Brownstown – At Big Bear Lodge wood doesn’t only cover the outside of the building, it fuels the fire they use to make some tasty rotisserie chicken and wood-fired pizzas.
They have eclectic American fare with everything from pastas to tacos. They make their food from scratch, including their scrumptious dinner bread, and their giant cakes. The wood-fired oven allows them to make items like pizzas, cedar-planked salmon, and their apple almond-stuffed chicken, while their wood-fired grill makes their smokey burgers, prime rib and rotisserie chicken.
They are open for carry-out meals.
Big Bear lodge is located at 25253 Telegraph Rd. in Brownstown, Michigan and is still doing carry out orders at this time.
Want to try making a restaurant meal at home? Here’s the recipe for their Apple Almond Stuffed Chicken.
How to make their Apple Almond Stuffed Chicken
Apple Almond Filling
Ingredients
8 oz. Cream Cheese, softened
4 oz. Goat Cheese, softened
2 slices of White Sandwich Bread
4 Tblsp Butter
1 Apple, Red Delicious, cored, unpeeled, ¼ inch dice
1 oz. Raisins, golden (preferred)
1 oz. Almonds, sliced, lightly toasted
1 Tblsp Brown Sugar
1 tsp Cinnamon, ground
1/4 tsp Nutmeg, ground
Salt/pepper (To taste)
Method
Combine the softened cheese. Set aside.
Lightly butter the front and back of each slice of bread then cut into small ¼ inch croutons. Bake in oven until toasted to a golden brown. Cool and set aside
Melt the butter in a sauté pan. Add the diced apples and sauté till slightly softened.
Add the raisins, almonds, brown sugar, ground cinnamon and nutmeg to the softened apples and finish heating through.
Adjust seasoning with the salt and pepper.
Cool this sautéed filling before proceeding.
After the apple mixture has cooled add them to the softened cheesealong with the toasted croutons and stir to combine.
Portion into 8 equal portions.
Stuffing the Chicken
Ingredients
8 Chicken Breast 6 oz. lightly flattened,
8 Portions of Apple Almond Filling
3 cups Panko Bread Crumbs
1/2 stick Butter, melted
2 Eggs
1/2 cup Milk, whole
1 cup Flour, all-purpose
Method
Preheat the oven to 350 F
Lightly pound the chicken breasts to flatten. Season with salt & pepper.
Add one portion of the apple cheese mixture to the center of each flattened breast.
Fold and roll each breast to contain the stuffing. Secure with a toothpick if desired but not necessary. Set aside.
Place the measured Panko crumbs into a mixing bowl.
Melt the butter and pour into the Panko crumbs. Stir to combine.
In a separate bowl whisk the eggs and milk to make an egg wash.
One at a time dredge the stuffed chicken breasts into the flour then into the egg wash and finally into the Panko crumbs.
Arrange the breaded, stuffed chicken onto a baking pan and bake at 350 degrees for approximately 30 minutes until the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees on an instant read thermometer.
Cider Cream Sauce (for finishing)
Ingredients
8 cups Apple Cider
4 cups Heavy Cream
1 ½ tsp Dijon Mustard
1/4 tsp Cayenne Pepper
Method
Bring the cider to a boil then simmer to reduce the 8 cups of cider by half to 4 cups total.
Add the heavy cream and Dijon mustard to the reduced cider.
Bring this cider cream to a low controlled boil and further reduce this to half.
Diagonal slice the chicken and arrange on plate with sweet mashed potatoes, fresh vegetables and top the chicken with the cider cream sauce. Enjoy.