Light Pimento Cheese Stuffed Chicken

Preheat oven to 375 F.

For the pimento cheese:

In a medium bowl, combine cheddar cheese, onion, pimento, mayonnaise, lemon juice, Tabasco, 1/2 teaspoon salt and crumbled bacon. Mix well until the cheese is chopped into small pieces and the mixture is “spreadable”. A food processor would probably work too if you enjoy cleaning those bad boys! Refrigerate until ready.

Take your chicken breasts and place between 2 pieces of wax paper, about 1-2 inches apart. Using a meat mallet (or rolling pin or wine bottle) pound the chicken breasts until they are about 1/4 – 1/8 of an inch thick.

Season both sides of chicken with a little salt, pepper and paprika. Now scoop about 1 1/2 – 2 tablespoons of your pimento cheese in the middle of each breast, leaving some space on the sides.

Fold the tips of the chicken to the center and secure with a toothpick. Now fold up the sides, creating a sealed pocket with the chicken. I use about 4 toothpicks per breast … sometimes 6 for the really stubborn ones.

Transfer chicken to a lightly greased baking dish, and bake for 20 minutes until cooked through and lightly browned. It’s okay for some cheese to spill out.

*Note I usually only make 2 chicken breasts with the full pimento cheese recipe and have found that the extra cheese is great on top of baked fries or in potato skins!