Mediterranian Chicken Ravioli Filling

I had the pleasure of making a trip to the grocery store over the weekend all by myself.  Now, I love shopping with the kids - it helps them get interested in different foods and flavours and, it's fun!  Except for the days I go with Loo Lee, and she just happens to get 'lost' and they have to go into lock-down mode until we find her.  Those are not fun days.  And yes, there have been more than one!

But every now and then it's nice to just go alone and take all the time in the world to SEE what I've been missing on the weekly jaunts to the store for the bread, milk, cereal staples.  That's what I had.  An kid-less trip to the store JUST to find stuff new and interesting to cook.  No time limits.  No endless questions.  Just time to look and see what's out and about!

And, I found some really great looking Mediterranean marinated chicken breasts on sale.  SCORE!!  Saving money on that chicken meant more money for chocolate bars.  A ha!! 

The chicken was already prepared on skewers, so probably destined for a BBQ grill or a hot pan and to be paired with rice and veggies....but not tonight!!  The experimenting was about to begin!








Mediterranean Chicken Ravioli Filling
Makes: 40-80 ravioli

Homemade Pasta and Tomato Cream Sauce recipes to follow

Note: when paired with the soon to follow Homemade Pasta for Ravioli recipe (of which I made 2 batches of), the results of this recipe produced leftover filling that Mr. Hungry used for a sandwich the next day, similar to chicken salad.

1/2 lb marinated chicken
2 eggs
3 Tbsp fresh red pepper
1 Tbsp lemon zest
3 Tbsp fresh parsley
1/3 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese
4 Tbsp cream cheese, softened
salt and pepper
1/4 - 1/3 cup bread crumbs

Homemade pasta rounds or won ton wrappers (2 packages)



Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit

Heat a stainless steel frying pan over medium-high heat.  Add about 2 Tbsp of oil (olive or vegetable, doesn't matter really) and when hot, add the chicken.  Sear on one side until browned, about 5-7 minutes.

When seared, turn chicken and immediately put the pan + chicken into the oven.  Cook until chicken is no longer pink in the middle, about 15 minutes.  This is a great process for searing both sides of a nice cut of meat, while cooking it to perfection.

When chicken is done, remove from

oven and let rest until cook enough to handle.  If there are any drippings or juices in the pan, reserve them for your sauce or freeze for use later.

Fine chop the parsley and red pepper.

When chicken is cooled, start chopping it into very fine pieces.  Place chicken into a mixing bowl and add the eggs, red pepper, parsley, lemon zest and Parmesan cheese - mix well.

Add the softened cream cheese and mix well to combine.  Salt and pepper to taste.

Gradually add breadcrumbs a bit at a time, until mixture holds together.

You just can't beat homemade ravioli.  If you can get the pasta right (see next post).  Play around with what flavours you love and let me know how it goes!

Enjoy your foray into the world of homemade pasta!

--The Cook