Stuffed Buffalo Chicken Breasts

I find it a smidgen ironic that I, the girl who does not like wings at ALL, has more than a few Buffalo Chicken-esque recipes in her repertoire.  A real wing?  No thank you.  But the flavors?  Sure...give me some!

Stumbled upon this gem when my "what are your thoughts on dinners this week" conversation with the hubby broke down.  Sometimes he just really doesn't care to chime in...and I guess that's okay, because he's generally not a picky eater so I can get away with trying new things and winging it....yes, I went there!

What I liked about this, too, was that it (a) was from Skinny Taste and (b) is reminiscent of another dish I make that's very similar.  I knew I'd have the technique down, so on the list it went. 

Stuffed Buffalo Chicken Breasts (from Skinnytaste.com)
Servings: 5  Serving Size: 1 stuffed breast  Calories: 172 • Fat: 5 g • Carbs: 5 g •
Fiber: 0.6 g • Protein: 22 g • Sugar: 1.7 g Sodium: 799 mg (without salt)

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup shredded 2% cheddar
• 4 wedges light Laughing Cow blue cheese 
• 1/3 cup celery stalk, minced
• 1/4 cup green onion, minced
• 1/4 cup carrot, minced
• salt and pepper, to taste (I actually forgot to add this, it was FINE!)
• 5 (3 oz each) thin boneless chicken breasts cutlets
• 15 reduced fat Ritz Crackers, crushed into crumbs
• 1 tbsp light mayonnaise (I used non fat plain Greek yogurt)
• 6 tbsp Franks hot sauce
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 2 tsp light butter
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• cooking spray (I forgot this step, too and it was FINE)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400°F. Lightly spray a baking dish with oil.

Mix cheddar, laughing cow cheese, celery, green onion, carrot, salt and pepper in a dish.

Lay out the chicken cutlets, placing even amount of mixture in the middle and spread in the center.

In one bowl make a breading station out of crushed Ritz crumbs. In another bowl combine mayonnaise, 1 tablespoon of hot sauce, and lemon juice as a dredging mixture.

Roll chicken breasts in the mayonnaise mixture, then into cracker crumbs, and put on a lightly greased pan, seam side down.

Lightly spray top of chicken with cooking spray. Bake 30 minutes. 

While the chicken cooks, melt butter and mix with the remaining hot sauce and garlic powder. 

Drizzle buffalo sauce over finished chicken breast and serve. 
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Couple notes---these puppies are pretty darn messy to put together.  I don't mind mess, but consider this a warning if you do.  I had to do some convincing to get some of the stuffing to stay inside the rolled up chicken, but it worked in the end...especially when I tucked them tightly into a smaller baking dish.

Also, I did find that I had far more "stuffing" than chicken, so....I would suggest either  buying more chicken OR, tossing a can of white meat chicken into the mix for "instant" chicken salad (I "think" it'll work out and be good--jury's still out).  I splashed in a few dashes of hot sauce and popped it into the fridge where it's waiting for me.  Look at that---dinner AND lunches done in one fell swoop.  That doesn't happen every day, folks.

We served our chicken with a big salad and some crisp cucumbers (again, trying to recreate that whole basket of wings thing).  Abby wasn't keen on the spiciness of it, but Mark added it to the make again list.  High praise, my friend.  High praise indeed.