Mediterranean Chicken Roulade

 

Last week as part of my training for my great new job I spent a morning in the Bosch Kitchen with their trainer Shannon.

We had a great time cooking up some wonderful dishes, amongst them was a Chicken Roulade from this months Taste magazine .

Roulades look so appealing, and look quite complex but actually are very simple to create and make such a visually impressive dish with not much work.

When I got home I decided to make one for our dinner that night using slightly different ingredients than the one we had made in the morning .

In my pantry I had a jar of roasted red peppers and I had a bunch of asparagus in the chiller because its Steve’s favourite vegetable and I thought that the combination of the red and green might make a nice contrast inside my roulade.

Start by taking boneless skinless chicken breasts and bash the living dayight out of them using whatever you have handy – I used a rolling pin but you could use a heavy bottle or a tenderising hammer or whatever you like.

Its a great way of relieving the days stresses . Bash that chicken till its about half an inch thick. I used 4 chicken breasts in my roulade..

The main pressure point in creating a roulade is getting it rolled up – this is how I did it.

 

I cut a large piece of aluminium foil and sprayed it with a non stick cooking spray ( or you could wipe it with olive oil)

I laid out 8 pieces of proscuitto – this will form the outer wrapper of your roulade so try not to leave any holes.
You could use Streaky Bacon instead if you wanted.
Next lay out your chicken over the top of the proscuitto .

 

Now its time to add your filling.

I started with a layer of basil leaves and then as I said I used roasted red pepper and asparagus but you could use whatever you wanted – feta, spinach, prunes and caramelised onion, ham and cheddar cheese, – minced meat stuffing and boiled eggs, you name it – the variety is endless

 

Once you have your ingredients laid out, season with salt and pepper and any herbs or spices you wish to use and then carefully start rolling by holding the  foil and form a thick tube. ( be careful not to roll the foil into the roulade itself . Once you’ve formed your tube shape tighten the tin foil around the roulade as tight as you can and then fold closed the ends.

Cook at 180 C for 75 minutes or until juices run clear.

Leave to stand for about 10  minutes to settle after taking it out of the oven, then unwrap and slice to serve.