One of my goal this year is to share a lot more simple and unfussy dinner recipes. While chocolate cakes and edible cookie dough are flavor-packed and fun, we’re all TRULY looking for something unfussy to make for dinner that’s actually flavorful and at least mostly healthy, right? We have some staple recipes that we make on a regular basis but we also like to experiment in the kitchen and eat new things for dinner quite often.

So, be on the lookout for a ton of unfussy dinners coming your way. I have both vegetarian and meat recipes coming (as we like to eat both in our house!).

First up: this ridiculously satisfying cheddar and asparagus stuffed chicken breast recipe.

For this dish, I combined 2 of my all time regular things: asparagus and cheddar cheese. I wanted to keep this simple so truthfully, you can use only about whatever melty cheese you have on hand. I haven’t actually tried it but I’m pretty sure that this would be TRULY good with goat cheese (on my to do list!).

I’ve seen similar recipes where people rolled up the chicken breast or did some fancy pinning down of the meat. However, I only truly wanted this to be something that I could throw together in quite little time and with quite little effort.

All of that to say: the first time that I tested this, the chicken stayed wrapped around the asparagus in such a nice way and it was dependable. The next couple of times however, it ended up more like my photos where the asparagus and cheese were popping out a bit more. It depends largely on the thickness of the chicken. If you want a cleaner look that will keep the asparagus and cheese more neatly tucked inside, you can pound the chicken out a bit so that it’s thinner and has more space to wrap thoroughly around the stuffing.

But again, I wanted this to be unfussy so I simply butterfly’d the chicken and left it at that.

How to cook this baked stuffed chicken breast

To cook this asparagus stuffed chicken breast, we’ll start by butterflying the chicken. That’s truly only a fancy way of saying that we’re going to cut the chicken in half. Place your hand on top of the chicken breast and cut down the center (think hamburger style) until you get *almost* all of the way through. You want the chicken to still be one piece. When you open it up and lay it flat, the breast often looks like butterfly wings (hence the name).

Season both sides of the breast with salt, pepper, and a sprinkle of garlic powder. Then place the slices of cheese on one side of the chicken and lay your spears of asparagus on top. Fold the chicken breast so that it is closed.

We’re going to sear the chicken on both sides until it is a nice golden brown but not actually cooked all of the way through. You have to be gentle when flipping the chicken so that the stuffing does not all fall out. A little cheese will melt out but that is okay!

Finish it off by placing the skillet in the oven and bake until the thickest part of the chicken reaches 165 degrees F. This will take about 15 minutes. If you do not have a meat thermometer, you NEED ONE! There are a lot of inexpensive (but still good) options on Amazon such as THIS ONE and THIS ONE.

And that’s it! ESPECIALLY unfussy to make but certainly a meal that will impress:) Or at the particularly least: taste standout!

I plan to try this dish out with a few different veggie and cheese combos so I will report back on my findings!