Cheesy Chicken Rollatini Recipe

The other day while doing my grocery shopping I came across some pounded thin chicken breasts on sale and thought to myself it would be fun to try to make a rollatini dish with them. I have never in my life cooked this so I was excited for the challenge. I don't even know what came over me, I guess I am just tired of making the same things week after week. I picked up some ricotta cheese, also on sale, and began contemplating what else to roll up in with it. I asked around for some ideas and eventually came up with a game plan. This has got a lot of cheese and probably a lot of calories but it came out so tasty that it is worth it!

Okay I probably should have taken the toothpicks out before I took the photo but oh well. In my ingredients you will notice that I used organic jarred pasta sauce. Sadly, I do not cook my own sauce so the Nature's Promise Traditional Pasta Sauce is my go to sauce for now. Some day I would love to cook my own sauce, but for now this will do.  Of course if you make your own then absolutely use that instead!

Ingredients
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, pounded thin
3 TBSP ricotta cheese
1 TBSP pecorino romano cheese (or paremesan)
A couple of handfuls of mozzarella cheese (one for inside and one for on top)
1/2 TSP to 1 TSP fresh crushed garlic (depending on how much garlic you like)
Tomato sauce
Salt & pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Combine the three cheeses (ricotta, pecorino romano & mozzarella) together so the mixture is nice and even. Then add in the garlic and mix again. Set aside.

Spoon the cheese and garlic mixture onto each piece of chicken and spread evenly till just short of the edge of the chicken. Sprinkle on some additional mozzarella and some salt and pepper to taste. I really wanted to add some cooked spinach as well but since my husband hates anything green, I decided to cook it on the side instead. If you like spinach I suggest adding it in because I bet it would be fabulous!

Gently roll the chicken as tightly as possible without letting the cheese ooze out the sides. Secure in place with toothpicks or cooking string. I soaked my toothpicks in water while I prepped everything to prevent them from burning in the oven. I also suggest not using colored toothpicks as the dye will bleed into your chicken. (Oops, they were all I had!)

 

Place a thin layer of sauce at the bottom of a baking dish. Then place your chicken in the dish and top with a little more sauce.

Cover with foil and bake in oven for 20 minutes. Remove foil and continue baking for another 40 minutes. When there is about 10 minutes left, sprinkle a generous amount of mozzarella on top and finish cooking.

Some of the filling will melt out as it is cooking so make sure you scoop that into the plate when you are serving, thats good stuff that you don't want to waste! I served my chicken rollatini with sauteed spinach and pasta a olio.