STUFFED CHICKEN BREASTS (Ruth’s Chris copycat)

Ruth’s Chris restaurants hold a special place in my heart.  The old Ruth’s Chris on Broad Street was one of my first favorite restaurants in New Orleans when I moved here in 1981.  Remember how you used to walk in the door and the bar was so crowded with fun rowdy people?  Lots of lawyers!  Circa 1984, I went there with WAG (I’ll use initials so as not to embarrass myself or anyone else), may he rest in peace, and I vividly remember him telling me it was acceptable to pick up my lamb chop and gnaw the meat off the bone.  Circa 1985, I went there with MR and got yelled at across the room by another lawyer, an experience that still makes me cringe to think about.  In the mid to late ’80’s I went there frequently with HPT who is probably the reason I have a bad habit of ordering everything on the menu.  Boy, did we drink some martinis there, or what!  Of course, I went there a lot with FBW, love of my life.  And then with 401(Kenny) who never hit his wallet for dinner, ever.  I had a date with a man who got serious burns on his fingers from touching the plate after the waitress advised him not to.  That’s an odd memory (and an odd date).  And, then more recently, the Metairie location became my “neighborhood” restaurant and I still go there a lot, sometimes on my own.  Claire F. and I have had countless great meals at the Metairie location where we laughed and drank too much.  Leslie and Lisa and I have also had lots of great times there. MR still likes to order for me, and the waiter always looks confused that my date tells him what I want but it’s such a quaint and old-fashioned thing to do (and believe me, he is not trying to control me, it’s just something his father used to do for his mother and FBW used to do for me, too). The wait staff in Metairie is great!  I keep hearing complaints about the quality of the food, but I still think the steaks are excellent.  I do miss the fried potato chips which you could get in a basket with blue cheese, ranch and catsup on the side.  But I’ll always be loyal to this place, I think.  It’s a classic steak house — looks like one, smells like one, tastes like one.  And you know how much I love a good steak.  NOW.  This is their CHICKEN DISH.  And it is fabulous.  If I’m not in the mood for a steak and red wine, this is what I order.  Over the years, I have noticed quite a few copycat recipes online for this but I finally found one that worked.  After multiple tries, this is it!  It’s deceptively easy and OMG so delicious.  I think the trick is cooking the chicken at the right temperature so that it is done but not dry.  With two large breasts this was 45 minutes on the nose at 350 degrees in my oven.  But watch these closely.  You want them to rest a few minutes before you eat them.  And have some bread ready to sop up that cheesy buttery sauce that oozes out.  I think this is a great recipe and while nothing compares to eating stuffed chicken at Ruth’s Chris, making this at home on a Friday night while you watch a movie and supervise the pack is pretty amazing.