CHICKEN WITH SPINACH AND FETA CHEESE RECIPES

A delicious dinner of baked Spinach and Feta Stuffed Chicken Thighs. This Recipe needs only 20 minutes of prep and makes moist and juicy stuffed rolled chicken thighs. Also sharing one simple prep step to make flavorful and moist chicken thighs that also look delicious when rolled and baked.  Gluten free, Low-carb, Keto-diet friendly. 

This recipe is also a good base recipe to use any kind of stuffing - goat cheese, cream cheese or ricotta, use what you prefer. (read on to know more). 

Let's bake Stuffed Chicken Thighs today!

What Do You Need To Make Stuffed Chicken Thighs

This recipe needs healthy Mediterranean ingredients such as fresh green spinach, fresh herbs, feta cheese, olive oil and spices.

If you like to cook Mediterranean meal at home, most of the ingredients you will find in refrigerator and pantry. Here are the ingredients to make Stuffed Chicken Thighs:

1. Boneless Skinless Chicken thighs 
2. Fresh spinach
3. Feta Cheese
4. Olive oil
5. Garlic
6. Fresh Herbs
7. Scallions
8. Chili Flakes 
9. Salt and pepper

Stuffed Chicken Thighs can sometime be difficult to roll as chicken thighs are smaller than chicken breasts and are also uneven in thickness. Even thickness is important for two reasons:

1. To ensure neat stuffed and rolled chicken thighs.
2. Even cooking of chicken (all rollups ready at the same time).

To make stuffed chicken thighs, I always start by prepping the chicken so that it is easy to roll with stuffing and is well seasoned.

For even thickness, place thighs in two large sheets of parchment, season and then pound gently until all pieces are approx. same thickness. You can use meat pounder (flat side). If you don't have meat pounder, flat side of a heavy bottom skillet works perfectly. 

Tip: Seasoning chicken before pounding helps infuse seasoning into the meat. Try this and you will always bake perfectly seasoned cooked chicken!

Once thighs are pounded, there will be enough space for feta-spinach filling to hold in-place nicely i.e. thighs will be easy to roll with stuffing.

Spinach Feta Filling for Stuffed Thighs

Spinach and feta is a classic Mediterranean blend of flavors. There are only 6 ingredients needed to make delicious spinach and feta filling. Easy to find ingredients is one of the reason why I love to make spinach-feta stuffed thighs for weeknight dinner.

How to Prepare Spinach for Filling

Good news is you don't need to prepare/cook spinach for filling. Simply, small chop fresh spinach i.e. as if chopping herbs. Mix in feta, oil, garlic, herbs and seasonings. That's it. The moisture in spinach helps cook the meat from inside. The resulting stuffed chicken thighs come out moist and so juicy! You will fall in love how succulent these are.

Time Saving Tip: If time pressed, use a food processor to make filling. Add rough chopped fresh spinach and all ingredients for filling into the food processor. Pulse until everything is coarse chopped.

You can also replace feta cheese with equal amount of cream cheese or goat Cheese (at room temperature). If using ricotta cheese, make sure water is drained before mixing into the spinach. 

Stuffing Chicken Thighs (Stuff and Roll)

I recommend filling/stuffing all chicken thighs at once. This is the best way to avoid touching chicken and washing hands multiple times. 

To stuff chicken thighs, place all chicken thighs on a large baking sheet. Next, place 2 tablespoons of spinach and feta filling in the center of each thigh. Once all pieces are topped with feta filling, roll thigh starting from longer end and secure with a cocktail stick.

Bake seam-side down in the preheat oven until chicken is cooked through.

The stuffed chicken thigh's cooking time varies between 25 to 28 minutes at 400 degrees Fahrenheit. For this recipe, I used boneless and skinless chicken thighs.

Note: Cooking time and method to make bone-in stuffed thighs will be different. (that will be another recipe)

Notice the delicious juices of baked chicken collected in the roasting pan. There is ton of flavor in the juice. Don't let it go waste. Before serving, I spoon over juices over the sliced baked chicken thighs. (yum!)

Variations and Substitutes

1. Try same cooking method with different filling/stuffing such as bread, cranberries, feta, and walnuts.
2. Can also use chicken breasts instead of thighs. I recommend to pound to approximate even thickness for even cooking.
3. Skip pine nuts for a Nuts-free chicken roast.
4. For cheesy stuffed thighs, add 2 ounce of shredded part-skim mozzarella in the filling.
5. Replace feta cheese with equal amount of cream cheese or goat Cheese (at room temperature). If using ricotta cheese, make sure to draine well before mixing into the spinach. 

Tips for Success

1. I only use and recommend fresh spinach, fine chopped, for this recipe. If using frozen, thaw and then squeeze to drain as much water as possible.
2. For even cooking, pound chicken thighs until these are almost even in thickness. Season thighs before pounding to infuse good flavor in the meat.
3. For seasoning, in this recipe I used salt and pepper. I also sometimes add paprika and dry roasted ground cumin.