Creamy Gouda cheese and sweet apples make these stuffed chicken breasts a winning recipe! Pair with roasted sweet potatoes for a sheet pan supper that will make everyone happy.
Recipe Overview
Why you’ll love it: It’s delicious, and clean up is easy!
How long it takes: 45 minutes
Equipment you’ll need: sheet pan, oven, sharp knife, mixing bowl
Servings: 4
Sweet apple pairs perfectly with creamy Gouda cheese, stuffed into a tender chicken breast. Sweet potatoes not only add a great pop of color, but thanks to the smoked paprika, they impart a fantastic smoky element that gives depth to the entire meal.
About these Apple Gouda Stuffed Chicken Breasts
This recipe combines two of my favorite things: stuffed chicken + sheet pan dinner.
Stuffed chicken, first. EASY. Looks fancy. Win win. Everyone thinks you’ve created this show-stopping chicken recipe. And you were able to do it with very little effort. What could be better?
Next, sheet pan dinner. My favorite kind of dinner. One pan dirty, one oven temperature, but a complete meal. Check out lots more sheet pan dinner recipes, if you like sheet pan dinners as much as I do.
How to stuff Chicken Breasts
Begin with boneless skinless chicken breasts. Use the sharpest knife you have to slice each piece horizontally, but not all the way through, and open the chicken like a book. This is also called butterflying. Take a look at the photos below for a visual demonstration.
Arrange sliced apples on one half, then Gouda cheese, and sprinkle with fresh thyme. Close the chicken by carefully folding the unstuffed half over the stuffed half. I usually do this whole process right on the sheet pan so you don’t have to transfer the stuffed breast, decreasing the risk of anything falling out.
I like to throw together a quick tossed salad to serve on the side for crisp, fresh green elements.
Enjoy!
PS: Next time, should we add bacon? I think so.
Stuffed chicken tends to be less dry because the stuffing keeps it flavorful and moist. Cook chicken in a fairly hot oven (425°F) until it’s just done. Use an instant read thermometer; for chicken, the internal temp should be 165°F.
I love these butterflied stuffed chicken breasts because both the stuffing and the chicken cook quickly. You won’t have any contamination issues that may occur when you stuff a whole chicken with warm stuffing.
Because the stuffing is enfolded into the chicken breast, there’s no need for toothpicks. If you happen to use too much stuffing, a toothpick will secure the chicken while it bakes but by the time the chicken is cooked, the toothpick can be removed and the chicken will stay together.
Stuff the chicken breasts and store in a covered container in the fridge up to a day ahead. Dice the sweet potatoes, cover with water, and store in the fridge up to a day. Drain well, pat dry, and continue with recipe as directed.
More Stuffed Chicken Recipes
Apple Gouda Stuffed Chicken Breasts with Roasted Sweet Potatoes
Ingredients
For Chicken:
- 2 large boneless skinless chicken breasts (approximately 10 oz. each)
- 2 ounces Gouda cheese, very thinly sliced
- ½ large apple, thinly sliced
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves (reserve a few sprigs for garnish)
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
For Sweet Potatoes:
- 2 large large sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- ½ teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425°F. Spray a large sheet pan or shallow baking dish with nonstick cooking spray.
- Split each chicken breast across but not through and open like a book (be careful, you can easily cut yourself doing this!). This is also known as butterflying. Refer to the post for photos.
- On one side of the chicken, arrange 7 to 8 thin apple slices followed by 4 to 5 slices of cheese. Sprinkle with ½ teaspoon fresh thyme. Fold over and drizzle with ½ teaspoon olive oil. Sprinkle with ¼ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon pepper. Repeat with second chicken breast.
- Place the chicken breasts on sheet pan and top with another sprig of fresh thyme, if desired.
- In a bowl, mix diced sweet potatoes with 1 tablespoon olive oil, smoked paprika, 1 teaspoon thyme leaves and sea salt until evenly coated. Arrange sweet potatoes in a single layer around chicken breasts.
- Bake for 20 minutes, remove from oven, and stir sweet potatoes.
- Continue to bake until the juices run clear from chicken and internal temperature of chicken registers at 165°F, about 10 additional minutes. Sweet potatoes should be fork tender.
- Allow to cool for 5 to 10 minutes. Carefully cut each chicken breast in half vertically to make 4 servings. Serve with sweet potatoes on the side.
Video
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Did You Make This?Share a comment and rating below! I love hearing what you think!
One of my favorite recipes! It’s so easy and adaptable (I’ll usually use whatever cheese we have if we don’t have gouda) and tastes fancy despite it using just a few simple ingredients we always have around.
I’m so happy you like this recipe! Thanks for taking the time to leave a coment!
I was not a fan at all. Chicken tasted so plain and dry without a bite of cheese/apple with it.
Sorry to hear this one wasn’t a hit for you!
Delicious, Today served to my family member all of them said to make it again. Thank You
Cheers
So glad to hear you all liked this recipe! Thanks for taking the time to come back and leave a comment!
It’s a perfect fall meal! I added a little honey to the sweet potatoes but followed the rest of the recipe exactly! Delicious!!
So glad you liked it! I bet the honey was delicious!
I was very disappointed. The chicken was dry and bland. I added raisins and cashews to the stuffing, but otherwise followed the recipe exactly. The chicken breasts I used were very plump, but still came out so dry. I am retired and live on my Social Security, so I am very careful about how I spend my money. I wasted money on electricity and ingredients.
Sorry to hear you didn’t like this recipe! It’s such a popular one!
i thought this was very tasty and would make again
So glad to hear you liked this recipe!
This recipe didn’t come out as good as I thought it would. The chicken was bland, I barely tasted the apples and cheese, I added bacon but that didn’t help, and the sweet potatoes tasted a little off with paprika and salt. It was a weird, bland combination of flavors. Will not remake.
Sorry to hear that…so many folks love this one!
Made this for my husband tonight. Told me I need to make this again! I have a son who is celiac. This would be perfect for him! Thanks again!
Oh that makes me so happy! So glad you liked these – thanks for taking the time to come back and leave a comment!
I appreciated the concept of using only one pan—it allowed some of the flavours from the sweet potato marinade to run into the chicken. But unfortunately, the chicken itself was very bland. I was skeptical that the chicken wasn’t seasoned overnight, or brined, or marinated, but I figured that the gouda should transfer enough flavour. It didn’t.
This recipes wasn’t inedible, but it wasn’t delicious either. But because I like the concept, I think I’ll try it again with a stronger cheese, a marinade or brine, and a bolder type of apple—or a very bold pear.
Hi,
I made the chicken breast alone. I sauteed two slices of bacon and then sauteed 2 tablespoons of minced shallots. I crumbled the bacon and shallots and added them to the filling. I thought the flavor was pretty good, though next time I think I’ll try a half teaspoon of thyme and back off the shallots to a tablespoon.
Cooking time was another matter. Chicken breasts are pretty easy to overcook. If I had checked the temperature of the breasts at 20 minutes, I might have been okay, but I waited until 30 minutes. The breasts were then 189 F and dry. My oven is pretty accurate. The recipe might be modified to check the chicken earlier. This would save cooks whose ovens may be over temperature.
I often wrap chicken breasts in parchment and cook them at 400 F, an approach I found on a Kitchn website. Serious Eats has an interesting discussion regarding the safety of cooking plain chicken breasts to 140 F. Given this, another angle I’m considering is cooking stuffed breasts sous vide. America’s Test Kitchen has a more involved procedure for creating sturdy chicken breast wraps secured with twine that I might try. The first step would be sous vide cooking, followed by skillet browning.
The size of chicken breasts varies greatly, so it’s possible you had smaller cuts than I did.