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One of my favorite Trader Joe items was their Southwest Stuffed Chicken. It was truly the best and then of course like all amazing things, the store discontinues them. (lol, but isn’t that so true?!) That is why I thought I no longer want to live my life with Southwest Stuffed Chicken, so why not recreate our own?! This recipe uses a GF coating, that gets oh so crispy & cheesy. Then don’t even get me started on the stuffing… pure goodness. Now with all that said, it is also easy. It is an easy, cheesy, gluten free dinner that will be your family’s new go to! Let’s get started shall we? Gluten Free Baked Southwest Stuffed Chicken here we come!

What Easy Ingredients Are In The Gluten Free Baked Southwest Stuffed Chicken?

Gluten Free Southwest Coating:

You need 5oz of your favorite Nacho Cheese Tortilla Chips. I prefer to use the Site Nacho Grain Free Tortilla Chips to make this gluten free. Feel free to use whatever GF one you prefer or non gluten free!

5oz Nacho Grain Free Tortilla Chip
2 tbsp shredded fiesta cheese
1/4 buttermilk
1 egg

Southwest Chicken:

3 Chicken Breasts
4 oz cream cheese
2 oz green chilies
1 tbsp favorite salsa
1/2 mild taco seasoning

That’s it! Simple as that. Easy, budget friendly recipe that is perfect for dinners and lunches. This Gluten Free Baked Southwest Stuffed Chicken can be thrown together easy during the week. Gives you hands off time to clean up the kitchen & spend time with family!

Directions for Making Gluten Free Baked Southwest Stuffed Chicken

A very important and easy step that is needed when making these Stuffed Chicken Breakfasts is to Butterfly your chicken breast. They need to be butterflied so that you can stuff your chicken breakfast, but not all the way cut through.

What is butterflying a chicken breast me? You will be making your chicken breast have a uniform thickness & it will cook more evenly. In this case though we are butterflying it so that we can stuff it, without having two separate pieces of chicken. This creates a pocket for your stuffing.

How do I butterfly my chicken breast?

You will start by putting your hand on the top of your boneless skinless chicken breast. Then taking your very sharp knife and cutting into the chicken breast horizontally cutting it in half but stopping at about 1/2 an inch from the opposite side.
When you are done you should be able to open up your butterflied chicken breast like a book

Simple as that! Then you will be able to dredge it in your mixture & stuff it!

Gluten Free Southwest Coating:

Add your gluten free nacho tortilla chips into your food processor & pulse until they are finely chopped into bite sized bread crumb pieces. Then add in your 2 tbsp of cheese & pulse 5 time to incorporate. Then pour into a medium sized bowl and set aside
After add in buttermilk & egg into another medium sized bowl. Whisk until throughly combined then set aside.

Southwest Chicken:

Once you have already butterflied your chicken and set that aside, you will work on the Southwest Chicken filling. In a hand mixer safe bowl add in your cream cheese, green chilies, taco seasoning and salsa. With hand mixer, mix until throughly combined about 1 minute. Then set aside.
Get your baking sheet rack ready. My favorite is to use the baking sheet with the cooling rack built in on top. Linked here if you don’t have one, just line a lipped baking sheet with aluminum foil, then place cooling rack over it that fits dimensionally over it. That ensures it gets crispy and cooked throughly through the top and bottom! Trust me, this hack is the best! See link if you have questions.
Then you will dredge your butterflied chicken breast in the buttermilk egg mixture. Then you will coat the back side of the butterflied chicken breast in the bread crumb mixture. Make sure the back side is completely coated by pushing down a few times in the bowl.
Then transfer to the baking sheet where you will but about 2 to 3 table spoons of Southwest Chicken filling in the middle of the butterflied chicken breast. After you will fold it over so it closes again.
You will repeat for all3 butterflied chicken breasts.
Then bake at 400 for 35 to 40 minutes or until the internal temperature is 165 degrees– no pink!
Serve with a big salad and enjoy!

Other HGHF Chicken Dinners You Must Make

Easy Oven Baked Chicken Parmesan Alfredo

The Best Instant Pot Chicken Taquitos

Gluten Free Air Fryer Chicken Nuggets

Bourbon Braised Chicken Mushroom Soup

Chipotle Chicken Sandwich

Questions When Making Gluten Free Baked Southwest Stuffed Chicken

Do I have to use Gluten Free Nacho Tortilla Chips with this recipe?

Yes! Use whatever kind of Nacho Cheese Tortilla chips that you like.

Can I use chicken thighs instead of chicken breasts?

You need to use chicken breasts for this recipe because you cannot stuff chicken thighs as efficiently

Am I able to use dairy free cream cheese when making Gluten Free Baked Southwest Stuffed Chicken?

I have not used dairy free cream cheese for this recipe. If dairy free cream cheese is something you love, try it with this recipe! I don’t think you’d be disappointed

Can I just use a lipped baking sheet to bake these Gluten Free Baked Southwest Stuffed Chicken?

You can use a lipped baking sheet to bake them, however in order to cook the chicken breast the most efficiently the method above is our favorite way 🙂

What is the best way to store the Gluten Free Baked Southwest Stuffed Chicken?

The best way to store the Gluten Free Baked Southwest Stuffed Chicken is in an air tight container for 3 to 5 days in the refrigerator.

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5 from 6 votes