Goat Cheese and Spinach Stuffed Chicken -- What Tom Called "the Most Capable Dinner I've Ever Eaten"

June. School ended — what passed for school, the pandemic version, the kitchen-table education that was imperfect and insufficient and yet somehow sufficient, because children are resilient and teachers are heroes and parents are holding everything together with duct tape and Wi-Fi. Mason finished third grade remotely. Lily finished first grade remotely. Both survived. Both learned. Both are relieved that the laptop is closing and the summer is opening.

Summer in a pandemic: the camps are closed, the pools are restricted, the playdates are complicated. I'm making it work with garden time, library runs (curbside pickup), hikes with Tom (outdoors, distanced from others, the safest activity available), and Lily's riding (the one thing that hasn't changed, because horses don't get COVID and arenas are outdoors and Janet is the most careful person in Idaho after me).

Tom essentially lives here now, though we haven't made it official. He stays over three or four nights a week. His toothbrush is in the bathroom. His coffee mug has a designated spot (the hook second from the left, because I am a woman who assigns mug hooks and does not apologize for it). Duke the chocolate Lab has become Hank's best friend, or at least his most tolerated companion, and they lie on the living room floor like two old men at a pub, side by side, occasionally sighing in unison.

The garden is magnificent. The tomatoes are flowering. The cucumbers are climbing. The basil is bushy. The lettuce is bolting (it's getting too hot — lettuce is a drama queen about temperature). I'm eating from the garden every day: salads, stir-fries, gazpacho. The garden is feeding us, truly feeding us, not just supplementing but providing, and the pride of that — the pride of eating food I grew from seed in my own dirt — is the kind of pride that doesn't fit in words. It fits in the taste of a tomato still warm from the sun, eaten standing in the garden, juice on my chin, the best food on earth.

I made a garden-to-table dinner for Tom and the kids: grilled chicken with herb chimichurri (from garden parsley, cilantro, garlic), garden salad, roasted zucchini. Everything from my hands or my dirt. Tom looked at the plate and said, "You grew all of this?" I said, "Most of it." He said, "Heather Dawson, you are the most capable person I've ever met." I said, "I was raised by Diane Dawson. Capable was the minimum." He laughed. I meant it.

That dinner — the one where Tom said I was the most capable person he’d ever met — has become my benchmark for what a summer meal should be: something that looks like effort but lives in the honest simplicity of good ingredients handled well. Goat Cheese and Spinach Stuffed Chicken is exactly that kind of dish. It’s what I reach for when the garden is giving and the people at my table deserve something that feels a little celebratory without requiring me to disappear into the kitchen for hours. If Diane Dawson taught me that capable was the minimum, she also taught me that a beautiful plate is the whole point.

Goat Cheese and Spinach Stuffed Chicken

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 30 min | Total Time: 45 min | Servings: 4

Ingredients

• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 6 oz each)
• 4 oz goat cheese, softened
• 2 cups fresh spinach, roughly chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon olive oil, plus more for searing
• 1/2 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning
• 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
• Toothpicks or kitchen twine to secure

Instructions

1. Preheat oven. Heat oven to 400°F. Line a baking sheet with foil or lightly grease a baking dish.
2. Wilt the spinach. Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a small skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and cook 30 seconds until fragrant. Add spinach and toss until just wilted, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool slightly.
3. Make the filling. In a small bowl, combine softened goat cheese with the wilted spinach and garlic mixture. Stir together until evenly mixed.
4. Butterfly the chicken. Place each chicken breast on a cutting board. Using a sharp knife, cut a deep horizontal pocket into the thickest side of each breast, being careful not to cut all the way through.
5. Stuff the chicken. Divide the goat cheese and spinach filling evenly among the four breasts, spooning it into each pocket. Secure the opening with 1–2 toothpicks to keep the filling inside during cooking.
6. Season the outside. In a small bowl, mix together Italian seasoning, smoked paprika, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes if using. Rub the spice mixture evenly over the outside of each stuffed breast.
7. Sear for color. Heat a drizzle of olive oil in an oven-safe skillet over medium-high heat. Sear the chicken breasts for 2–3 minutes per side until golden brown.
8. Finish in the oven. Transfer the skillet (or move chicken to the prepared baking dish) to the preheated oven. Bake for 20–25 minutes, until the internal temperature reaches 165°F on an instant-read thermometer.
9. Rest and serve. Remove toothpicks. Let chicken rest 5 minutes before slicing. Serve alongside a garden salad and roasted zucchini, or whatever your garden is offering.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 320 | Protein: 42g | Fat: 14g | Carbs: 3g | Fiber: 1g | Sodium: 480mg