Cream Cheese Is The Key To No-Hassle Weeknight Stuffed Chicken Breasts

If you're of the opinion that everything tastes better when a 'lil cream cheese is added to it, you'll want to add chicken breasts stuffed with your beloved soft cheese to your culinary bucket list. On its own, this combo is bound to taste good due to the natural sweet tanginess that cream cheese brings to recipes.

However, when you doctor this popular spreadable cheese up with ingredients like ranch dressing mix, taco seasoning, or other ingredients like sun-dried tomatoes, sautéed spinach, basil, rosemary, thyme, and garlic, you've got a next-level dish that's as easy on the choppers as it is on your taste buds. By the way, it's also rather tasty to combine other kinds of cheese with this herby cream cheese mix, like shredded cheddar, Brie, or pepper jack, so get creative and cheese it up good. Additionally, it's a good way to use up any leftover cream cheese you have, making it a budget-friendly way to add some gourmet flavor to your chicken recipe.

Finally, once you decide on your seasonings of choice, you'll work them into your room temperature cream cheese with the end of a fork. Mash and mix them thoroughly so that all the herbs and spices are spread evenly throughout the cream cheese mixture in a similar fashion as you would if you were mixing up a compound butter recipe.

Stuffing the chicken breasts with the cream cheese mixture of your choice starts with you slicing a pocket into the side of the meat. You won't cut the meat from end to end. Rather, you'll start at about the mid-point of the side breast. If you're not sure how to find the right spot, lay the breast on the counter and run the tip of a knife down its side, leaving a few inches of the meat intact at the top and bottom of the slit.

Despite the fact that you're initially cutting the chicken with the tip of a knife, you want the cut to go deep so that the pocket can accommodate enough cream cheese mixture to flavor it well. Some of the cream cheese mixture is likely to ooze out the side of the chicken as it bakes, so make the pocket deep enough that it can snuggle deep inside the chicken's interior.

Once you have the pocket cut into the side of the chicken breast, stuff your softened cream cheese mixture into the pocket with the end of a teaspoon or a fork. To keep the meat together while it cooks, "seal" the edges with a few toothpicks that you poke into the edge of the pocket. These act like sutures, pulling the meat together while it bakes.

Cream cheese is a cultured dairy. It's slightly acidic due to the lactic acid bacteria that manufacturers (and home chefs) use to make it. That acidic flavor makes anything it's paired with — chicken breasts, in this case — taste brighter and fresher. It's accurate to say that the addition of something acidic makes the individual flavors of each ingredient even more pronounced. 

There are other ways to add a bit of acidity to your dishes, of course. Many home gourmands use ingredients like vinegar or lemon juice to add a bit of a nip to their chicken dishes. You'll get a similar acidity from the bite of the cream cheese, but you'll also get the creamy richness that your favorite cream cheese brings to food. 

However, if you'd like your cream cheese to have an even more acidic flavor, try mixing a bit of lemon juice in with the other herbs. You strengthen the acidity without forcing yourself to sacrifice the creaminess you get from the cream cheese. Regardless of which you choose, it's a concoction that guarantees you a budget-friendly way to trick your taste buds into believing they're eating something richer and more expensive, all thanks to a little package of cream cheese and the pinches of seasonings you add to it.