Crab Stuffed Chicken Breasts

Welcome and good afternoon bloggers! Welcome to another hearty entry to Everyday Meals! If you are joining us for the first time, I'm your recipe extraordinaire, Mandie. Today, we are going to be doing something a little different. I'm sure you've all heard of chicken cordon bleu, or stuffed chicken. We will be taking that concept and pairing it with crab. Before we begin, as always, I'm going to give you all a little trivia. Did you know that crabs make up 20% of all marine crustaceans caught, farmed, and consumed worldwide? That amounts to roughly 1.5 million tons annually. Also, the topic of whether or not crabs can feel pain when boiled live has been a big debate throughout the world. It has indeed been proven that crabs are able to feel *and* remember pain. Well, now that we've stopped and had a bit of educational fun, why don't we meet back in the kitchen and get cooking? Let's go!

Crab Stuffed Chicken Breasts

You will need:

• 4 tablespoons butter, divided
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/4 cup chopped onion
• 1 (6 ounce) can crabmeat, drained, flaked and cartilage removed
• 1 (4.5 ounce) can sliced mushrooms, drained
• 1/3 cup crushed saltine crackers
• 2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 pinch ground black pepper
• 4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
• 1 cup shredded Swiss cheese
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika

Phew! That was a bit of a shopping list. Are you still with me? Good!

1. To Make the white sauce: Melt 3 tablespoons of the butter in a medium saucepan. 
2. Stir in flour until smooth, then gradually stir in broth and milk. 
3. Bring all to a boil; and stir for about 2 minutes. 
4. Remove from the heat and set aside. 
5. In a large skillet, melt the remaining 1 tablespoon butter and saute onion over medium heat until tender. 
6. Add the crab, mushrooms, cracker crumbs, parsley, salt, pepper and 2 tablespoons of the prepared white sauce, and heat through. 
7. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. 
8. Pound the chicken breasts to 1/4 inch thickness. 
9. Spoon about 1/4 of the crab mixture onto the edge of each chicken breast, then roll up and secure with toothpicks. 
10. Place the chicken rolls in a lightly greased 9x13 inch baking dish, then top with the remaining white sauce. 
11. Cover the dish and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until chicken juices run clear. 
12. Sprinkle with cheese and paprika and bake, uncovered, for another 5 minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbly. 
13. Remove the toothpicks and serve.
14. Enjoy!

I just want to stop and say a big, warm THANK YOU to everyone who has joined me so far. I am grateful to have each of you reading and making things with me daily. You get me through life sanely. Have a great day and I will catch you all on the flip side. Happy blogging to all! <3