glad that the chicken didn’t end up on the floor and that my hand has finally stopped throbbing. Anyway, this chicken was a nice and healthy weeknight meal, and B and I both really liked the flavor of the filling. It’s a simple mixture of onions, mushrooms, and pesto, and like nearly everything else that I’ve tried to combine with chicken breasts, it worked really well. While I was eating this, I thought that the flavors would also go great on a pizza….pesto sauce, diced chicken, sauteed mushrooms. I’m definitely going to make that pizza soon.

Chicken stuffed with Pesto and Mushrooms
Source: Original Recipe

2 chicken breasts, butterflied
1/2 small onion, diced
Approximately 4 mushrooms, diced (I used button mushrooms, but I think baby portabellas would work much better, since they have so much more flavor)
2 tablespoons pesto
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. Add a drizzle of olive oil to a saute pan, and heat the pan over medium heat. Add the onions and saute until tender, then add the mushrooms and saute until they are cooked through and browned.

3. Pour the mushroom mixture into a small bowl. Add the pesto and stir to combine.

4. Scoop half of the mushroom mixture onto one side of each of the butterflied chicken breasts. Fold the other side of the chicken breasts back over the mixture, and then season the chicken with salt and pepper.

5. In the same pan that you used to saute the mushrooms, add another drizzle of olive oil and heat over medium heat. Add the chicken breasts to the pan, and saute until browned, about 2-3 minutes on each side.

6. Place the saute pan in the oven and cook until the chicken is cooked through and no longer pink inside, approximately 25 minutes. Halfway through the cooking time, flip the chicken to ensure even browning on both sides.