Spinach Dip Stuffed Chicken

I know, I know.

Roasted chicken isn’t the most amazing and interesting and creatively innovative thing to come out of my kitchen. But it IS reliable. Like this Butter Roasted Chicken with Orange and Rosemary. Reliably amazing.

Also reliably amazing is my ability to make a super ambitious, billion mile long list of tasks in my brain that I am so so so certain will totally be accomplished by 3:30 pm before the school buses start coming round, only to have my delusional optimism shattered by 2 when not even half of anything is accomplished and I’m still folding laundry in my sweats. Meh.

So hey- I made that Light Spinach Dip last week, right? The one with the Greek yogurt and feta and kale. I made entirely too much. So I started thinking of all the fun ways I could use up spinach dip besides eating my weight in tortilla chips (not that I’m opposed, it’s just that I’m still tracking my calories and I feel like a BIG FAT FAILURE if I think I might go over; also if I’m eating junk I want ice cream. Not chips.).

I spread some on a spinach wrap and rolled up some shaved turkey and a fistful of lettuce in it. I considered spinach dip on a baked potato (Spinach-dipped potato skins maybe? I dunno.). I almost made a pizza because pizza is good with ehvureeething, but I thought maybe you guys needed a break from all the pizza I throw at you? Huh. I’m not sure. You tell me (Sidebar: Andrew asked me the other day if I could just buy some pepperoni and make a pizza with tomato sauce, please? You know, Mommy- like a regular pizza? This guy is tired of my pizza concoctions. He just wants some sauce and mozzarella cheese). And then I eye-balled the chicken.

This chicken was super happy to be paired with spinach dip.

And the results were reliably amazing.

I didn’t even get any can’t-we-just-have-regular-food? comments from the peanut gallery annnnd Evan only required mild convincing that the green flecks in the chicken were actually tasty (also there were way too many to pick out; score one for Mommy).

One more thing— let’s suppose you do not have homemade spinach dip just hanging around and you are busy and you’ve been at work all day and you have a million zillion things to do besides chop kale into itty bitty pieces. You could just use store-bought spinach dip. Not quite as healthy. Still absolutely delicious.

Spinach Dip Stuffed Chicken

 

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Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

1 hour 20 mins

Total time

1 hour 30 mins

 

Author: Sugar Dish Me

Serves: 6-8

Ingredients

• 1 small whole chicken (4-5 pounds)
• 1 cup spinach dip
• 1-2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon coarse-ground black pepper

Instructions

1. Pre-heat the oven to 375. Make sure to remove anything that may be lurking inside the bird. That stuff is bad news. Pat the chicken dry with paper towels. Trim the tips off the wings. Work your fingers under the skin of the bird, lifting it away from the meat as much as you can without tearing the skin if you can help it.
2. A little at a time, stuff the spinach dip in between the skin of the chicken and the meat. Make sure to get the legs and thighs and save enough for both breasts.
3. Rub the entire outside of the chicken with the olive oil.
4. Place it breast-side down in a roasting pan. Sprinkle the chicken with the salt and pepper.
5. Roast for about 20 minutes per pound and then add an additional 20 minutes onto that.
6. Let the chicken rest before carving.

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