Cheddar Stuffed Chicken

A festive take on turkey with all the wonderful flavours of the holidays.  The recipe called for turkey breast which I wasn’t able to find so I used individual chicken breasts.

1 tbsp butter
1 onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
800 g boneless skinless Chicken breast
Salt and freshly ground pepper
250 ground chicken
120 g Old Cheddar, cut into cubes
1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen cranberries, divided
30 ml vodka
1 1/2 cups cranberry juice
1 tsp orange zest
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
2 tbsp maple syrup

• In a saucepan on medium heat, melt butter and cook onion and garlic for 5 min. Remove from heat and place half the mixture in a large bowl for stuffing; let cool.
• Meanwhile, cut chicken breast horizontally without cutting all the way through, and open like a book and season with salt and pepper.
• Preheat oven to 375F.
• Add ground chicken, cheese and 1/2 cup cranberries to the bowl of onion and garlic.  Season generously with salt and pepper, and stir well.
• Place stuffing on bottom half of the breast.  Roll up from bottom to the top to seal in the stuffing and secure with toothpicks.  Transfer to a baking dish and cook for 1 hour 15 min.
• Return the saucepan with remaining onion and garlic to the stove over medium high heat and deglaze with vodka.
• Add remaining cranberries, juice, orange zest, red pepper flakes and maple syrup.  Cover and simmer on medium heat for 10 min or until cranberries are tender.  Puree using an upright blender.  Season with salt and pepper to taste; keep warm.
• Slice stuffed chicken breast and serve with the sauce.