Recipe: Chicken rotini paired with Nunn's zoodles

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – On the April 18th edition of Culinary Nunnsense, we pair a chicken rotini dish with some of Richard Nunn's zoodles we demonstrated the previous week.

Ingredients

  • 1 sweet onion, diced
  • 6-8 bacon slices, chopped
  • I pint fresh mushrooms, sliced thin, your choice of variety
  • 4 skinless boneless chicken breast halves
  • 1 tablespoon coconut oil
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • Salt & Pepper to taste
  • heavy frying pan or meat tenderizer

In a sauté pan cook bacon over medium heat. Once the bottom of the pan is coated with the fat of the bacon, add onion. Stir to coat the onion in the bacon fat. Allow to cook until onions begin to soften. Add sliced mushrooms, stir to combine and allow to simmer for an additional 5-10 minutes. Allow stuffing to cool slightly. If you would like to remove more of the bacon fat, place stuffing on a paper towel and allow to drain, cool.

Slice thick chicken breasts width ways from the thick end to the pointy end to make two breast. Using a cutting board, plastic wrap or parchment paper to cover chicken breast and begin pounding with a frying pan or meat tenderizer. (If your meat tenderizer has points or spikes, use the pan instead.) Continue until each half of the breast is about a quarter of an inch thick.

Add a spoonful or the stuffing to the now thin breasts, closer to the thick end of the breast. Using both hands, roll the chicken over the stuffing and continue to the pointed end of the breast.

Place the seam side down in a oiled hot pan. For added insurance you can tie each roll with butcher's twine or use a couple of toothpicks.

Brown the chicken on all sides. Since the stuffing is already cooked, you do not need to bake these, but you do need to make sure the inside of the roll is at least 160 degrees.

If you would like a sauce, maybe a tomato sauce, on your rolls, place chicken and sauce in a oven proof baking dish and heat enough to warm the sauce.
This dish does take a little time, but it is worth the effort.


About the Author:

Richard Nunn is the Weather Authority Chief Meteorologist