Chicken Roulade Shannon

Sunday night was the last day of summer vacation for our boys.  We had to get Ben's boys back to their Mothers so they could get everything ready for the first day and I sort of forgot that I would also need to feed them dinner before I sent them back to their Mothers house.  I realized this about an hour and a half before we were supposed to drop them off.  Oops!  After racking my brain trying to figure out what I could make that would taste good enough to get all three of the boys with their VERY different tastes to eat while still having time to actually cook dinner I was reminded of this delicious, quick, easy dish.  It looks and tastes like it might take a lot of time and effort, but in all honestly only takes about 45 minutes from start to finish. Normally, I wouldn't serve this on Sunday because as Ben has said, "For a Tuesday night, this little dish will rock your family's face off, but only on Tuesdays." However, desperate times and whatnot.  

I actually saw something similar to this on Pinterest about two years ago, but it had asparagus in it and I'm not a fan.  So I tweaked it by using chicken flavored Stove Top Stuffing instead of the cheese and vegetable filling of the original recipe, plus added the rolling in Panko bread crumbs with Montreal Seasoning.  Of course, you could make homemade stuffing instead of using the box of stuffing mix if you were feeling particularly ambitious and had the time, but since this is my go-to quick dinner I opted to stick with the five minute box of stuffing.  

This dinner was one of the few times where all three boys were almost completely silent, so I am calling this a win. 

Chicken Roulade

Ingredients:
1 lb. Skinless, Boneless Chicken Breast (I use thin sliced cutlets to save some prep time)

1 Box Stove Top Stuffing (Prep. per instructions)

1/2 Stick of Butter - melted

1 1/2 Cups Panko Bread Crumbs

1 Tsp. Montreal Seasoning (or equivalent spices)

Cooking Instructions:
Butter:

Melt butter in sauce pan or microwavable dish. Just make sure you will be able to roll the chicken rolls once the are put together.

Bread Crumbs:

Combine Bread crumbs with Montreal Seasoning in a dish large enough to roll your chicken rolls in.

Chicken Rolls:
Preheat oven to 350°. Pound chicken pieces to 1/4". We placed it gently between two sheets of parchment paper and delivered a proper thrashing using a nearby rolling pin. Use your favorite crude implement and wail on that junk! Next spread a thin coat of tightly packed stuffing over your newly svelte chicken bits. about a 1/4" thick should do. Roll chicken into a nice tight little package. Gently dredge your chicken roll in the melted butter then immediately roll in the bread crumbs. Bake in oven for 25-30 minutes (Less if you beat the snot out of it)

Gravy:

1 1/2 Cups of Beef Bullion

2 Tbsp Butter

1 1/2 Tbsp All Purpose Flour

Bring butter to simmer and add flour. Let this get to the color you'd like. (Longer = Darker). Slowly add in the bullion in 1/3's, stirring constantly. Let simmer until you achieve the consistency that you like. We prefer medium-thin. Thin enough to pour, thick enough to flick at your brother with a spoon. Some members of our family are anti-gravy, so we normally serve theirs on the side, however I prefer mine spooned over the top of the chicken.  

Time to Get Started

This post signifies that I have, in fact, reached the point in my life where I am ready to commit...... to blogging. While I've tried to commit to this before, I believe life has given me a dearth of material with which to do something amazing. With all of my creativity and the absolute carnival that is my life, I think writing them down and sharing them with complete strangers makes the most sense. We'll see if I still have the same resolve, say , in 3 weeks, but for now, I have a great deal of enthusiasm for this. La Vie de Shannon, mon ami!