Healthy stuffed chicken breast recipe with a mixture of cheeses, walnuts, and spinach, seared until golden brown, and then baked for about 15 minutes. This keto stuffed chicken is served with low carb vegetables and can be enjoyed as a quick and easy weeknight meal all year round.
During the holiday season with families and friends gathering, we all could use recipes that make for delicious, one pan meals. Better yet, if the foods are not too calorie-dense, we can also indulge without fear of long hours on the treadmill in the spring.
On this special occasion, Luna Regina, founder of Healthy Kitchen 101, shares one such recipe from her collections: Stuffed Chicken Breasts Recipe.
Luna is inspired by making healthy eating an easy and sustainable option for everyone. She and her team at Healthy Kitchen 101 design recipes that make tasty meals while following a nutritionist-approved healthy eating guideline.
In this recipe, Luna combines keto vegetables with two types of cheese and a nut to make savory, creamy fillings. She also shares tips that give her baked chicken an attractive brown finish and a warm aroma.
Read on for her tips and to learn how to bake the best cheese and spinach stuffed chicken breast recipe.
Stuffed Chicken Breast Recipe by Luna Regina
Stuffed chicken breast is the type of food you can make when you want a flavorful dinner that isn’t overly challenging to prepare.
It has a great texture, with the firmness of seared chicken on the outside, and soft, juicy spinach, creamy cheese, and crunchy walnuts on the inside. The flavor is balanced on the savory spectrum: the fat, salty cheeses adds guilty tastiness to bland chicken and tangy veggies.
Are Stuffed Chicken Breasts Healthy?
This recipe, as are all recipes on HealthyKitchen101.com, follows their Healthy Eating Guidelines.
A serving of these stuffed chicken breasts offer 491 calories, which is quite low for a main dish.
It’s a nutritious food, though: A serving provides 62% of your recommended daily intake of protein, 95% vitamin A, 35% potassium, and a variety of other nutrients.
Saturated fat and sodium are at 10.8 g and 464 mg respectively, which are well below daily limits for the average adult.
Is This Recipe Keto Or Low Carb?
This healthy stuffed chicken breast recipe contains only 18g of carbohydrates in each serving. That translates to 6% of the recommended daily value. So, yes, it's a low-carb and keto dish.
Much of the carbs come from the all-purpose flour, which is spread on the chicken before searing. If you want to minimize the amount of carbs even further, you can omit the flour completely or use blanched almond flour. Note, however, that skipping the flour means the outside of your chicken breasts won’t be as crispy.
What Can You Stuff Chicken Breasts with?
It may not be as versatile as fried rice, but this keto stuffed chicken still leaves a lot of room for creativity. In place of, or in addition to the fillings used in this recipe, you can use pretty much any leftover ingredients in your fridge.
- Vegetables
They add freshness and a tangy taste to balance out the fat in the cheese.
You could use baby spinach as I do in this recipe or any other veggies to your liking.
Asparagus, mushrooms, bell pepper, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, and Swiss chard are great alternatives and still low carb.
- Cheese
I use mozzarella cheese and cream cheese, but you can also create your own version with Parmesan or Ricotta cheese.
Just make sure you don’t use too much— they’re high in fat content and can add many calories to your chicken breasts!
- Nuts
Nuts add crunchiness to the chicken breasts, making the texture more interesting.
Apart from walnuts, you can use peanuts, cashews, almonds, or pine nuts.
If you need some inspiration, here are a few popular filling options for a healthy stuffed chicken breast recipe.
Keto Stuffed Chicken Variations
- Mushroom stuffed chicken
This is one of the earthier versions of baked stuffed chicken breast. Boletus, lentinula, shiitake, enoki, and milkcap are all great options for the mushrooms. If you want a change in the texture, try wood-ear mushrooms.
- Spinach artichoke stuffed chicken
The filling of this dish may sound bland to you, but some cream cheese will give it a fatty, savory flavor that solves the problem.
- Broccoli cheddar stuffed chicken
If you don’t like the taste of broccoli, cauliflower works just as well. Either way, the veggies will make these breasts a little trickier to cut into thin, clean slices than others. You need a very sharp knife for that.
- Margherita stuffed chicken
If you enjoy Margherita pizza, this twist may become your new cup of tea. The filling is simple to prepare, too, with basil, dried tomatoes, and thin slices of mozzarella cheese.
A Different Way to Stuff Chicken Breasts
In this recipe, I cut the chicken breasts into thin slices, spread the filling on top, and make them into rolls pinned with toothpicks.
Another way to do it is to butterfly the breasts.
Use a sharp knife to make a cut along the long side of the breast, stopping at the edges. This creates a deep pocket inside of the breast to hold the stuffing.
The advantages of this method are that the breasts look whole, and the moisture in the chicken is preserved during the baking process. On the other hand, it’s harder to cook evenly this way, since both the chicken pocket and the stuffing tend to be thicker at the opening than deeper inside.
How to Prep Chicken Breasts in Advance
This easy stuffed chicken breast recipe doesn’t take too long to cook, but if you want it on a busy day, you can do the preparation 24 hours in advance.
First, cut the chicken breasts and season them. Then put them in an airtight glass container in the fridge. Stir-fry the vegies and save them in the fridge also. Have all other ingredients ready to further reduce your cooking time.
Only prepare the stuffing when it’s time to cook.
Uncooked chicken is vulnerable to different pathogens that can cause serious food poisoning, so I don’t recommend keeping it in the fridge for more than 24 hours before cooking. Stuffing cooked, soft greens into the raw meat long before cooking also doesn’t sound like a good idea due to the increased risk of contamination.
Cooked chicken has a longer fridge life and makes one of those easy freezer meals. Therefore, a better option health-wise is to cook the chicken ahead and then store it in the fridge. It takes only a few minutes to reheat at mealtime.
Useful Tips for Successful Stuffed Chicken Breasts
- Sear them, but not for too long
Searing the chicken breasts gives them a nice golden-brown color and crispy outside. Don’t wait until you see the desired color to take them out of the skillet, though, or they will overcook and become tough.
Instead, transfer them to the oven as soon as you see them turning a light brown. The baking will give the chicken the right finish.
- Wait a minute before cutting the breasts
For the best results, only cut the chicken breasts right before serving. Thin slices of chicken breasts lose both heat and moisture faster than the whole.
How to Make This Healthy Stuffed Chicken Breast Recipe
This keto stuffed chicken makes a yummy feast and is quick to prepare. Cook the leaves, add the cheese, put them on the chicken, and there you go: a wholesome plate with a large spectrum of veggies, animal fat, and lean protein.
- Preheat the oven to 375°F.
- Split the chicken breasts into wide, but thin slices. Season both sides with ¼ teaspoon of salt, ⅛ teaspoon of pepper, and ½ teaspoon of Italian seasoning.
- Heat a non-stick pan over medium heat, then add spinach, ½ tablespoon of olive oil, and garlic. Stir fry.
- When the spinach looks wilted, pour into a sieve to remove excess water.
- Spread the spinach over the slices of chicken. Spread the cream cheese, mozzarella, and 1 oz walnuts in a thin, even layer on top.
- Roll the slices up, secure with toothpicks, then roll them through a shallow plate of flour.
- Heat a cast-iron pan over medium heat. Add 1 ½ tablespoon of olive oil and 1 tablespoon of butter. Sear the chicken rolls with garlic cloves until golden brown.
- Stir fry mushrooms and asparagus with 1 tablespoon of butter in the same pan over medium heat for about 5 minutes. Season with the remaining salt, walnuts, pepper, and Italian seasoning.
- Bake the chicken and vegetables in the oven for 15 minutes, then take them out and remove the toothpicks.
- Slice the chicken breasts and serve with the baked vegetables.
How Long to Bake the Chicken Breasts
The chicken takes about 30 minutes to cook in the oven at 300 degrees F.
At 375 degrees, the baking should take 20 minutes.
The time’s reduced to 15 minutes if you bake at 400 degrees.
Note that in this recipe, the chicken is seared in a pan before baking. This is to give it a warm brown finish, but that also partly cooks the chicken. As a result, the baking time is reduced to 15 minutes at 375 degrees.
Also, the above timing applies to 4-oz chicken breasts. You may want to adjust the time depending on the actual size of the chicken breasts you have.
How to Store Baked Stuffed Chicken Breasts
After cooking, you may store chicken in an airtight glass container while they’re still hot and put it into the fridge or freezer. However, to avoid condensation and dripping of water onto the chicken, you store it in the freezer or fridge as soon as it cools down. Remember not to cut the breasts beforehand and don't leave them at room temp for more than one hour.
These healthy stuffed chicken breasts can stay in the fridge for 72 hours, and in the freezer for up to 1 month.
To reheat the chicken, spread some water on the surface of the breasts and put them in the microwave for a few minutes.
Try other chicken recipes:
- Galinhada (Brazilian chicken and rice)
- Brazilian chicken stroganoff
- Baked chicken Parm
- Turmeric lime chicken
- Keto ranch chicken thighs
- How to make fried chicken
- Honey mustard chicken
- Honey soy chicken
- Roast chicken adobo
PIN & ENJOY!
Healthy Stuffed Chicken Breast Recipe
Equipment
- skillet
- knife
Ingredients
- 12 oz skinless boneless chicken breast three 4-oz breasts
- 6 oz baby spinach
- 12 oz asparagus
- 2.5 oz walnuts
- 14 oz crimini mushrooms
- 1.5 oz mozzarella cheese
- 2 oz cream cheese
- 5 cloves garlic
- 3 tablespoon all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- 2 tablespoon unsalted butter
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground pepper
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 tablespoon parsley
Instructions
- Split the chicken breasts into wide, but thin slices. Season both sides with ¼ teaspoon of salt, ⅛ teaspoon of pepper, and ½ teaspoon of Italian seasoning.
- Heat a non-stick pan over medium heat, then add spinach, ½ tablespoon of olive oil, and garlic. Stir fry.
- When the spinach looks wilted, pour into a sieve to remove excess water.
- Spread the spinach over the slices of chicken. Spread the cream cheese, mozzarella, and 1 oz walnuts in a thin, even layer on top.
- Roll the slices up, secure with toothpicks, then roll them through a shallow plate of flour.
- Heat a cast-iron pan over medium heat. Add 1 ½ tablespoons of olive oil and 1 tablespoon of butter. Sear the chicken rolls with garlic cloves until golden brown.
- Stir fry mushrooms and asparagus with 1 tablespoon of butter in the same pan over medium heat for about 5 minutes. Season with the remaining salt, walnuts, pepper, and Italian seasoning.
- Bake the chicken and vegetables in the oven for 15 minutes, then take them out and remove the toothpicks.
- Slice the chicken breasts and serve with the baked vegetables.
Recipe Video
Recipe Notes
Nutrition
** Nutrition labels on easyanddelish.com are for educational purposes only. This info is provided as a courtesy and is only an estimate, since the nutrition content of recipes can vary based on ingredient brand or source, portion sizes, recipe changes/variations, and other factors. We suggest making your own calculations using your preferred calculator, based on which ingredients you use, or consulting with a registered dietitian to determine nutritional values more precisely.
Please note that health-focused and diet information provided on easyanddelish.com is for educational purposes and does not constitute medical advice, nor is it intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent disease. Consult with your doctor or other qualified health professional prior to initiating any significant change in your diet or exercise regimen, or for any other issue necessitating medical advice.
All images and the recipe video belong to Healthy Kitchen 101 and were used with permission.
John / Kitchen Riffs says
Such a great post -- lotta info in it. And the chicken looks terrific -- nice recipe. Thanks!
Luna Regina says
Thanks for having me, Denise!
Denise Browning says
The pleasure was mine Luna! The keto stuffed chicken breasts look delicious and quite easy to make.
Raymund says
Wow that thing looks absolutely delicious, Thanks for introducing Luna to us
Autumn Brooke says
This looks so freaking good. I think I have everything in the house to make this this week...