The only main vegetable I had today was celery. So I looked up celery recipes. To my surprise I found a whole long list of Italian Celery with Chick Pea Recipes. They all were different but not all but most didn’t have meat in them. When I read all the recipes they sort of reminded me of turkey stuffing but with chick peas instead of bread but maybe slightly soupy. Not all but a couple recipes involved mashing a potato or more beans in it to thicken it up some. I also read that many Italians eat the celery with chick peas with an egg to make it a complete meal. I winged my own version that is different. I didn’t have potatoes or more beans to add to mine but I did have Taralli Pugliesi Pizza Crackers so I added some to give it some body. I thought it was just right to stuff into a chicken breast so that is what I did. I do note that the Celery & Chick Peas takes an hour or more to prepare and needs some time to cool before you can stuff it into chicken so you need to plan for that.

I usually cut 1/2 chicken breast different but with the shape this one was this seemed like the way that made sense to me today.

Then add stuffing

Roll it shut and season with an Italian type seasoning (I used not all but most of 1 Tablespoon sea salt, 3/4 Tablespoon ground black pepper, 1 small crush Calabrian pepper, I Tablespoon dried basil, 1 Tablespoon dried oregano, 1 Tablespoon fennel seeds)

If you have a sous vide this gets vacuumed sealed.

These go in the sous vide at 146 degrees F for around 3 1/2 hours. I refrigerated some of what I made and froze some. After refrigeration I reheated mine at 350 degrees for 35 minutes with Italian tomato puree. They came out delicious and expertly moist. My husband was very impressed. He said how come when we go to restaurants we never get chicken this moist. If I owned a restaurant I would sous vide most of the chicken.

It’s just a fact that the sous vide results are so darn perfect that you can re-heat something you made from the sous vide and it will still be perfect.

Ingredients for around 8 servings

4 large 1/2 chicken breast opened up for stuffing

1 bundle celery – Sliced thin, reserve some leaves for finishing…..(Sorry I forgot to photo with celery leaves I reserved)

1/2 large onion – diced

6 garlic cloves – ground to paste

12 kalamata olives -pits removed, rough chop

2 short Calabrian peppers

1 can (around 15.5 oz) chick peas , drained, rinsed 3 times

1/2 teaspoon ground sage

1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds

1 lemon zest

1 mini red bell pepper – core, stem, seeds removed – diced

1 Tablespoon Better Than Bouillon (this adds great flavor and almost enough salt)

4 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 cup water

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

4 oz Taralli Pugliesi Pizza crackers – crushed

sea salt to taste

Italian seasoning to taste

1 cup Italian tomato puree

Directions

Set oven to 375 degrees F

In a 1/2 buffet pan or large dish add the celery, onion, garlic, olives, 2 short Calabrian crushed peppers, chick peas, safe, fennel seeds, lemon zest, bell pepper, Better Than Bouillon, olive oil, water, Taralli Pugliesi pizza crackers salt, and pepper.Cover pan. Cook on middle rack until the celery is tender (about an hour but timing may differ)

This mixture needs to cool to at least room temperature before you stuff it into chicken breasts.

When cool stuff the chicken breast, season each chicken breast all over with Italian seasoning. Then vacuum seal. Repeat till done. They go in a preheated sous vide. When the sous vide hits 146 degrees after the chicken is added let it go 3 1/2 hours. You can have heated tomato sauce or Italian tomato puree, vegetables and some of the extra celery and chick pea stuffing for serving. Garnish with some of the reserved celery leaves. You can brown in a pan if you like but it’s not necessary here.

It comes out more delicious that it looks.

ENJOY!!!!!