Jalapeno Popper Chicken

One thing I'm not willing to sacrifice while on my weight loss journey is good-tasting food. I'm not interested in having pureed cauliflower and telling myself it's mashed potatoes.  I'd rather have a smaller portion, but eat real potatoes.  Anyway, this recipe is one of those that you won't believe is low-cal.  It felt completely indulgent and delicious and for only 371 calories!  It's from skinnytaste.com so you can be pretty sure it will be delicious and this recipe did not disappoint.  The only change I made was to omit the breadcrumbs and grill rather than bake. I only did this because it was 85 degrees today with humitidy of 150% and I didn't want to heat the oven up to 450.  I'm sure the original method is good too, but man were they awesome on the grill! The original recipe uses 8 chicken cutlets, but I cut one thick chicken breast in half (width-wise) and pounded it thin to make two servings. My version is below, the original (breaded and baked) is HERE.

Cheesy Jalapeno Popper Baked Stuffed Chicken

Ingredients

- 2 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled

- 1 jalapeno, chopped (seeds removed)

- 3 oz 1/3 less fat cream cheese, softened

- 4 oz reduced fat shredded cheddar cheese, shredded

- 2 Tbsp chopped scallions

- 1 chicken breast, cut in half width-wise and pounded thin (or two chicken cutlets)

- 2 limes, juiced

- 1 Tbsp olive oil

- salt and pepper

Directions

*Check out the link above for how-to photos of the prep process if you're a visual learner!

1. Combine cream cheese, cheddar, scallions, jalapeño and bacon crumbles in a medium bowl.

2. Lay chicken cutlets on a working surface and spread 2 tbsp of cream cheese mixture on each cutlet. Loosely roll each one, secure the ends with toothpicks to prevent the cheese from oozing out. *I used 5-6 toothpicks in each one because I didn't want the filling to ooze out. It definitely worked so don't be afraid to cinch up those ends with extra picks!

3. Dip chicken in lime-oil mixture, sprinkle with salt and pepper,  then grill on medium heat for about 10 minutes per side.

When I cut mine in half, it literally looked like the photo above.  All of the filling stayed in place!  These were absolutely heavenly! The center was creamy and spicy and the outside of the chicken had just a hint of the lime juice.  If you don't want the spice you could swap out the jalapeno with green bell pepper and it would be just as good.

I did have extra filling because I made that part as directed, but only made 2 roll-ups.  I used the extra filling to fill a couple extra jalapenos that I had.  I wrapped them in foil and threw them on the grill too for a late-night snack.  My husband actually ate them all before I had a chance, but I can imagine they would be good too! 

I will absolutely keep this as a go-to recipe. Next time I'll try them in the oven with breadcrumbs and you could definitely play around with the filling.  I also made twice baked sweet potatoes and a salad for sides.  The whole meal was under 600 calories!