This delicious smoked chicken breast is flavored with Cajun spice and stuffed with cheddar cheese. A simple and great recipe for beginners and avid smokers alike.
A great chicken breast dish should come out moist and flavorful. If you’re tired of dry and bland chicken, look no further. This prosciutto-wrapped smoked chicken breast will guarantee you an excellent outcome you’ll want to repeat over and over.
What do you need to make this recipe?
Boneless chicken breasts: Try to keep your chicken breasts of similar sizes and not too thick so they cook evenly on your smoker.
Cheese: Everything tastes better with cheese right? The cheese will essentially melt inside the butterflied chicken breast and help keep the chicken moist.
Seasonings: I’ve chosen Cajun spices to season the chicken, but you can use a chicken rub, fresh herbs like thyme and rosemary based on what flavor profile you want or what you have available in your pantry!
Prosciutto or bacon: the purpose of wrapping your chicken into prosciutto or bacon is to keep the chicken moist and imbue salt and flavor.
How to prepare those smoked chicken breasts?
Butterfly your chicken breasts
Butterflying your chicken will allow you to actually stuff the breasts with seasonings and condiments. To butterfly the breast, you essentially press on the chicken breat laid flat on a board and slice across in the middle until you have about half an inch left.
Stuff the chicken breasts
After seasoning with a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper, apply your seasoning of choice on both sides of your chicken breast. On the inside of the chicken breast, apply Dijon Mustard and add 3 cheese sticks.
Wrap them up
In order to make wrapping easy, you will need plastic wrap and twine. Prosciutto is pretty delicate to handle so you want to let the plastic wrap do the work.
Lay your plastic wrap sheet flat on your working surface. Add two prosciutto slices overlapping each other on your plastic wrap. Put your chicken breast in the middle across the slices and use the plastic wrap to tightly wrap the chicken in the prosciutto. Fold the edges and squeeze them in.
To keep the whole thing tight during cooking use twine to make a gift box. Make a loop in the middle, squeeze tight, and make a loop like a gift wrapping across the chicken breast and tie with a double knot. Cut off the extra twine strings.
Smoke those little packages
For a low and slow cook, put your smoker to 225F and use woods like apple, hickory or a similar blend.
You should expect about 3 hours to cook those, depending on the size. Aim for a minimum temperature of 165F with a thermometer.
What should you eat this recipe with?
You can serve so many things with this but a good vegetable choice to go with prosciutto-wrapped smoked chicken breasts is smoked bell peppers! Choose different colors, cut them in quarters, season with oil, salt and pepper, and stick on the smoker about 45 minutes before your chicken is ready.
If you’re all in for a complete meal, add these Asian Grilled Fingerling Potatoes or a nice salad like this Burrata and Tomato Salad.
Ingredients
- 4 boneless chicken breasts
- 2 tbsp Cajun spices
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp thyme leaves
- 2 tbsp Dijon mustard
- 1/4 cup cheddar cheese, chopped in thin small sticks
- 8 slices prosciutto
- Twine
Instructions
- Prep your smoker and set the temperature to 225F.
- Trim chicken breasts of fat and skin
- Butterfly your chicken breasts by making a cut from the thickest part of the breasts all the way to about half an inch from the end.
- Season with salt, pepper and olive oil.
- Apply Cajun Spice mix on both sides of the chicken breast.
- Add a tsp of Dijon mustard on the inside of each chicken breast.
- Slice small sticks of cheddar cheese and place 3 inside of each chicken breast.
- Use a sheet of plastic wrap and spread it flat on your working surface.
- Spread two slightly overlapping slices of prosciutto on the plastic wrap (it should be enough to wrap the whole surface of your chicken breasts).
- Wrap the chicken breast by pulling on the plastic wrap and tightly wrapping the prosciutto around the breast.
- Unwrap the plastic wrap and tie with twine each chicken breast by making a knot in the middle of the chicken breast and then crossing like a gift wrap on the other side and tie with a double knot.
- Trim the twine around the knots.
- Put your chicken breasts on the grate of your smoker leaving about 1 inch of space between them to allow the smoke to completely surround them.
- You'll need about 3 hours to cook those. Aim for a safe internal temperature of 165F.
Nutrition Information
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
