Ok, friends. Without further ado, as promised, here is the little miracle of a recipe from last weekend. I skewered these stuffed chicken bundles for easily handled picnic food at the Hollywood Bowl. With a little planning, this recipe also makes a fantastic road trip meal.  You can resist burning road time and ingesting processed food at a roadside burger joint on the day when seated in car for hours and not apt to burn a lot of calories. Come on, be a good co-pilot and feed that man!  Yes, with your fingers! Here ya go:

1 lb boneless chicken thighs

10 grape-sized tomatoes

3 oz feta cheese

1 small onion

2 small or 1 large basil leaves for each filet

1 cup shelled pistachios

1 ½ T cumin

1 t poppy seeds

2 T. olive oil

¼ cup salt

coarse ground pepper to taste

Heat a skillet or a griddle, add 1T olive oil and the onion which as been cut into ½” pieces. Salt the onions generously to encourage caramelizing. Stir occasionally until well browned. Remove from heat and reserve.

Boneless chicken pieces should to be no thicker than 1/2”. Filet or pound them to ½” if necessary. Place the chicken filet on a work surface, dry the top side and sprinkle with coarsely ground pepper. If you brined the chicken do not add more salt here. If you haven’t, sprinkle with salt to taste. Place a long spear of feta cheese crosswise at the narrow end of the filet. Add a few grape tomatoes and some of the reserved onions. Hold the stuffing inside as you roll into a tight bundle and secure with a piece of kitchen twine.

Grind into flour ½ cup pistachios. Combine with cumin, poppy seeds and black pepper in a shallow bowl. Roll the chicken bundles in the mixture to evenly coat on all sides.

Reheat the same skillet or griddle on low without washing it. Add the remaining 1 T olive oil. Place the bundles on the heated surface and cover loosely with a piece of foil to insulate some of the heat. Slow cook the chicken bundles on the first side until well browned. Resist the temptation to move them before they are very brown on one side, so they retain their rolled shape. Carefully stuff any cheese back in that oozes out the side. Turn the bundles over and brown the second side. If the bundles are very large, brown all sides to insure chicken is cooked through. Remove from the heat and carefully cut and remove the twine before serving.

See blog post: To Brine or Not To Brine; That Is the Question. Coming Soon!