These juicy chicken breasts are stuffed with garlicky mushrooms, spinach and a blanket of oozing melted cheese. Simple to make with just a few ingredients, this is how to transform chicken breast from ho-hum into “ohhh yum!”
After this one, try Sun Dried Tomato Stuffed Chicken!
Stuffed chicken breast
Mushroom-Stuffed Chicken Breast is one of those recipes where you take just a few ingredients and deploy them in a way that makes chicken breast so much more interesting than it usually is! Chicken breast, spinach, mushrooms, garlic and cheese are the only base ingredients here. Vary the type of cheese and swap the spinach for other leafy veg to spin this dish to suit your tastes or what you have on hand!
To make it, it’s as simple as frying off the mushrooms and spinach, stuffing the chicken, giving it a quick sear and then baking to finish it off. The reward is THIS for dinner tonight ↓↓↓!
Looks a whole lot more interesting than the usual dull chicken breast recipes, right??!!
Ingredients in Mushroom-Stuffed Chicken Breast
Here’s what you need to make this recipe. Not that much, like I said!!
All these ingredients are pretty straightforward, so I don’t think I need to run through them like I usually do. Just a few points:
Chicken – It needs to be breast to be large enough to cut deep pockets. Boneless thigh won’t work;
Baby spinach – Chopped or sliced ordinary spinach, silverbeet (Swiss chard), kale or cabbage will work fine too;
Cheese – Anything that melts will work great. Mozzarella is ideal because it melts well but isn’t as runny as, say, cheddar or tasty cheese. This is worth bearing in mind since we don’t fully seal the chicken like with Chicken Kiev since it’s a quick recipe, so some cheese is likely to escape!;
Thyme – Fresh thyme and mushroom are such a classic combination, I can’t help but use it often! Dried thyme can be used as an alternative, else dried oregano, marjoram or rosemary. Fresh versions of any of the aforementioned will also be perfect, as would parsley or tarragon. Most herbs, really!
How to make it
One tip: stuff generously. Like paltry pie fillings and dinky dumplings, nothing is sadder in this life than stingy stuffing!
Sauté mushroom and spinach – The key here is to get great colour on the mushrooms. Colour means flavour, and we never say no to flavour.
Cut pocket slits – Cut a pocket in the chicken breast, per the diagram below, being sure not to cut all the way through. Cut the side where the meat has a fold, not the smooth side.
Season the chicken, including inside the pocket, with salt and pepper;
Stuff generously with the mushroom and spinach, then stuff in cheese slices;
Seal with 2 or 3 toothpicks. It will be stuffed too much to seal completely, and that’s OK (in fact it’s good!) The goal here is just to keep it closed enough so the filling stays mostly in place. Just insert the toothpicks on the diagonal, that’s enough to hold it in place.
Sealed and ready! This photo shows what it looks like once sealed. Ready to cook!
Brown the breast in an oven-proof skillet (so we can take it straight from the stove to the oven);
Bake and rest – Bake for 15 minutes or until the internal temperature of the chicken is 65°C / 149°F. Then remove the chicken to a plate and rest for 5 minutes before serving. Resting is an essential step after cooking any protein to allow the juices in the meat to redistribute. If you don’t rest, the meat juices run out onto the plate when you cut into it.
What to serve with Mushroom-Stuffed Chicken Breast
The nice thing about this chicken breast recipe is that there’s already a decent amount of vegetables in it, making it virtually a meal-in-one. While our mums would beam approvingly if they knew we’d made the effort make an extra vegetable side dish, the truth is I wouldn’t go too far out of my way for it! For the photo above all I did was take the leftover baby spinach and drizzled it with some Balsamic Dressing. Totally simple and lazy, but hey it does the trick!
If you feel like making your mum proud though, have a browse of Vegetable and Side Salads. It’s organised by vegetable to make it easy to use something you’ve got!
Also pictured on the side is Lemon Herb Risotto. Before you start furrowing your brow at the thought of the effort needed to make a risotto, know that this is a simple no-stir, baked risotto! You read that right. Not only that, the results are staggeringly close to – no, I’d even say virtually indistinguishable from – traditional risotto. Creamy, luscious and perfectly al dente, all without standing at the stove stirring for thirty minutes.
Try it. I think you’ll be surprised! – Nagi x
Watch how to make it
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Mushroom Stuffed Chicken Breast
Ingredients
- 2 x 220g / 7oz chicken breast , skinless boneless (Note 1)
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp pepper
- 30g / 2 tbsp unsalted butter
- 200g / 7 oz mushrooms , sliced 3mm (1/8″) thick (~2 heaped cups)
- 2 garlic cloves , finely minced
- 1/2 tsp thyme leaves (Note 2)
- 2 cups baby spinach (Note 3)
- 80 g / 3oz mozzarella , sliced (or other melting cheese)
- 1 tbsp olive oil
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 200°C/390°F (180°F fan).
- Cut pockets into each chicken breast, being sure not to cut all the way through (see photos in post). Cut on the side with the fold in the meat, to keep the smooth side intact.
- Season the inside and outside of the chicken with half the salt and pepper.
- Mushroom filling: Melt butter in a heavy based oven proof skillet over high heat. Add mushrooms and cook for 3 minutes until they start to turn pretty golden. Then add garlic, thyme, remaining salt and pepper and continue cooking for a further 2 minutes until mushrooms are nice and golden.
- Add spinach: Add baby spinach and stir until wilted – about 30 seconds.
- Stuff mushroom mixture into the pocket of each chicken, then top with cheese.
- Seal with toothpicks as best you can – it doesn’t need to be fully sealed like we do with Chicken Kiev. Just mostly sealed.
- Sear chicken: Give the pan a quick wipe with paper towels. Heat oil over medium high heat. Sear each side of the chicken breast for 1 1/2 minutes until golden.
- Bake 15 minutes: Transfer the skillet to the oven and bake for 15 minutes, or until the internal temperature of the chicken is 65°C/149°F (chicken flesh, not the mushroom filling).
- Rest 5 minutes: Remove from tray onto a plate, loosely cover with foil and rest for 5 minutes. Serve! Pictured in post with easy creamy Baked Lemon Herb Risotto and baby spinach with Balsamic Dressing.
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Life of Dozer
Life of Dozer… and Life of Nagi!!
Thank you so much for this fabulous recipe, which I made last evening. I wouldn’t change anything. Soooo tasty.
That’s amazing Linda!! N x
Made this week during a weekday for the family dinner. Came out wonderfully! Only modifications I did was, since the breasts I got were kind of thin, I seared them a little bit both sides before cutting the pockets so I had more stability to cut through an already pretty thin piece of breast! Great recipe. Thanks for sharing…
My family loved this. They cleaned out the plate.
Looking forward to making this for Sunday dinner. Was browsing YouTube and stumbled across another interesting method to make a pocket for the stuffing. YouTube author: Lezzet Tutkunu. ” I put a piece of foil in the chicken…”
Followed this recipe exactly and it was delicious! The chicken was tender and the filling was so tasty. I had a hard time making a pocket in the chicken… but I just went with it and used toothpicks to try to hold it together. It was fine enough and all of us really enjoyed it.
Mushroom stuffed chicken breasts was delish! I look forward to getting more recipes. Thanks Nagi
I’m so glad you loved it Marilyn!! N x
Oops, forgot to rate this! Val (UK)
Nagi, tried this last night, and OH has asked for the recipe to be put in our favourites list.
Enough said! Thank you so much. Val
Wahoo, that’s awesome Val!! N x
Yet another winner Nagi, I cooked the chicken a little long, just a couple of minutes, but it was still incredibly tasty. A great weeknight meal
Love, love your posts in entirety (and Dozer). Do you like the herbal mix “Herbs de Provence” for such a recipe as this? Love this and Baked Ribs recipe! Thank YOU!
Wow Nagi, the flavors were so good, tender chicken and amazing filling! Winner Winner Chicken Dinner from my family in Auckland, next up we will try the sundried tomato chicken breast recipe, I love your recipe such an inspiration thank you 🥰
This got great reviews in my house last night – it was super tasty! I used leftover brie instead of mozzarella and it worked well – although stuffing my chicken breasts was like trying to put clothes on an octopus lol. Thanks for another delicious recipe 🙂
This is the best comment ever Tara!!! 😂😂😂 I’m so glad you loved it though! N x
Great recipe! Tasty and relatively easy, Securing the breasts shut an ordeal!!!! So I just draped them with additional cheese to ‘disguise’ the oddly skewed chicken
As long as it tasted great James!!! N x
Hi, Nagi
We made this Monday nite and we really enjoyed it! Great job, Nagi. Thank you.
I kept all the ingredients but had to change the way to assemble it because our chicken breasts were too thin to stuff.
After I browned the breasts, I placed the mushroom spinach mixture on top of each breast and then the mozzarella. Baked for 10 min because the breasts were done quickly.
So delicious!!!
Hugs to sweet Dozer.
Lisa and Doris in Indianapolis, Indiana USA
Genius Lisa!!! Great idea! N x
Cooked this for dinner tonight…was delicious! Just like so many of your recipes! Served it with one pot creamy noodles with the left over spinach and mushrooms added, plus a side of brocoli.
Keep those awesome recipes coming!!!
Thanks so much Fiona, you’ve made my day! N x
Beautiful recipes 👍
Thanks so much Ricardo!! N x
Omg, Nagi, I saw this today & had to make it for dinner tonight! It was fantastic & my husband loved it!
I didn’t have fresh spinach so I used collard greens which took a little longer to wilt but it was oooohhh soooo good!
Your recipes never disappoint! Thank you for sharing with us!
I’m so glad you tried it and loved it Patricia!!! That’s great – thanks for letting me know! N x
This was really delicious, chicken did not get stiff, but it took a lot longer than 15 mins to cook. Used wild spinach from my yard. Recipe turned out great.
Made your mushroom stuffed chicken breast tonight. It was good. I didn’t have mushrooms in my piece ( yucky don’t like them) but my husband said his was good. Will make again
Hi Nagi, I tried your Mushroom Stuffed Chicken Breast recipe and it is fabulous. As soon as I put in the garlic into the mushrooms, what an aroma! Since I don’t have an oven proof fry pan, I fried the mushrooms in a pan and then transferred them to a corningware dish for the oven. 5 stars for sure. I’ve tried other recipes of yours but have never commented on them. So glad to have you sending me recipes every day and updates on sweet Dozer. Cheers!
That’s great to hear Arlene, I’m so glad you enjoyed it! If you had to pick, would it be Dozer or the recipes you like seeing more?? 😂 – N x
Now that’s a tough question! My simple is I love golden Retrievers and I love to eat! I am a Cat Lady with 2 cats, but love all kinds of dogs. I forgot to mention that when the hearts come out on the right hand side I always think its an insect! LOL
Absolutely scrumptious! In fact many of the recipes I’ve tried from your website are simple and always great. Thank you for making them look so easy (and they are) and even more, delicious. Thank you N!
That’s amazing MH, thanks so much for letting me know!! N x