grilled stuffed chicken two ways

I decided to try one of the recipes I saw on my Facebook page:  grilled stuffed chicken Italiano.  It looked pretty simple.  All you do is split a boneless chicken breast, put a mozzarella cheese stick, roasted red peppers and spinach leaves in the middle, roll it up, brush with Italian dressing and grill it.

It was very easy to put together, although I will say that the chicken breast should be pounded thinner after splitting it; it's just too thick to roll easily.  Since my husband doesn't like spinach, I decided to make his with deli ham and mozzarella cheese.  Kind of like chicken cordon bleu.  

Grilling was easy.  I was worried that the toothpicks wouldn't hold, but they did.  And they didn't burn up, either.

They came out great.  I think next time I might use a different Italian dressing.  The one I used didn't have enough flavor for me.  I probably could have brushed some inside the chicken before rolling it up.

The only downside to this recipe was that I had to buy a huge bag of spinach (that's all the store had, and it didn't occur to me to get them from the salad bar) and I only used about 5 leaves.  I now have a huge open bag I need to use.  Maybe I'll make some sauteed spinach with lemon and garlic this weekend.

Sorry in advance for the quality of the pictures.  I have to reinstall my photo editing software.

Recipe is below.

Here they are, hot off the grill.

Mine.  I was only able to eat half, barely.

Bob's.  He ate a whole one.

Grilled Stuffed Chicken

Ingredients

4 - 4 oz. chicken breasts

4 to 8 roasted red pepper strips, depending on size

20 baby spinach leaves

4 mozzarella string cheeses

Italian dressing for basting

If you want to make the ham-filled chicken breasts, omit the spinach and red peppers.  Use 4 slices of deli ham, one for each chicken breast.

Instructions

1. Preheat grill to med-high.
2. Split each chicken breast in half. Don't cut all the way through.  If they're still thick after cutting, pound them flat with a meat mallet.
3. Place about 5 baby spinach leaves in middle.
4. Put roasted red pepper and string cheese on top of spinach. (Or put a slice of ham on the chicken and then put the cheese on the ham.)
5. Roll like a cigar and put 1-2 toothpicks on ends to hold the roll-up together.
6. Brush with Italian dressing.
7. Grill for 5 minutes, turn and grill 5 more minutes. Check for doneness and turn again if needed, until cooked through (10-15 minutes depending on your grill and thickness of chicken).
8. Serve as is or slice to ensure chicken is fully cooked.