Cilantro Chicken with Poblano Chile Sauce = AWESOME

Last night I made this recipe from Mary Ellen's Cooking Creations. WOW. It was SO good!!! She originally got the recipe from Epicurious, but since I made my changes based off of her changes, I'll just post her recipe here. My changes are in red. (I didn't take any pictures, so I'm showing you Mary Ellen's photo. Mine looked similar, but my chile sauce looked just like diced chiles, rather than a pureed sauce. My rice was more colorful.)

Cilantro Stuffed Chicken with Poblano Chile Sauce

Ingredients

• 2 chicken breasts
• 1.5 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
• 2 cloves garlic (I used 3)
  
• 1 tsp finely chopped onion (I misread the recipe and added the onion for the sauce to the mix! I used about 1/4 C onion here.)
  
• dusting of chili powder, salt, cumin, and cayenne
• grated manchego cheese (I used about 1/3 C)
  
• Poblano sauce: 2 roasted poblano peppers, 2 cloves garlic, 1/2 small onion, 8 oz chicken broth, added 1/4 c light cream; added salt (Since I had so much extra onion in the chicken stuffing, I only used 1/4 C onion in the sauce. I also used 3 cloves of garlic, and skim milk instead of light cream. I also added about 1/4C of manchego cheese.)
  

Directions

• I roasted the chiles first. I put them in the oven at 400 for about 15 minutes, then put them in a covered bowl for 15-20 minutes to cool.
  
• Cut a pocket into each chicken breast.
• Mix cilantro, garlic, onion, and manchego cheese; fill each pocket with the mixture. Coat the chicken with the spices and a touch of olive oil. Place in a baking dish and bake on 400 for approximately 12-15 minutes, flipping once. (I had to bake them for about 10 minutes extra after flipping them. I also sprinkled them with extra manchego cheese.)
  
• Make the sauce: Peel skin off of roasted peppers, and chop. I kept some of the seeds because we like heat. Then, heat olive oil in a small pot and saute onions and garlic. Add peppers and broth and bring to a simmer for 1 minute. Transfer to a blender and puree. (I skipped the pureeing step - I didn't think it was necessary, but it would have made it look just a little bit prettier. But, I still think it looked very tasty as it was.) Return to pot, add cream and bring to a simmer. Season with salt. (This is where I added the manchego cheese.)
  
• Serve sauce over chicken.

Mike could not stop raving about how excellent this meal was. The chicken was perfectly tender and flavorful. I think it had just the right amount of heat, but Mike added hot sauce to his. I served this with Spanish rice. (Sautee chopped onion and garlic in olive oil. Add 1C rice and sautee until toasted. Add 1/2 C crushed tomatoes and 1 C chicken broth. I also added about 1 T of the chopped Poblano chile from the chicken recipe. Bring to a simmer, then reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 22 minutes.)

I will DEFINITELY be making this again!!!!