I’m not exaggerating. I wish I took a picture of this chicken, but I didn’t. I made it for a friend in their kitchen. We ate a whole block of brie before dinner and we STILL polished our plates. This chicken was that good.

I’m not going to beat around the bush anymore. Here’s what you need:

• 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, weighing about 8 ounces each
• 1/4 cup crumbled goat cheese
• 1/2 tbsp herbs de Provence
• 2 shallots, roughly chopped
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 6 – 7 dried figs, cut up small
• 1/3 cup + 1/4 cup Sweet Shiraz (or Port if you can’t find this)

Preheat your oven for 375 F. On the stove, turn heat up to medium high and add your olive oil and shallots to a medium sized frying pan. Cook for a few minutes, turning down the heat if the shallots begin to brown. Add your figs, a sprinkle of salt and pepper and stir. Let cook for a few minutes until caramelized. Add 1/3 cup of wine and cook for another minute or two until some of the wine has evaporated and you have more of a syrupy sauce.  Remove from heat.

Slit the chicken breasts in half, keeping one long end intact (so it opens like a book or looks like a butterfly). Sprinkle half of the goat cheese on one half of the breast, and the remainder on the other chicken breast. Sprinkle half the herbs de Provence on one chicken breast, and the other half on the other. Spoon over the fig and shallot filling onto each breast and shut the “book” so that the filling is in between two pieces of chicken. Transfer to a baking dish and pop in the oven for 25 minutes.

When the chicken is done, let sit for five minutes. Meanwhile, pour the remainder of the wine into the pan and deglaze. Simmer until you have 2 tbsp and remove from the heat. Add a pat of butter (optional) and swirl in. Spoon wine sauce over the chicken breasts.