One of those meals was a basic breaded chicken breast, but different in the fact it used a package of store bought stuffing as the breading. Since for whatever reason (?) I actually had a box of this in the pantry I decided to give it a try.
Yesterday was yet another crazy scheduled day around here (aren't they all?) so at 3:00, just as I had to run out the door to run errands I grabbed 5 of them from the freezer shelf along with a container of country style mashed potatoes I had froze a couple weeks ago - popped them into the oven to bake for two hours and left on my way. I knew my oldest daughter was going to be home within about 15 minutes but this way dinner would be in the oven, no work on anyone's part and we would magically have a full dinner of baked chicken breasts and mashed potatoes for dinner when we walked through the door!
In the end - they were good. There are a couple tweaks I'll make next time - I'll add them at the bottom of the 'recipe'.
Oven Baked Crispy Chicken Breasts
Boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 box stuffing mix with seasoning
mayonnaise
salt and pepper
Crush or process the bread stuffing and seasoning mix until you have large, uniform crumbs. Spread each chicken breast with mayonnaise (about a tablespoon) and press each breast into the crumb mixture, both sides, pressing to coat. Lay in a greased/oiled pan to bake immediately or wrap in foil to freeze.
Bake at 375 until crispy and done in the center. This is about 35-45 minutes if thawed and 1 1/2 hours if frozen.
*Tweaked; two of my kids requested that I 'stuff' these before breading next time as our family is very fond of stuffed breasts with cream cheese, ham, spinach, cheeses, etc. One of them requested a sauce to use with it and I suggested cream cheese and bacon bits, microwaved to melt. She tried it and loved it - and this is the 'stuffing' we'll be using next time I make these. The second tweak is the stuffing needs salt and pepper! It might just be our brand (a store band version) but it had little or no salt so the spices and herbs were lost until I added salt to make them pop and bring them out. Delicious!
The chicken with mayonnaise spread over, pressed in stuffing crumbs
Individually wrap for freezer meals at a future date;
