A DIFFERENT KIND OF STUFFING

Here's a simple way to take an ordinary chicken breast to new heights. Stuffing it with sun dried tomato paste, spinach, dill and goats cheese gives it a Mediterranean flavor. But the filling isn't as important here as the technique. You can stuff your chicken breasts with whatever you like - keeping it there throughout the cooking process is the important thing.

I have tied this chicken breast to ensure the filling does not ooze out during handling and cooking, but there are other methods that can be used to get a stuffed breast from cutting board to pan and finally to the table still intact. Here are a couple:

• Fill the breast and cover the filling with the tender. Wrap it in plastic wrap. Set in the freezer for 20 minutes before unwrapping and cooking. The freezer will firm up the breast and hold it together.
• Fill the breast and cover the filling with the tender. Pull the flaps of the breast together over the tender and skewer together.

What you fill a chicken breast with will determine which direction to take in securing it. The wetter the filling. the more secure it should be.

Give it a try.