Asparagus and Olives Stuffed Chicken Breast

         

         When I feel like cooking something simple yet impressive, I choose stuffed chicken breasts. One may argue that it’s not that easy to roll breasts perfectly: not too loose so that the filling can’t “find its way outside” during the cooking process and not too tight so that it doesn’t “spring out” of the breast at the stage of rolling. Believe me, it’s just a matter of practice to get this fancy type of a dish right. Once you learn it you’ll be able to make versatile options of it as the amount of possible fillings is limited only by your imagination, a range of cooking methods – only by your kitchen skills and the diversity of sauces – only by your personal preferences.

            Let me tell you, the first stuffed chicken breast I cooked in my life was this one – with olives, asparagus and cheese. Since then I’ve tried all sorts of fillings: mushrooms (a classic combination – you can never go wrong with it), pistachio butter (a lovely cold entrée with red pepper sauce) and even pear and couscous (unexpectedly nice balance of flavours), to name a few. In general, it’s not a difficult dish to master and the final result is always worth the efforts!

Recipe adapted from Sanjeev Kapoor’s book

Ingredients:

Stuffed breasts

2 chicken breasts, skinless and boneless

4 asparagus spears

5 black olives, pitted and sliced

5 green olives, pitted and sliced

4 tbsp grated cheese

1 tbsp heavy cream

salt and black pepper to taste

Sauce

100 ml chicken stock

100 ml single cream

2 tbsp tahini

1 tsp sumac

a few saffron strands

salt and black pepper to taste

a few springs of coriander

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C.
2. For the stuffing, cut asparagus tips to the lengths of a breast; cut the remaining parts of the spears into 1 cm pieces and mix them with olives, cream and cheese, season with salt and pepper.
3. Slit one side of each chicken breast, open out and pound with a handle of a knife. Apply some salt and pepper. Put ½ of the stuffing onto each breast, top it with 2 asparagus tips (pointed in different directions), roll tightly and secure with toothpicks.
4. Place chicken breasts in a baking tray and pour some stock at the bottom of the tray. Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes.
5. For the sauce, dissolve saffron strands in 1 tbsp water. Strain the stock in which the breasts were cooked and mix it with cream. Bring the mixture to the boil over medium heat, and then simmer it over low heat until reduced slightly. Mix in tahini, saffron and sumac, adjust the seasoning.
6. To serve, cut chicken breasts into small rolls and arrange on the plate. Pour the sauce over them and garnish with coriander leaves.

Notes:

1. You can use plain water instead of stock; in this case put some chopped onion, celery, carrot and a bay leaf to the tray as well to add the flavour.
2. The original recipe called for creamy cheese sauce. As I mentioned above, it’s a matter of taste. Make any sauce you like.