Do you ever feel that your family dinners are on re-run, after re-run? Well, mine definitely was this week, so I stepped outside the box and found a recipe (at Emily Bites) that sounded unique, delicious, and took under an hour to create. As many of you know, I have two girls who make my life worth living for, so I don’t have the time or the patience to read through a crazy recipe with a zillion ingredients. So, without further ado…here is my concoction that I created for dinner this evening, called Mini Chicken Parmesan Muffin Bites.
Think meatloaf + chicken parmesan = a simple meal your whole family will love!
Ingredients
3 chicken boneless, skinless chicken breast, cooked and then ground up in food processor (or you can use 1 ½ lbs raw ground chicken breast)
1 large egg
1 pkg of Stuffing (I used the off brand, or you can use 6 T dried breadcrumbs + ¾ tsp dried basil, thyme & oregano) – if you just use the Stuffing, you get quite a bit of spices from it.
Pinch of Salt/Pepper
¾ cup Parmesan cheese
¾ cup Your Favorite Pasta sauce
¾ cup 2% reduced fat shredded Mozzarella cheese
Optional: Garlic Cloves (2, minced), Small Onion (½ chopped/grated), and to garnish, you can use Dried Parsley/Basil.
1 medium-sized bowl
1-2 muffin pans (regular or mini) with Cooking Spray
food processor (to ground your chicken)
1 large pot + boiling water (to cook your chicken)
Directions
- Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
- Prep your muffin pan (choose mini or regular) by lightly misting it with cooking spray.
- Cook your chicken with Boiling Water, for about 15 minutes. {Please note: You can skip this step, if you have Ground Chicken Breast already}
- Once your chicken is fully cooked, place in food processor and ground it up. This was my daughter’s favorite step! Here is what it should look like:
- Combine ground chicken, egg, stuffing (or if you go with breadcrumbs ~ and add basil, thyme, oregano), salt, pepper and Parmesan cheese and lightly mix together. Do not over handle. I just used my hands, but you could use a spoon too. You can also add Garlic and/or Onions here too.
- Put meat mixture into individual muffin areas. Its really up to you how much you fill it – it put mine about ¾.
- Once finished, add your sauce and bake for 15 minutes.
- Add shredded cheese, and place back in oven until cheese is melted
- Garnish if desired and enjoy!
I would recommend serving with the pasta of your choice, a side salad and some garlic bread. You could even enjoy these by themselves too, as they would be yummy appetizer treats for a party. My recipe above made about 20 muffins (and would probably make 40 mini-muffins), so plan on having leftovers!
Let me know if you try out my recipe, and share how it turned out. Some of mine got a little extra crispy, but they were still pretty good!
Post published by Melissa Roach, our Product Review & Giveaway Specialist.
Melissa is a Full Time Mom & Blogger HERE (please check out her blog!)
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