Olive stuffed chicken breasts with almonds

I've made this for many years and I didn't realize how much I'd strayed from the recipe until I read it again for this project. Below is the original recipe, followed by mine.

Olive Stuffed chicken breasts with almonds
Gourmet’s Five Ingredients, pg 50

4 boneless chicken breast halves (with skin)
1 cup brine-cured green olives, pitted and chopped
2 T unsalted butter
¼ cup whole almonds with skin (chopped)
2 T chopped flat parsley

Pat the chicken dry. Cut a 2” slit in the thickest part of the chicken. Stuff each breast with ½ tsp. Season with salt and pepper.

Heat 1 T butter in a 12” skillet over medium heat. When the foam subsides, toast the almonds, stirring frequently until browned (5-8 minutes). Transfer with a slotted spoon to a cutting board. Do not clean skillet.

Heat the skillet over medium-high heat, then add the chicken breasts, skin side down and sprinkle with remaining olives. Sauté chicken breasts until skins are golden brown, 8-10 minutes. Turn chicken breasts over and cook covered, over medium heat until cooked through, 5-7 minutes, then transfer to plates.

While the chicken is cooking, chop almonds. Add remaining tablespoon of butter and 3 T water to the pan and heat until butter is melted. Stir in almonds, parsley, and black pepper to taste. Spoon sauce over chicken.

How I did it: I had a very large chicken breast and tenderloin. I cut the breast a bit more to make it butterflied.

1 chicken breast butterflied
1 tsp ghee (clarified butter)
2 T pine nuts
2 T feta or goat cheese, crumbled
2 T chopped olives
Thyme
Sea Salt

Toast the pine nuts in a dry skillet. Transfer to a cutting board. Chop coarsely. Add ghee or butter to the skillet. Melt over medium-high heat. Combine the chopped pine nuts, chopped olives and feta (or goat) cheese. Open the chicken breast, flat, season with salt on both sides, and thyme, outside only. Fill the chicken breast with the olive-nut-cheese mix and fold over and tie. Cook in the melted butter about five minutes on each side, covered.

I didn’t realize how my recipe or my memory of the recipe had changed over the years until I wrote it down. I like the butter and thyme because it makes a very tasty combination. Today I made it with crumbled goat cheese instead of feta, which made it milder. I use whatever olives are handy. Today I used kalamata, but I’ve made it with green olives and that changes the flavor. I like pine nuts, but I’ve made it with almonds before. I think it would be good with cashews. I wonder how sun-dried tomatoes would be with it?

I served it with left-over greens from yesterday and left-over lentil salad from Sunday. I kept half of the breast for lunch tomorrow (like I said, it was huge!)

My refrigerator is getting full again. I have left-over everything. Tuna from yesterday, salmon and lentil salad from Sunday, skirt steak and charro beans from Monday. This is why the plan doesn’t work for me. I need to embrace that the goal is to not repeat a recipe, but I don’t have to cook every day.

I am trying to make mustard. I’ve soaked the seeds in wine and I started crushing them with the vinegar today. I’m using a mortar and pestle and not getting too far, except my hand hurts.