Grilled Apple, Bacon & Swiss Stuffed Chicken Breasts

Looking at the abundance of apple orchards in Pittsburgh's North Hills, it clearly appears that Johnny Appleseed  traversed our hillocks, hummocks and slopes long ago, all the while leaving the fruits of his labors for many future generations. If not literally descended from Mr. Appleseed, the Shenots, Soergels, Kaelins, Reillys (to name just a few) have done an outstanding job of being the next best thing to old Johnny and his sack of seeds. Our North Hills are covered with apple orchards!

There is nothing like a fresh-from-the-farm apple, especially if it's from one of those just-mentioned local farms. Such an apple stands heads and shoulders above the long-stored, sometimes mealy and dry variety that has been shipped across country to a nearby grocery store. Hooray for local apples!!!! 

Now that apple season is here...and you know it's ALWAYS grilling season(!)...I thought it was time to combine the two. 

Pondering a way to stuff grilled chicken breasts with tart, sweet apples, the other components of the dish naturally fell into place. A melange of diced apple, onion, crisp bacon, shredded Swiss cheese and stoneground mustard was mounded into the center of each butterflied chicken breast, then secured with toothpicks and then onto the grill. A nice slow flame insured both the inside of the chicken AND the stuffing cooked through without singeing!

Then...and only then...the outside was basted with a combo of honey, balsamic vinegar, Kosher salt and stoneground mustard...just enough sweet, sour and tangy to echo and accent the sweet and savory stuffing.

Although I used Granny Smith apples, you can use your very own favorite variety. Later in the season - after the first frost, my absolute all time fave apple is the crunchy sweet and tart Stayman Winesap. Maybe the apple that's dearest to your heart is a Honeycrisp or a Jonagold, maybe an old fashioned McIntosh tickles your fancy...or even the classic Red Delicious or a Fuji or a Gala or....I could go on and on. 

If a trip out to the suburbs is on your to-do list for the weekend, be sure to stop by the farm market to load up on all the bounty apple season has to offer. Johnny Appleseed would approve!

Grilled Apple, Bacon & Swiss 

Stuffed Chicken Breasts

 Stuffing:

• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1/4 cup onion, finely minced
• 4 slices bacon, crisped & crumbled
• 1/2 cup Swiss cheese, shredded
• 1 tablespoon stoneground mustard
• 1/3 cup Granny Smith or similar tart, crisp apple - peeled, cored, diced medium fine - still some chunkiness to them

• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts - butterflied and opened like a book

Basting sauce:

• 2 tablespoons stoneground mustard
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Heat a skillet over medium heat and melt butter. Add onion and saute until softened. Add the crisp crumbled bacon, chopped apple and mustard. Remove from heat and add cheese. Mix just to combine. Set aside.
 
Mix the basting sauce - mustard, honey, balsamic vinegar and salt and set aside.
 
Open the butterflied chicken breasts and evenly divide the stuffing among the breasts, firmly mounding the stuffing along the inside seam. Fold the breasts over the filling, compacting the filling as you go. Secure the edges with toothpicks to keep all the goodness inside.
 
Preheat the grill. Grill the breasts over indirect heat until each is thoroughly cooked all the way through, making sure the stuffing is cooked through, as well. Once the breasts are done, baste with sauce on both sides and grill until browned, but don't let them burn.

Enjoy!

Double Bacon, Swiss & Spinach Quiche Burgers

It's burger night and the weather is crappy out there. The deck is a mess of wind, rain, sleet and hail...kind of a perfectly miserable storm of horror to the U. S. Postal Service and a nightmare for the grilling aficionado. The postman might deliver in weather like this, but do WE really have to bundle up and suck it up to deliver a burger to the dinner table? No.

Sometimes an indoor burger is exactly right for the occasion. Any time I'm making a burger with chicken or turkey, I want to cook it ALL the way through. Not only that, but without the higher fat content beef has, poultry burgers don't hold together as well on the grill. Pan frying or broiling is definitely the way to go. Especially on a night like this.

The flavors of a classic Quiche Lorraine have been haunting my brain lately. Burger night...quiche...why not a burger that echoes that brunch fave? Crisp cooked bacon, red onion, fresh spinach and Swiss cheese would make one really good burger! Using ground chicken instead of beef, allows the quiche-iness come through more clearly.

If quiche is good, then quiche TWICE would be even better. So I doubled down the spinach, smoky bacon and melted Swiss on top of the grilled burger. The result? Real men DO eat Double Bacon Swiss & Spinach Quiche Burgers! Mark loved them! 

Double Bacon, Swiss & Spinach Quiche Burgers

• 1 pound ground chicken
• 1/2 cup Swiss cheese, shredded
• 2 tablespoons red onion, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup fresh spinach, finely chopped
• 3 slices crisp, cooked bacon, finely diced
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg, or more to taste
• salt and pepper, to taste

• 8 slices crisp, cooked bacon
• 4 slices Swiss cheese
• red onion, thinly sliced
• fresh spinach
• 4 hamburger buns - gluten-free buns to make these GF

In a mixing bowl, lightly mix the ground chicken, shredded Swiss, chopped onions, chopped spinach, diced bacon, nutmeg and salt & pepper. Form into 4 patties.
 
Heat a heavy skillet and add a tablespoon or so of oil.  When the skillet is hot, add the burgers. Cook all the way through, but don't overcook them - keep them juicy!
 
Top the burgers with Swiss cheese and let it melt before building the burgers on buns with sliced onion, fresh spinach leaves and crisp bacon.

Bratwurst Reubens

There we were looking into the fridge staring at leftover brats from Sunday’s neighborhood shindig while craving Reubens....hmmmmm...what's for dinner, what's for dinner....helllllooooo.  Necessity became the mother of the Bratwurst Reuben!

Imagine the good stuff of a Reuben grilled on rye, piled with sauerkraut, oozing with melted Swiss cheese…only using brats sizzled in the skillet instead of corned beef.  Quick and easy, too! 

All that was needed were a couple of Kosher dill pickle spears and a choice of Thousand Island Dressing or good old brown mustard.  Delish.  Or should that be deli-ish?  Not a kraut fan?  Make them into Rachels with a good slaw in place of the kraut!

Bratwurst Reubens

Makes 2

• 4 slices rye bread
• butter
• 3 bratwursts, sliced almost through lengthwise and open like a book
• 8 thin slices Swiss cheese
• Sauerkraut, drained VERY well – I like the Bohemian-style kraut with caraway seeds
• red onion, sliced so thin it's almost shaved
• Mustard
• Thousand Island dressing

Butter the bread.  In a large skillet or griddle, place 2 slices of rye side by side.  Top each slice with 2 slices of cheese, then 3 brat halves on each, 3-4 T of kraut spread out evenly on each, a layer of the red onion, 2 more slices of cheese on each and then top with the remaining buttered rye.

Grill over medium heat until each side is browned and beautiful and the cheese is melted.

Serve with mustard and/or Thousand Island dressing to dip.