Melissa's Italian Stuffed Chicken Breasts

I was laying on the couch the other day trying to think of some new recipes. We eat a lot of chicken and I've run out of new, fresh ideas. So I started thinking. Mr. B's favorite dish is lasagna, but the reason he loves lasagna is the ricotta cheese. So I started thinking about chicken stuffed with ricotta cheese, and then it grew from there.

I decided to stuff my chicken with ricotta, Parmesan, and mozzarella cheese. Then I decided that since his next favorite dish is Parmesan chicken that I should also bread it. So I decided to use some Shake 'n Bake as well. I needed to run to the store for the shake n bake and while there I seen some fresh mushrooms and thought those would taste wonderful in it as well.

I returned home and gathered my ingredients:

Once home I decided that an onion would add great flavor as well. I chopped up the mushrooms and onions and sauteed them for just a few minutes in a teaspoon of olive oil.

In another bowl I had mixed together 1 tub of ricotta cheese, a handful of mozzarella cheese, and sprinkled in some Parmesan.

Added my sauteed mushroom/onion mix:
Then I split my chicken breasts like so:
and stuffed it as full as I could:
I then coated them in the Parmesan crusted shake n bake and placed them into a lightly sprayed pan:
I baked them for about 25 mins until the chicken was cooked thoroughly.

Since I had some mushrooms left and some cheese mixture I decided to throw them together for a stuffed mushroom type of thing. I also coated the mushrooms in the shake n bake mixture I had left:
Then spread out the cheese mixture and added mozzarella cheese to the top.
I baked this for 10 mins then put under the broiler to brown.

We had company over for dinner so I didn't get a chance to get a picture of the completed meal, but Mr. B snagged a picture of the chicken on his plate:
Every one said it was great! And Mr. B said I will be making this again, which is a great compliment from him. Since he usually says he loves everything I make, but to be that adamant about eating it again is a good sign. I'm glad it was a hit.

I served this with bow tie pasta and steamed broccoli with cheese sauce. I also had some sauce for the pasta and the chicken. I had enough for 4 people and it was a little over $21 for the whole meal. We do have lots of pasta and sauce left for lunch tomorrow. So we will get 2 meals out of it as well.

Here is the complete recipe if you would like to re-create it. But I didn't really measure anything so it is very vague on the amount of items....sorry.

Italian stuffed chicken
4 chicken breasts
1 12oz tub ricotta chees
About a handful of shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
1 package sliced fresh mushrooms (I only used half the package for the chicken)
1 medium sized onion
1 packet Parmesan crusted shake n bake.
1 teaspoon olive oil

Saute mushrooms and onions in olive oil.
Mix ricotta, mozzarella and parmesan cheese in bowl. Add sauteed mushroom/onion mixture.
Split chicken breast and stuff with cheese mixture.
Coat with shake n bake
Bake on 400* for 20-30 minutes until chicken is cooked thoroughly.

I hope you enjoy :)