MMM... balsamic chicken stuffed with goodies

So from the dinner party I had leftover ingredients, which I cannot stand. Mostly because I hate throwing any food away since I am so freaking cheap. So usually when this happens I figure out what is going to go bad first and quickly come up with something to put it in.

This time it was fresh basil. I love, love, love fresh basil, but one of the major downsides of fresh basil is it doesn't have any kind of shelf life. Most of the chefs I have worked under usually wait and buy fresh basil the day they need it or the day before because it really doesn't hold up.

So obviously, basil was priority #1. Upon further inspection I found some ricotta, Romano cheese, a Roma tomato, garlic, and half of a yellow bell pepper that was not looking so great either. My mind immediately thought that I could do some kind of pasta; however, I didn't have any kind of marinara and wanted to avoid doing a cream sauce. So instead I decided to do a stuffed chicken breast.

I cut a slit into two chicken breasts and put them in one of my all time favorite marinades of balsamic, olive oil, s/p and a couple split garlic cloves. They sat in the fridge overnight.

Then I roasted the garlic in a 350 oven. If you haven't ever roasted garlic before it is easy- just cut off the very top, remove some of the excess skin, wrap it in foil with olive oil and salt and throw in the oven for 45 minutes. I also roasted the half yellow bell pepper and peeled off the skin.

Then I combine all the ingredients for the stuffing:
about 1/4 c. ricotta
2 tbsp Romano cheese
half chopped Roma tomato without the seeds
4 roasted garlic cloves chopped/smashed
1/2 diced roasted yellow pepper
a dab of water
s/p
a few chopped basil leaves

The breasts were stuffed, then went into the oven until it reached the proper temp and voila! It was yummy! The marinade really brought out the roasted garlic, and the sweet bell pepper and sweet basil complimented each other nicely.

Definitely a keeper.