This combination of stuffing is made of wild rice and cherries you ask? Most definitely. A great blend of two tastes coming together to bring out the taste of your turkey. These are the days of Stuffing, my friends. Any way you slice your turkey you must include at least three types of potatoes. At least in my family. Mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, combination of potatoes an veggies, and stuffing! It reminds me of the old Friends episode where Monica was asked to make numerous dishes in special ways for each guest. Well, this year using a rice and fruit stuffing, I am going to start a new trend.
Chicken With Wild Rice and Cherries
Prep
Cook
Total
Yield 4
This combination of stuffing is made of wild rice and cherries you ask? Most definitely. A great blend of two tastes coming together to bring out the taste of your turkey. These are the days of Stuffing, my friends. Any way you slice your turkey you must include at least three types of potatoes. At least in my family. Mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, combination of potatoes an veggies, and stuffing! It reminds me of the old Friends episode where Monica was asked to make numerous dishes in special ways for each guest. Well, this year using a rice and fruit stuffing, I am going to start a new trend.
Ingredients
- Chicken:
- 8 boneless skinless chicken breasts
- Stuffing:
- 1/4 cup butter, divided
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt, divided
- 3 cups water
- 2 cups fat-free, lower-sodium chicken broth
- 1 cup uncooked wild rice
- 2 cups uncooked long-grain brown rice
- 1/3 cup finely chopped celery
- 1/2 cup chopped dried sweet cherries
- 2 green onions, thinly sliced
- Chicken Gravy:
- 1/4 cup drippings from chicken, add water to make up difference
- 2 1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 2 cups cold chicken stock, or more if needed
- salt and ground black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Chicken:
- Rinse thouroughly and place in single layer into a 13x9 inch glass or ceramic baking dish. Set aside.
- Stuffing:
- Heat 2 tablespoons butter in a large saucepan over medium heat; swirl to coat.
- Add thyme, and 1/2 teaspoon salt; sauté 8 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add 3 cups water, chicken broth, and wild rice; cover.
- Increase heat to high; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 30 minutes.
- Stir in brown rice; cover and simmer 30 minutes. Remove from heat.
- Preheat oven to 400°.
- Heat remaining 2 tablespoons butter over high heat in a large skillet; swirl to coat. Add celery and remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt; saute 1 minute. Reduce heat to medium; cook 4 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Remove from heat.
- Combine rice mixture, celery mixture, cherries, and onions in a large bowl. Spoon stuffing into chicken breast and fold each breast. Cover with foil. Bake at 400° for 30 minutes.
- While baking prepare gravy.
- Chicken Gravy:
- Pour fat from drippings into a bowl and reserve. Whisk flour into remaining drippings left in pan; mixture will seem dry. Add 2 tablespoons reserved fat, or as needed, to the drippings mixture to combine with flour.
- Place pan of drippings mixture over low heat and toast flour until light brown and mixture gives off a nutty fragrance, about 5 minutes.
- Drizzle about 1/3 cup cold chicken stock at a time into pan drippings, whisking each addition of stock into mixture until thoroughly combined. Continue whisking, scraping any browned pan drippings from the bottom of the pan into gravy; bring to a simmer. Continue to cook, whisking constantly, until gravy is thick and flour has combined with the liquid, 8 to 10 minutes.
- Adjust thickness of gravy; if too thick, whisk in a little more stock. If gravy is too thin, continue to simmer, whisking constantly, until reduced and thickened, about 10 more minutes. For the smoothest texture, strain gravy before serving.
- Spoon gravy over top of chicken. Serve with mashed potatoes and veggie of choice.
Notes
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Thanksgiving is such a great food day. The turkey has to be there but it’s only to hold in the stuffing and look pretty next to all the side dishes. Love this cherry and wild rice stuffing.
Thanks for commenting Maureen! I agree about the cherry and wild rice stuffing! I would have never thought to replace the bread with rice until I heard my daughter-in-law say “We have no croutons? Yet wehave all this wild rice!” So of course I had to give it a try.