Chicken Stuffed with Spinach, Feta, & Pine Nuts Recipe (2024)

Easy to throw together. Don't overcook spinach, brown pine nuts really well and use goat cheese for more flavor. Used chicken stock to also cook couscous. Pairs well with a Spanish Albarino wine.

I definitely would make this for guests but for now the family loved it. Its easy, elegant and nutritious. I didn't have chicken broth so I just deglazed with a nice pinot grigio and popped it into the oven for an additional 10 mins over the 15 mins in the recipe. I like chicken to be done and since it was steaming in liquid I wasn't concerned it would dry out. Excellent! Also for the spices I just used herbs de Provence which just seems easier.

We thought this was good, not great. I felt the chicken needed more than just salt and pepper - maybe a sprinkling of thyme there too? Also, next time instead of oven roasting, I'm going to try to grill them on our Traeger, maybe that will add to the flavor.

Great recipe! Lends itself to many variations: substitute spinach with kale or broccoli rabe, or substitute basil for the spinach, variety of cheeses, nuts, seasonings (herbs, spices, & aromatics), onion, garlic, sun-dried tomatoes, capers, artichokes, roasted peppers, etc. I sauté my greens with a little onion & garlic, s & p. Then I continue with step 3. Use some lemon zest along with the juice. Crushed red pepper flakes add zing. Be sure to toast the pine nuts first. For the poster - Btw, pine nuts (plant) have no bad cholesterol, only good. It actually decreases bad cholesterol. They are high in kcal. The cholesterol listed is from the cheese and chicken (animal products).

My husband loved it and said it was a keeper!!

I didn't have any thyme or pine nuts so I subbed in some fresh mint leaf. It was delicious. The technique is spot on - cooking it in a covered pan with broth ensures the chicken doesn't dry out in the oven. I'll definitely be making this again!

Omit the pine nuts... they added nothing to the recipe and tasted odd. We opted to use pecans next time - that helped.But this is not the best recipe.

After reading the reviews I decided to add extra feta cheese, thyme and garlic to the recipe. I also made extra spinach to use as a side dish. I thought the flavors were good and my family liked the chicken. I served it with rice.

This dish is delicious. I had some of the spinach mixture left over and put it in scrambled eggs which was delicious too.

I made this a few days ago & my wife & I absolutely loved it. It has great flavor. I cooked the chicken in a seasoned iron skillet so I could put it in the oven with a glass lid that I have. I only fixed 2 chicken breast but used all of the spinach & other ingredients. I will definitely be cooking this again! I served it with brown rice. (Use a chicken boullion cube in the rice when cooking for more flavor.)

No, no, no. This was awful. Like other reviewers, I found it completely bland--which is amazing, given the delicious, flavorful ingredients. I followed the recipe to the letter, which was the problem--I should have browned the chicken longer, and finished it off on the stovetop with MUCH less broth. It took twice as long to cook the chicken in the oven than the recipe states, and I think that sitting in so much broth at such a low temp leached all of the flavor from both the chicken and the filling. It was wet and tasteless. Just. Awful.

Excellent taste. Good for week nights.

This was yummy. Good for an easy weeknight meal. I used a little extra garlic, lowfat feta, and lime juice instead of lemon simply because that's what I had on hand. I would definatly make it again.

Great flavor! Easy to prepare besides maybe cutting the pocket in the chicken which may be slightly tricky. Followed the recipe for the most part but ran out of lemons so used bottled juice, and I did not have an ovenproof skillet with a lid so I did transfer the chicken to a baking dish which required an extra 5-10 minutes in the oven. Came out great and was very moist. Served with orzo and extra sautéed spinach.

this is my husbands new favorite dish. I use swiss cheese instead of feta and walnuts instead of pine nuts. And I also add more spinach.

Great meal, the fam loved it and Couscous was a good side dish. I would fix it again.

Very good...added pesto because I did not have the pine nuts on hand. With regard to jlmisner's post on 9/10/10. Pine nuts may be high in fat, but that would have nothing to do with the cholesterol count. Cholesterol is only produced by animals, fish, fowl, etc. (including humans), not plants, nuts or grains. The only items in this recipe that would add to the cholesterol count are chicken breasts, feta cheese and chicken broth.

Enjoyed this recipe. Doubled filling plus more Feta per previous comments.Good idea because of the large chicken breast I used. Be very careful not to overcook. I kept mine in 20 minutes. Almost too much but was worried not enough time due to size of chicken. Used 1 cup of chicken stock to have some extra to pour over chicken and Couscous before serving. Will make this again.

Quick and easy recipe. All my kids loved it. My 8 yr old even asked for seconds!

This was pretty awful. I love spinach, feta and pine nuts, so I thought this would be a no brainer, but it was very bland. My husband is nice enough to not critique my cooking, but he had a hard time keeping a straight face.

This was my first time at actually stuffing a chicken breast -- I'm sorry I waited so long. It was easy to do, and tasted great. Thickened the sauce after cooking with a little arrowroot mixed with water and served everything over brown rice. Wonderful meal -- and healthy, too.

Spectacular recipe! My husband doesn't like feta or cooked spinach but he asks for this every week. I usually add just a little extra feta because I love it. Follow the directions exactly and it will come out great.

Made this the other night and it was easy and tasty! The spinach with the pine nuts and feta cheese made a very tasty chicken dish, plus it wasnt difficult. Thats alway a plus! Also, I doubled the filling part of the recipe but only used 6 chicken breasts. I know some people said they didnt like it, but I thought it had a great taste!

I like all the ingredients in the recipe and followed the advice of some reviewers. Outcome: so-so; definitely not a keeper in this household. I didn't have fresh thyme and maybe the less-than-half teaspoon of dried thyme was too much. Too much thyme and lemon flavor (I only used the 2 tsp.). No lack of filling: I prepared the whole amount but used only 2 chicken breast-halves: it was just for hubby and me. After browning, I put in 1/4 c. marsala in the pan and turned up the heat to almost have it all be gone, except the flavor; then I added the chicken broth. Despite all this (previous reviewers reported lack of flavor), all I could taste was the lemon and thyme. Spinach was nice and bright green.

This is now a family favorite. I like to add wine instead of broth for the baking part, and I agree with the other reviewer who said you should add more filling, but this is so delicious that our guest who doesn't like spinach loved it! I served it with lemon couscous.

This dish was very delicious and elegant. worthy of a dinner party. i served it with couscous mixed with some vegetables and it was a great dinner

This has been one of the best recipes I've tried so far from Cooking Light. Delicious and filling! Used fat free feta to save a few extra calories.

Was disappointed in this recipe. Just didn't have the amount of flavor we were hoping for. Not enough filling.. If I try again I will make the pocket in my chicken larger and double the filling so that each bite has filling with it. Otherwise I would season up the chicken more. Has potential but for us it needed a little work

I have made this numerous times. It's wonderful and healthy too. Watch your cooking time to assure the meat is tender not overcooked. I have served this to company and they LOVED it!!

Definitely a keeper! My husband just raved about it. I did add some pesto sauce and roasted red papers to the spinach filling. I omitted the pine nuts because I didn't have any on hand. Would serve for a special occasion!

Great recipe! Very versatile. I substituted and used swiss cheese, dill and chopped walnuts in place of the cheese, herb and nut they suggested. Yummy!

Loved this recipe!

I absolutely LOVED this recipe. It was nice and light but extremely satisfying. The only thing I changed was added some ricotta cheese to the cheese mixture (about 2 tbs).

Really good and simple to make. Flavor was excellent. Served w/the cous cous suggested (I used whole grain israeli cous cous and used chicken broth instead of water) and additional sauteed spinach. I also added a bit of sea salt and pepper to the chicken filling.

Cooked this for friends and it got rave reviews. Was very simple to make... everything browned well. Put broth & chicken in pan covered with aluminum foil for 20 minutes, came out so moist and the lemon and thyme work so nicely together. Made with cous cous with (with leftover pine nuts, zucchini, mushrooms, salt & pepper) and side salad.

Only animal products contain cholesterol. In this recipe, cholesterol is found in the chicken, the feta, and the chicken broth only. Pine nuts contain vegetable fat, not animal fat, so there is no cholesterol in them. The cholesterol in this dish is really not very high; consider this-one large egg alone contains approximately 210 mg of cholesterol (all in the yolk)!

Pine nuts are very high in fat, so that might explain the high cholesterol content.

In response to the question on cholesterol. Unless the couscous has a heck of a lot of cholesterol, I think the number is incorrect. Regular Feta has 25 per oz and there are only 2 oz in the recipe. I always use low fat Feta anyway.

I made this recipe and suggested side dsih exactly as suggested, and the timing was perfect. I do suggest fastening the stuffed breasts with three toothpicks so that the tasty filling does not escape.

Super yummy! I used swiss chard instead of spinach, and 8oz breasts instead of 6oz, so I increased the cooking time a bit. Overall delicious & flavorful, even w/ dried lemon peel. Cooked the whole thing stove-top w/ a tight lid for 25 min--came out 175 degrees (perfectly done) after flipping twice. Great w/ boxed couscous.

I made this the other night for me and my fiance and I thought it was great! I halved the recipe (since it was us two) and I used frozen spinach. Great flavor, I also seasoned the chicken with garlic powder, salt, and pepper. I also put real garlic in the filling and used reduced fat feta. Someone reviewed earlier that the chicken tasted dry, my guess is that you over-cooked it. 15min is a guide, many ovens vary and also depends on thickness of the chicken.

I thought maybe because i used frozen spinach that i had on hand I missed out on some flavor, maybe so. Overall I wasn't thrilled with this, next time would maybe marinate the chicken first or something

This was only so-so, especially considering the work. I was really disappointed in the reality vs. the picture. I followed the recipe exactly, After braising for the time given, the spinach was gray and the chicken was bland.How was the test kitchen stuffing still green after all that cooking? I served it with lemon couscous, which was the most flavorful thing on the plate.

So Hubs made this. He is very good at stuffing chicken, so no issues on that. And it seemed easy, since I was talking to him while he was doing this. Perhaps because we were watching Family Guy where Peter and Chris go to Vegas for a quickie Bar Mitzvah, it put this in my head. The chicken tasted like dry buffet chicken you get at a wedding or Bar Mitzvah. Good, but not great. It needed something wet, even like a fattier cheese, or wine/lemon juice on top. We had with Creamy Parmesan Orzo to use more of the pine nuts.

I get quite bored with chicken so I was really excited to find this recipe to shake things up! Really enjoyable and tasty. I didn't have currents so I used raisins but was still good!

I HAVE NOT ACTUALLY COOKED THIS MEAL YET AS I AM LOOKING AT CHOLESTEROL NUMBERS. WHY DOES THIS DISH HAVE 111MG CHOLESTOTROL?? THE FETA CANNOT BE THAT BAD!?? ANY IDEAS FROM ANYONE?

This recipe was delicious and much easier to prepare than I had anticipated. I served it with brown rice rather than the couscous. It created a bit of pan juice which I put on top only adding more flavor. Can't wait to make it again. Is certainly dinner guest worthy.

This was very good and super easy to make. I made no changes to the recipe and since it was the first time I had ever stuffed a chicken it took a little longer then 40 minutes but not by much. I am not a fan of Feta cheese but in this recipe it really worked and wasn't strong at all. My wife and Daughter loved it and I will be making it again. This recipe is being sent out to family and friends for them to try. Great flavors!!