a new twist on an old favorite...

AJ and I met up in the Adirondacks in 2007... long story... but I hooked him with Rachael Ray's bacon wrapped chicken (with pecans and blue cheese inside!) That was the beginning of our story :)

I still make this chicken on special occasions for AJ, and he loves it just as much now! It is very, very yummy but it takes some time.

The good news is: it's very easy to simplify and sub in different ingredients depending on what we're in the mood for. Today, after work, I wandered around the grocery store (they change the sales on Wednesdays... I am such a nerd) trying to figure out what to make for dinner.

I got a few good deals and then headed home. I have a new-found obsession with colby-jack cheese so I decided to use that...and then it hit me! Make chicken roll-ups with cheese inside! How could this go wrong?

Here are the ingredients I used, plus the chicken that was defrosting when I took this picture ;)

I pounded the chicken breasts until they were about 1/4 inch thick. I did this by putting them in a closed ziploc bag and then hitting them repeatedly with a soup can... that took some of today's stress away :)

After that, you just take it out and then place the cheese and hot sauce inside:

Roll them up like a pinwheel and secure with toothpicks... and then pour some shake and bake on them. I tried to pick up the pieces and get some of the mixture on the bottom as well...

And then I baked for about 30 minutes at 400 degrees and they got nice and crispy!

They went perfectly with some fresh celery and blue cheese mixed with some more hot sauce:

Delicious! Hope you had a great Tuesday.