Air-Fryer Stuffed Chicken Breast

The stuffed chicken breast is the dish you make when you want to feel like you cooked something. It's the dish whose photo on a recipe site makes you think "okay, that's actually a meal." It's also, contrary to its plated impressiveness, not that hard — there are exactly three techniques: butterfly the breast, stuff it, cook it. The whole operation is twenty minutes hands-on, and the air fryer handles the unattended part better than the oven because it browns the outside while the filling stays creamy.

The filling here is sun-dried tomato, spinach, garlic, and cream cheese — Italian-leaning, savoury without being heavy. You can see it in the cross-section in the photo: the dark red flecks of sun-dried tomato, the green from the spinach, the pale cream-cheese binder holding it together. Basil scattered on top for the green flecks and the smell.

A note on the chicken: you want thick breasts (8 oz each, ideally) so they don't dry out during the longer cook needed to heat the filling through. Butterflying — slicing horizontally most of the way through — creates a pocket without breaking the breast in half. If you're nervous about cutting evenly, ask the butcher to butterfly them for you; they will, cheerfully, in ten seconds.