Chicken Roulade with Spinach and Pesto Stuffing

Wine Pairing: Chardonnay

This elegant meal looks difficult to make, but it’s not. The hardest part is squeezing the liquid out of the spinach. If you don't like the taste of basil, try using parsley instead, as I do in my parsley pesto recipe. Served with a side of wild rice, it’s delicious.

Ingredients:
¼ cup Italian dressing
¼ cup chopped fresh basil leaves or 1 tablespoon dried basil
¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/8 teaspoon pepper
½ teaspoon sea salt
1 pound of fresh spinach, cooked, chopped, and squeezed dry (You may substitute a package of frozen spinach, squeezed dry)
1 cup of Italian style bread crumbs
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 cup of wild rice

Preparation:
Lay the chicken breasts between two sheets of cling wrap and pound with a cooking mallet until they are ¼ inch thick. Sprinkle lightly with salt.
Mix the Italian dressing, basil, cheese, and pepper in a blender.
Pour this mixture into a bowl with the spinach and add the bread crumbs.
Lay some of the spinach mixture onto each breast.
Roll up and secure with wooden picks.
Brush a small amount of Italian dressing over the chicken breasts.
Place in a baking pan and bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes to one hour, depending on the size of the chicken breasts.
Cook the wild rice according to package directions.
Serve the chicken sliced over a bed of rice.

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Find more recipes and menus with the Sacramento Easy Meals Examiner and wine pairings with the Sacramento Budget Wine Examiner.

Parsley Sunflower Pesto

This is a tasty pesto sauce to make when fresh basil isn't available. It may be used immediately, but if you let it sit overnight in the refrigerator, the flavors become more intense.

2 cups of chopped Italian parsley
1/3 cup of shelled and salted sunflower seeds
3 cloves of garlic
1/2 to 2/3 cup of olive oil

In the food processor, (blender if you don't have a food processor,) chop the parsley, sunflower seeds, and garlic together until they are finely mixed. With the food processor running, pour the olive oil in a thin stream. Stop at 1/2 cup of oil and check the texture. If it's too dry, add the rest of the oil. Scrape the pesto out of the food processor with a rubber or silicone spatula
into a bowl.

I didn't take a picture of the pesto in the bowl, but I have a picture of the Basil Grilled Chicken with Pesto Pasta dinner I used it in.

Easy Basil Pesto Recipe

Why buy pesto sauce in a jar when it's so easy to make? It has a special flavor when it's fresh. You can whip this pesto sauce together in a few minutes. Of course, pesto sauce in a jar is still handy to have on hand for times when fresh basil isn't available. Either way, pesto is a delicious accent for chicken and pasta.

Basil Pesto

2 cups of fresh basil leaves
¼ cup olive oil
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
¼ cup of pine nuts (Almonds are fine if pine nuts aren’t available.)
1 tsp lemon juice

Put all of the ingredients into a food processor or electric chopper.
Blend until it is creamy.
Refrigerate until ready to use. If it sits overnight the flavors will be more intense.

Use this pesto sauce within a week for freshest flavor.

Photo credit: Marco Carlini.