Panko Encrusted Herbed Feta Stuffed Chicken

The Cen-Tex Smoker

This has been one of our faves in some form for 15 years or more. Long before the egg made its way to my backyard. It's evolved over the years.  We used to do it with turkey tenderloins and the flavors have changed a bit but the basics are still there. We really liked this one and the kids destroyed it so I thought I'd share. 

Chicken breasts pounded thin- or better yet buy the Milanesa cut breast if your store carries them. They are already cut thin and already in perfect proportion for this dish. 

Run them through an egg wash and drag through Panko crumbs  on both sides. We add a little salt and some seasoning to the Panko. We like Zatar seasoning for this one. 

Place feta, basil, and sundried tomato on one half of the chicken then fold over and secure with a wooden skewer that has been clipped down to barely poke out once inserted. You can use toothpicks but the chicken really wants to open up while cooking and sometimes toothpicks aren't enough to hold it shut. 

I grill ill these raised direct around 400-450. Once the Panko Browns nicely I flip them. Do not add wood for this dish. The Panko really soaks up the lump flavor and it's perfect as is. I think adding additional wood would be overpowering. 

We served this over whole wheat pasta with with a tiny bit of EVOO and basalmic reduction,  wilted baby spinach (we just put the cut up baby spinach in the warm pasta to wilt) , sun dried tomato., kalamata olives and a little micro-planed Parmesan.

lay the chicken over the top of the pasta and drizzle basalmic reduction over the top and there you have it. A really nice summery Mediterranean style chicken on the BGE. Not a bad little Friday night. 

blind99

Those are beautiful!

The Cen-Tex Smoker

blind99 said:

Those are beautiful!

Thanks. It's not hard to do. Pretty simple stuff but the flavors are really good. 

JohnInCarolina

You had me at Panko Encrusted Herbed Feta.

NorthPilot06

Looks delicious - thanks for sharing!  You must have had Matt over to take some pics