No more boring chicken recipes! This Pesto and Goat Cheese Stuffed Chicken is bursting with flavor. This colorful dish looks like it took forever to make, but is ready to eat in about 30 minutes.
Last weekend, Mullet’s Appliances invited me to come into the store and try out their Wolf Convection Steam Oven. I put together a meal featuring this Pesto and Goat Cheese Stuffed Chicken with a side of Sea Salt & Rosemary Focaccia. For dessert, we baked up a batch of pre-made Toll House cookies to show the versatility of the oven.
What is a convection steam oven? It uses a combination of moisture, heat and circulation to cook your food. It can be used to cook just about anything! You can also use it to reheat leftovers so they taste like they did when they were made.
One of the biggest things that impressed me was the fact that we didn’t have to preheat the oven when we cooked the chicken and the bread! It saves a great deal of time because the chicken cooked 5 minutes faster than it does in a regular oven, plus we didn’t have to take time beforehand to preheat the oven.
This stuffed chicken is a recipe I created a few weeks ago and have been itching to make again. I’ve always been big on recipes that use lots of different color ingredients. The more colorful the dish ends up, the more flavorful it is!
For the chicken, we used the Convection Steam mode on the oven to cook the chicken. This mode is great for chicken because it helps keep all the moisture inside. It cooks much faster than in a regular oven, but the chicken still comes out perfectly tender but crispy on the outside.
I was so pleased with how this recipe turned out in the steam oven! I’ve made it in a regular oven at home, but it was even better this way. The chicken was moist and cooked just right. The tomato cooked much better in the steam oven than it did in the regular oven.
For a side, I made a delicious Sea Salt and Rosemary Focaccia. We used the Auto Steam Bake setting on the steam oven and set the temperature to 400 F. It only took 15 minutes to bake the bread. It was perfectly browned and had the most amazing texture! It was light and fluffy on the inside, with a crispy crust.
The Auto Steam Bake mode heats with steam first, and then finishes baking the food with convection. You can even use this mode to bake frozen bread with no preheat time!
The oven can also be used as just a convection oven, without the steam. We used this setting to bake a batch of Tollhouse cookies for dessert. They came out a nice golden brown, and were absolutely delicious!
Most of the time when people think about cooking with steam, they usually assume it will only work well for vegetables or seafood, however the Wolf Convection Steam Oven has the versatility that most people can only dream of in the kitchen. You can use all your traditional recipes and adapt them to the steam oven for a faster and fuller cooking experience.
Pesto and Goat Cheese Stuffed Chicken
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons oil, I used coconut but olive oil will work, too
- 2 cups of fresh spinach
- 2 tablespoons pesto
- 6 boneless, skinless chicken breast filets (If you get regular chicken breasts, pound them to about 1/2 inch thickness first)
- 1 to mato, sliced into 6 pieces
- 4 oz goat cheese
Instructions
- If you are using a steam oven, there is no need to preheat! If not, preheat your oven to 400 F.
- Heat the olive oil in a medium skillet on medium high heat. Sauté the spinach with the pesto for 3-5 minutes or until it turns limp and dark green in color. Set aside.
- Place the chicken on a clean work surface and layer the tomato, spinach and goat cheese on one half of the chicken. Lift the other half of the chicken over top of the stuffing and use a toothpick to hold it in place. Place the stuffed chicken on a baking sheet.
- In a steam oven, use the convection steam setting and set the temperature for 375 F, place the chicken in the oven and cook for 15 minutes or until the chicken is cooked thoroughly and browned. In a regular oven, cook for 20 minutes or until cooked thoroughly and browned.
What do you think of the Convection Steam Oven? Would you use one in your kitchen?
Amanda | Life With Grace says
That chicken sounds so so so yummy! I’ve never tried goat cheese but I bet I could substitute mozzarella? And homemade focaccia bread is my fav, and of course give me all the chocolate chip cookies! This whole meal sounds so yummy and the stove is so cool! I love that you don’t have to preheat and that it cooks so much faster!
Jenna Brussee says
Try making this recipe with fresh mozzarella! I’m sure it would be delicious.
Jaelan @ Making Mrs. M says
How amazing that they invited you to use that awesome kitchen!
And that chicken looks so good. I love chicken stuffed with cheeses and herbs. Mmmmmm!
Jenna Brussee says
It was such a fun experience! Now I have to have a steam oven in my kitchen.
Nicki Lewis says
Such a pretty kitchen. Now the cookies made me hungry lol
Jenna Brussee says
It was a lot of fun to cook in that kitchen! Thanks, Nicki.
Miranda @ Miranda Writes says
I would LOVE to have a Wolf oven in my kitchen. What a fun opportunity! This recipe sounds delicious!
Jenna Brussee says
It’s on my wish list, too! I made this recipe a few weeks ago at home but it turned out so much better (and cooked much faster) in the steam oven.
Amanda Elizabeth says
Seriously my stomach just growled. Those look so good!!!
Jenna Brussee says
They were so good! I eat chicken a lot so recipes like this are a great way to keep me from getting bored.
Carlee @Cooking With Carlee says
What a fun treat to get to use such fancy appliances!
Jenna Brussee says
It was a great experience! Now I have to have a steam oven in my kitchen.
Anna @ The Beauty Section says
Pesto is seriously one of my favorite things ever! It’s so tasty and flavorful! So this definitely sounds like something I gotta make!! 🙂
Jenna Brussee says
This is such a great recipe for an easy weeknight meal! You should give it a try. Let me know what you think if you do.
Miz Helen says
What a fun project and a delicious Chicken creation, it looks awesome. Thanks so much for sharing your post with Full Plate Thursday and have a great day!
Come Back Soon,
Miz Helen
Jenna Brussee says
This is one of my favorites right now! Thanks for stopping by.
Cristina says
That oven sounds amazinnng! And these look delicious – pesto is so yummy. I’m glad you got to try it!
Jenna Brussee says
Thanks, Cristina! I had so much fun cooking with that oven. Now I need one in my kitchen!