Chicken breasts stuffed with cheese

Hello everyone, in the office where I work I sit with four men who all love food and really appreciate any cooking I bring in. I made some chocolate brownies for one of them this week for his birthday and just glowed when they all exclaimed about my cooking! It is so nice to have an appreciative audience; it makes me want to bring in something freshly baked every day. Of course I would have to be up at 4.00 am to fit in all this baking, so it's not really something I'm going to do. Still, it does make me feel good!

This week's recipe is something I made during the week for dinner and it was scrumptious! It is from a beautiful book that I have cited before called "Heart Of The Home". The book is really American and I was puzzled about the instruction to use "jack cheese" - I asked a few of my American friends what this was and none of them could tell me, so I just used a cheese that melts well and it was fine. I'm usually not big on big pieces of chicken type dishes, but the blend of flavours in this one was so yummy that I loved it.

Have a wonderful week - hopefully for us in Sydney there will be a return to blue skies during the week! Love from Jane xx

Chicken breasts stuffed with cheese

Serves six

What you need:

• 3 double chicken breasts, halved
• 500g of a cheese that you like that will melt
• 4 eggs
• 3 tablespoons finely chopped flat leaf parsley
• 3 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• Salt and pepper
• 1/2 cup plain flour
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• Juice of half a lemon

What you do:

1. Preheat the oven to 190.
2. Carefully cut a slit in the side of each single chicken breast with a sharp knife.
3. Fill with as many slices of cheese as you can fit. Fasten tightly with toothpicks to stop the cheese oozing out while cooking.
4. Mix together the eggs, Parmesan cheese and parsley.
5. Dip the chicken pieces in the flour, coating well, then the egg mix.
6. Heat the oil in a large pan over a moderately high heat.
7. Add the chicken pieces to the pan (you might have to do a few at a time - don't overcrowd the pan) and pour the rest of the egg mix over the chicken pieces. Fry very lightly to just brown the coating.
8. Place the chicken pieces in an oiled baking dish and if you have any cheese left, layer it on top of the chicken.
9. Bake for 25 minutes or until cooked through.
10. Remove the toothpicks, squeeze over the lemon juice, sprinkle on a little more chopped parsley and serve.