4 Chicken Breast Recipes for Christmas Dinner

Chicken breast recipes are great for any family meal, but when it comes to family holidays, you can't beat the taste of these boneless and stuffed chicken breast recipes. Check our Christmas dinner recipes below, and you'll be begging for Christmas to come every day of the year.

Apple Stuffed Chicken Breasts

\"chicken Recipes\"

6 boneless, skinless breast halves
2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 package (6 ounces) whole-wheat or regular chicken-flavored stuffing mix
1 cup chopped, peeled apple
1/4 cup chopped celery
1/4 cup walnuts
1/4 cup raisins
1/2 teaspoon grated lemon peel
1/2 cup apple jelly
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

4 Chicken Breast Recipes for Christmas Dinner

Slice each chicken breast horizontally through the middle, almost to the end, leaving one end together to create an area to stuff. Slightly tap each piece to flatten just a bit, and brush olive oil on the outside of each piece. Set aside.

Prepare stuffing mix according to package directions. Add apple, celery, walnuts, raisins, and lemon peel to already-prepared stuffing.

Evenly divide stuffing mixture into 6 servings, and stuff each breast with the stuffing mix. Placed stuffed meat in a prepared 9 x 13 inch baking dish. Set aside.

In a saucepan, mix apple jelly, lemon juice, and cinnamon; bringing to a simmer, and cook uncovered for 3 minutes. Brush about half of the jelly glaze on the top side of each poultry piece.

Bake chicken, uncovered, at 350 degrees for 40 minutes; then pour remaining apple jelly glaze over each breast and bake for about 20 minutes more (a total of 1 hour bake time)

Pineapple Stuffed Chicken Breasts

6 boneless, skinless breasts
2 Tablespoons butter
1/2 medium-sized green bell pepper, chopped
1/2 medium-sized red bell pepper, chopped
2/3/ cup hot water
1 package (6 ounces) whole wheat or regular chicken flavored stuffing mix
1 (8-1/4 ounce size) can crushed pineapple (drained, but keep liquid for glaze)

Drain pineapple, reserving liquid. Set aside.

Slice chicken pieces horizontally through the middle, leaving attached at one end to form a pocket. Flatten slightly by tapping down.

Melt butter over medium heat. Add red and green peppers and cook for 5 minutes or until tender. Stir in 2/3 cup hot water, then add dry stuffing mix and pineapple. Mix and let set for 4 to 5 minutes.

Stuff middle of poultry pieces with pineapple stuffing mix, and place in greased or sprayed 9 x 13 inch baking dish.

In a separate bowl, mix reserved juice from pineapple, brown sugar, white vinegar, and ginger. Drizzle evenly over pieces.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 1 hour.

Creamy Chicken Breasts

6 boneless, skinless breasts
1 (10-3/4 ounce) can cream of mushroom or cream of chicken soup
16 ounces sour cream
1 pkg. dry onion soup mix

Spray crock pot, and place breasts in the slow cooker. Combine remaining ingredients. Pour over chicken.

Cover, and cook on low for 6 hours.

Cranberry Chicken Breasts

NOTE: The is best started the night before!

6 boneless, skinless breasts
1 (16-ounce) can whole cranberry sauce
1 (8 ounce) bottle Russian salad dressing
1 pkg. dry onion soup mix

Spray crock pot, and place chicken in the slow cooker. Combine cranberry sauce, dressing, and soup mix, and pour over chicken.

Cover and chill in refrigerator 2 to 8 hours or overnight.

After marinating in refrigerator, cook, covered, in slow cooker on low for 6 hours.

Slow cooker chicken breast recipes are especially great for Christmas Eve dinner when you're busy wrapping presents and putting Christmas bikes and beds together! However, whether you're planning an intimate Christmas Eve dinner or an elaborate Christmas Day dinner celebration, you should find just the right Christmas chicken recipe for your family holiday this year!

4 Chicken Breast Recipes for Christmas Dinner

You might also like to try some other great baked chicken breast recipes in your family's mealtime planning.

Chris Stevens writes for smart moms and dads who want to make their homes happy and their family time fun. If you want to see more articles that will help you make the most of your family's day, check out Chris' website at Padoozles.com

Cold Starter Recipes For a Dinner Party

Cold starter recipes are very popular, especially if you are serving a hot main course, since you will get the temperature contrast as well as a flavour contrast. There are so many different starter recipes you can choose from if you want to make something chilled.

Classic starters include prawn cocktail, parma ham with melon or even an easy chicken salad recipe. If you are catering for a buffet, you will want to make different cold starters than if you were, for example, hosting a dinner party. With a dinner party, everybody gets their own plate and with a buffet people help themselves from big platters.

\"chicken Salad\"

Examples of Easy Starter Recipes

If you only want to use a few ingredients, what about making a classic starter recipe - something that everybody knows and loves? You can even go retro with this one and make a prawn cocktail. All you will need for a basic one is some iceberg lettuce, prawns, marie rose sauce, cucumber slices and a sprinkling of paprika.

Another good one would be a chilled soup. Have you ever tried chilled soup recipes? They are great because you can make this in advance, then leave it in the fridge while you work on the main course.

Gazpacho is a typical chilled Spanish soup, made with tomatoes, bell peppers, cucumber, olive oil and more. Then there are chilled fruit soups like strawberry soup or melon soup. These are unusual but really easy to make, even if you are a bit of a novice in the kitchen.

Starters in a Hurry

Do you only have a few minutes to put your cold starter recipes together? You can make devils on horseback with chicken livers, bacon and toast, or what about parma ham draped over a slice of melon? This takes less than two minutes to make!

If you are really in a rush or your planned starters have gone wrong, try a Mediterranean platter. Simply arrange some cubes of cheese, olives and cold meats on a big platter and let people help themselves. Salami and chorizo work well and you can have black olives, green ones and maybe stuffed ones too.

Starter recipes are supposed to whet the appetite and get people in the mood for the main course, so do not worry too much about making something elaborate. Choose an easy starter recipe and you will not go wrong.

Cold Starter Recipes For a Dinner Party

You can find plenty of easy starter recipes at StarterRecipes.co.uk to help make your dinner party a success.

Hello from Calgary: A Delicious Dinner at Il Giardino

After catching a lovely and much needed rest at the historic Twin Gables Bed and Breakfast we set off to explore the immediate neighbourhood, the restaurant area on 4th Street. We were going to walk, but considering I had been really sick with an aweful chest cold in the last few days, venturing out into the cold evening air had me a little leery. Henry from the Twin Gables was really kind to offer us a drive a few blocks up to a restaurant called Il Giardino, one of the places that had come highly recommended for this area from Tourism Calgary.
We entered a Mediterranean-looking restaurant that was just packed with people. We sat down at a cozy table and had a chance to spend some time with the owner, Mike Ciccaglione, and his restaurant manager Dorothy, to find out more about this establishment. Wherever I go I try to get the human stories, and boy, was I in for an interesting one here. I did not realize that I had connected with one of Calgary's most successful entrepreneurs, a real immigrant success story.

Mike was born in the Italian region of Molise and left Italy when he was 16 years old to study business administration and restaurant and hotel management in Switzerland. He came to Canada in 1962 following which he worked in a variety of hotels and restaurants in Calgary and Banff. He also studied English as a second language. In 1967 he opened his first restaurant called the Prairie Dog Inn which initially specialized in Mexican food.
As if that wasn't enough, Mike went on to open the Mexican Village chain of fast food restaurants in several shopping malls and in 1980 he opened the "Pied Pickle" chain.

Chickens

Logically he decided to expand his business to encompass the supply and distribution of tortillas and other Mexican foods: El Molino food manufacturing was born. This company manufacturers Mexican food products as well as pizzas and Italian pasta dishes and distributes its products to warehouses in Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver, Winnipeg, Toronto and Montreal.

In 1998 Mike opened "Il Giardino" (the ultimate in Italian food and fun), a restaurant where all the dishes were home-cooked had always been his big dream.
When we walked into this restaurant I had no idea that we we would meet such a successful Canadian entrepreneur. At the same time, you'd never know it - Mike walks around in casual clothing, laughs and smiles a lot and always keeps his eyes open to check on his guests' enjoyment. During our conversation he got up several times to greet or say goodbye to guests and Dorothy referred to him as a "big flirt". It is plainly obvious that even at 65 years of age, Mike loves what he is doing and Dorothy told us that he does the rounds throughout his various Calgary businesses on a daily basis. Mike is one of those people who loves his work and always has a twinkle in his eyes.

Dorothy has an interesting story herself: she is originally from Montreal and her husband, an engineer in the oil industry, hails from England. Before Calgary they have lived in Montreal, St. John's / Newfoundland, as well as Jakarta where they ended up as refugees in Singapore for a month during President Suharto's coup. Now they settled into a calmer life in Calgary.
Mike attributes his success to a strong commitment to quality ingredients and preparation, and he credits great support from his wife Lucy, his daughter Judy and his son Michael Jr. for much of his fortune and he hopes that one day his children will take over. He also recognizes the importance of his employees as a critical success factor. He told us that he feels it's very important to reward his employees and many of the staff at the Il Giardino Restaurant have been there 10 and more years. A young couple, the evening manager and the hostess, have 15 years of service (5 years at Il Giardino and 10 years at the Pied Pickel) between them and Dorothy confirmed that people really enjoy the work here. Mike says "You're nobody until people make you somebody", that's why treats his employees well and appreciates his winning team.

The construction of Il Giardino is a story in itself: Mike designed the restaurant and one of his long-time friends, Walter Petrin, did all the brickwork while his other great friend Vic Finot was the general contractor. Every Friday he and these two special friends get together to solve the problems of the world. Strangely enough, the next day the problems start all over again.

Outside of work Mike loves to spend time with friends, some of whom he has known for 40 years now. His family is very supportive of him and his wife dedicates a lot of her time to charitable work. Mike also supports the United Way and various fundraising drives for breast cancer and the Calgary Children's Hospital.

He still goes back to Italy every once in a while although he says he's seen almost everything in his home country. So now he is thinking of traveling to places like Asia, Africa and Latin America as long as it is safe and reasonably clean. Mike loves soccer and he even used to own a local soccer team that was called the El Molinos Dinos. Another one of Mike's big passions is his Ferrari and he said that every once in a while he puts it on sale just to see the interest on the part of potential purchasers. But when it comes down to it he really has no intention of selling it.

But that's not all: Mike is a movie star as well! He has had roles in "Honey, I Shrunk The Kids" as well as in "Cool Runnings". It seems Mike is always up to something, and when you listen to his list of endeavours it seems incredible that one person can get all this done.

Mike embodies hospitality and while we were there he insisted that we get a real taste of what his kitchen is capable of. For starters we got to sample Il Giardino's soups: I tasted a Stracchiatelle egg drop soup while my husband got the "Brodo con Polpettine e Pasta" (chicken broth with tiny meatballs and pasta). Then I got to sample a taste of Il Giardino's famous Calamari (extremely tasty and tender) while Nigel had their Bruschetta bread. We also received a sampler plate of appetizers - Antipasto Italiano (prosciutto with melon).
That wasn't all: we also got a taste of Il Giardino's home-made Gnocchi della Nonna which, by the way, are home-made by Mike's 70 year old sister. Then, we couldn't believe it, the main course arrived: a sampler plate of three of Il Giardino's specialties: Pollo ai Funghi (chicken breast in a white wine sauce topped with mushrooms), Piccata al Limone (veal in lemon and white wine sauce), and Agnello al Rosmarino (rack of lamb in a rosemary, mint and red wine sauce). I am not usually a huge meat eater, but these dishes were phenomenal, the meat was tender, the sauces very tasty without being overpowering. Mike topped a fabulous meal off with a tasting of the most famous Italian desert: tira misu.

Without exaggeration, our culinary experience at Il Giardino ranks right up there as one of my best restaurant experiences of a life-time, the food was that delicious. I love Italian food, and the folks at Il Giardino certainly know how to prepare Italian delicacies. We had to take a doggy bag back to our bed and breakfast, there was no way we could actually eat all this delicious food. There is no doubt that Il Giardino serves great, freshly made food. And even more so, it was a pleasure to meet the creator behind this welcoming neighbourhood institution.

Hello from Calgary: A Delicious Dinner at Il Giardino

Susanne Pacher is the publisher of a website called Travel and Transitions (http://www.travelandtransitions.com). Travel and Transitions deals with unconventional travel and is chock full of advice, tips, real life travel experiences, interviews with travellers and travel experts, insights and reflections, cross-cultural issues, contests and many other features. You will also find stories about life and the transitions that we face as we go through our own personal life-long journeys.

Submit your own travel stories in our first travel story contest (http://www.travelandtransitions.com/contests.htm) and have a chance to win an amazing adventure cruise on the Amazon River.

"Life is a Journey Explore New Horizons". The story with photos is published at Travel Stories and Photos (http://www.travelandtransitions.com/stories_photos/calgary_il_giardino.htm)

4 Chicken Breast Recipes for Christmas Dinner

Chicken breast recipes are great for any family meal, but when it comes to family holidays, you can't beat the taste of these boneless and stuffed chicken breast recipes. Check our Christmas dinner recipes below, and you'll be begging for Christmas to come every day of the year.

Apple Stuffed Chicken Breasts

\"chicken Recipes\"

6 boneless, skinless breast halves
2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 package (6 ounces) whole-wheat or regular chicken-flavored stuffing mix
1 cup chopped, peeled apple
1/4 cup chopped celery
1/4 cup walnuts
1/4 cup raisins
1/2 teaspoon grated lemon peel
1/2 cup apple jelly
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Slice each chicken breast horizontally through the middle, almost to the end, leaving one end together to create an area to stuff. Slightly tap each piece to flatten just a bit, and brush olive oil on the outside of each piece. Set aside.

Prepare stuffing mix according to package directions. Add apple, celery, walnuts, raisins, and lemon peel to already-prepared stuffing.

Evenly divide stuffing mixture into 6 servings, and stuff each breast with the stuffing mix. Placed stuffed meat in a prepared 9 x 13 inch baking dish. Set aside.

In a saucepan, mix apple jelly, lemon juice, and cinnamon; bringing to a simmer, and cook uncovered for 3 minutes. Brush about half of the jelly glaze on the top side of each poultry piece.

Bake chicken, uncovered, at 350 degrees for 40 minutes; then pour remaining apple jelly glaze over each breast and bake for about 20 minutes more (a total of 1 hour bake time)

Pineapple Stuffed Chicken Breasts

6 boneless, skinless breasts
2 Tablespoons butter
1/2 medium-sized green bell pepper, chopped
1/2 medium-sized red bell pepper, chopped
2/3/ cup hot water
1 package (6 ounces) whole wheat or regular chicken flavored stuffing mix
1 (8-1/4 ounce size) can crushed pineapple (drained, but keep liquid for glaze)

Drain pineapple, reserving liquid. Set aside.

Slice chicken pieces horizontally through the middle, leaving attached at one end to form a pocket. Flatten slightly by tapping down.

Melt butter over medium heat. Add red and green peppers and cook for 5 minutes or until tender. Stir in 2/3 cup hot water, then add dry stuffing mix and pineapple. Mix and let set for 4 to 5 minutes.

Stuff middle of poultry pieces with pineapple stuffing mix, and place in greased or sprayed 9 x 13 inch baking dish.

In a separate bowl, mix reserved juice from pineapple, brown sugar, white vinegar, and ginger. Drizzle evenly over pieces.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 1 hour.

Creamy Chicken Breasts

6 boneless, skinless breasts
1 (10-3/4 ounce) can cream of mushroom or cream of chicken soup
16 ounces sour cream
1 pkg. dry onion soup mix

Spray crock pot, and place breasts in the slow cooker. Combine remaining ingredients. Pour over chicken.

Cover, and cook on low for 6 hours.

Cranberry Chicken Breasts

NOTE: The is best started the night before!

6 boneless, skinless breasts
1 (16-ounce) can whole cranberry sauce
1 (8 ounce) bottle Russian salad dressing
1 pkg. dry onion soup mix

Spray crock pot, and place chicken in the slow cooker. Combine cranberry sauce, dressing, and soup mix, and pour over chicken.

Cover and chill in refrigerator 2 to 8 hours or overnight.

After marinating in refrigerator, cook, covered, in slow cooker on low for 6 hours.

Slow cooker chicken breast recipes are especially great for Christmas Eve dinner when you're busy wrapping presents and putting Christmas bikes and beds together! However, whether you're planning an intimate Christmas Eve dinner or an elaborate Christmas Day dinner celebration, you should find just the right Christmas chicken recipe for your family holiday this year!

4 Chicken Breast Recipes for Christmas Dinner

You might also like to try some other great baked chicken breast recipes in your family's mealtime planning.

Chris Stevens writes for smart moms and dads who want to make their homes happy and their family time fun. If you want to see more articles that will help you make the most of your family's day, check out Chris' website at Padoozles.com