Lazy Chef's Stuffed Chicken

I wanted stuffed chicken breasts this week.. sort of my version of Chicken Cordon Blu. But the LAST thing I wanted to do was butterfly, pound, stuff, roll (very securely to prevent leaks) and babysit stuffed chicken after the week I have been having at work. So I concocted a plan to cheat a bit and still get what I was craving!

To start, I cut two b/s chicken breast portions in half by laying each flat and pressing firmly with my full palm on the top of the chicken, while carefully moving my knife in a horizontal sawing motion until I was all the way through the breast. Then I had two thin fillets of chicken that stacked together perfectly, like this:

I brushed both sides of each fillet with some of this delicious salad dressing for flavor and moisture:

And then I coated each fillet in some seasoned breadcrumbs before placing them on a sprayed cooking rack (letting the air circulate all around the chicken helps crisp them up in the oven.)

I baked the coated fillets in a 450 degree oven for 10 minutes (thin pieces cook nice and fast and crispy in high heat) and then removed them from the oven and added to the bottom fillet of each set 1 slice of ultra lean turkey bacon:

On top of the bacon I broke up one wedge of Laughing Cow Light Swiss Cheese spread each:

Then I placed the other half of each fillet on top of the cheese, and put the chicken back in the oven to melt the cheese and finish browning the tops of the chicken:

The finished product (pictured at the top of post) was SO TASTY!! The filling was yummy, the chicken was juicy with plenty of crunch from the coating, and since I just put the finished product back in the oven long enough to melt the cheese, none of the filling oozed out and was lost during cooking.

I served it with mixed steamed veggies. SO GOOD. Definitely doing this again soon!!