Stuffed Chicken Rolls: Score One for the Improvisational Cook

Reader Contribution by Cindy Murphy
Published on December 1, 2009
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Welcome to “An Evening at the Improv.” The stage is my kitchen, and our guest tonight is stuffed chicken rolls. I hope it doesn’t get heckled and booed off stage before the performance is over.

The girls aren’t what I’d consider the pickiest of eaters (I’ve heard horror stories of worse, anyway), but they definitely each have their quirks. Shelby’s palate is texture driven; if it feels funny in her mouth she won’t eat it. “Funny feeling” foods include, but are not limited to, things like cottage cheese, apple sauce, Jello, tomatoes, and all fruits with the exception of apples and bananas. Strange, but vegetables top her list as favored foods. Shannon is the opposite; she likes fruits of all sorts, but usually struggles with vegetables except for the Big Three: green beans, carrots, and broccoli. To find something they both like can be a challenge. Keith’s roast beef, spaghetti, and homemade chicken noodle soup, they both like. My meatloaf, baked macaroni and cheese, and baked chicken are favorites, too. But I get tired of having the same things for dinner all the time. This winter, I’ve decided I’m going to cook at least one new dish each week.

No, I’m not going to blog about each recipe in some cheap, poorly written imitation of the “Julie/Julia Project.” I am nowhere as ambitious as Julie Powell when she blogged about her experiences cooking the 524 recipes in one year from Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking. And with all due respect to the late Ms. Child, I don’t believe I have the gumption to master the art of anything French except possibly those French Toast Sticks that come in the freezer section of the grocery store. I don’t want to go out and hunt down ingredients at specialty shops to cook. And if the recipe doesn’t have “Quick and Easy” in its title, it will by the time I’m finished. I have never in my life – whether by design or accident – followed a recipe exactly as it’s written.

Every once in a while I find a recipe that fits all my criteria as being an exceptionally good one: it’s quick; it’s simple; no special shopping trips required, and the girls will eat it. “Chicken Roll-Ups” was one I randomly pulled from a stack of magazines I’ve been meaning to get to since last summer; Stuffed Chicken Rolls sounds better to me, so that’s what I’m calling them.

Stuffed Chicken Rolls

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