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So, this is a little bit of work, but it's fun way to make the chicken breast interesting
again. Just make a quick stuffing and roll it up. I'm making two big portions, and I'm
starting with like a 50g chunk of dry chorizo.
You could use any sausage at all, but if you're using fresh sausage — not dried — you'd
want almost twice as much, because it'll boil off water. The key with a dry sausage for
stuffing is cutting it into the smallest pieces possible. I'm just sawing thin strips and
from there, saw into matchsticks, and from there, saw into a fine dice. I do find a back-and-forth
sawing motion works much better than a chopping motion with dry sausage. Man I love chorizo.
Smokey, garlicy, red-flavored, I dunno. It's awesome. The Iberian peoples know from sausage.
And here's a shallot. Any form of onion is fine, but we only need a little, and shallots
are small, so one shallot. Very fine. Grab a pan, and I'll throw those in cold, and turn
the heat on medium underneath them. Fat will render out of the sausage in time to cook
the shallots. I'll just stir those every now and then.
Meanwhile I can prep my chicken. One side of a breast per person, and it's time to butterfly
them. I'm just cutting into the thickest part, very carefully, and open it up. I'll show
you that from the side. Heading into the thickest part, trying to cut its height in half. Stop
before you go all the way through and open it like a book. If you've got thick parts
you can kinda make slits across them, and/or lay some plastic over to prevent splattering
while you pound them out, focusing your attention on the thick parts. The thin parts will need
hardly any smashing.
For years before I had this meat pounder I used a heavy-bottomed pint glass. That's fine
as long as you don't Hulk-smash it. I'll just get the meat as flat as I can without tearing
it apart. Done.
Back over at the stuffing, the shallots look pretty cooked. If using fresh sausage, you'd
want to get it looking pretty dry and crumbly. Now I'll pour in a roughly equal quantity
by volume of breadcrumbs. This is panko because that's pretty much the only kind I keep around
anymore but any breadcrumb is fine. I've done this with cornbread crumbs before — that
was amazing.
I'll just let that toast a little for flavor and then it's time to deglaze the pan. These
mini-bottles of white wine are quite convenient for cooking. You could use water with maybe
a splash of vinegar at the end to taste instead. There's still some brown stuff over there
to get off. I want that flavor, but I also want enough moisture in the pan to make the
breadcrumbs moldable — just barely moldable.
Off the heat that comes, and since I'm gonna have my chicken with lemon I might as well
put a little zest in the stuffing. It really freshens up the chorizo, as will a bunch of
fresh herb. I'm using dill because I have some and I like it, but thyme or parsley would
be great. Stir that up. Taste it. It only needs a little more salt, because the chorizo
is so heavily seasoned. Very nice. Still crumbly. If it was really wet it would be kinda gummy
in the end.
And before I roll this up I'ma do myself a favor cut a bunch of strands of butcher's
twine — get it done now, while my hands are clean. Each piece is long enough to wrap
around the chicken and tie a knot, and I'd say five stands per piece. Keep those scissors
— we'll need them again.
Now, stuffing onto the cut side of each piece of meat. This piece is a little bigger, so
it'll need a little more. Keep that pan — we're gonna use it again. This is a one-pan dinner.
And then whichever side is more tattered is the one I want to hide inside the roll. So,
stuffing all the way to that end, and then roll up. I've left a little strip uncovered
there at the end to make a seal. Done. And because we topped the cut side of the meat,
the firmer and smoother surface is now the outside of the roll, which is good.
Hmm, this one is not gonna work rolling in the same direction. No worries. I'll just
roll this from the tail instead. This is good, because it'll get me a piece of about the
same thickness, even though it's smaller — it'll cook in the same time. There, looks like a
pig's trotter.
Now I'm just gonna wiggle my first length of twine underneath there and do a surgeon's
knot. That's where you go across and then under once — that's an overhand knot — but
then you go under again. Pull taught, and the extra friction we got from going under
twice holds it for us while we lock it off with a normal overhand knot. Easy. Repeat.
I wish I could tell you that you could just secure these with a toothpick down the middle
or something, but that just doesn't work. Chicken breast is too delicate and irregular.
The toothpicks aren't secure enough. But this isn't too hard.
I snip off the excess just to keep it out of my way. Looks like a couple of lobster
tails now. And if you were making these for the in-laws or something you could do this
much the night before and put them in the fridge. I'm ready to cook right now so I'll
get some salt all over these.
Pan back over medium or medium-low heat and coat with olive oil. Let it get hot, and I'll
lay in the chicken. And this part would probably be easier in a non-stick pan. In a stainless
pan, you gotta really let each surface sear firm before you nudge it off the pan, or else
it'll shred. I'm getting a little shredding. Whatever.
I'm just gently coloring all sides. And at this point you could throw the pan in the
oven. I would only do that if my oven was already hot for something else. Instead, you
could throw some butter in the pan, melt it and just kinda roll them around in there.
I think that does the same thing as basting — it just doesn't look as segsy. But it
still takes a long time to get the inside of these up to temperature.
For this particular recipe, I've found the best thing is to cover them. If you don't
have a lid, some foil is fine. Just let them steam in there the rest of the way. Check
on them frequently and roll them around. About 15 minutes after they went in, this smaller
one is approaching 160 F, 70 C. I actually wished I pulled these a little sooner. Carryover
heat is gonna raise these like 10 degrees F as they rest. Unless you really need to
play it safe, I'd say pull these no further than 155, or 68 C.
Those can just rest while we make our side. I'm dumping out any burned bits of stuffing
that fell out and the butter if it's looking burned. But that fond on the bottom is looking
golden and perfect. So back on the heat it goes, and in goes a bunch of green beans.
I think that was a 6 oz bag, 170g. They taste even better if you let them fry a little bit
in the dry heat. I should have done that a little bit longer.
But eventually you gotta deglaze. I'm using the rest of my mini-bar bottle there. Again,
water would be fine with a little splash of vinegar at the end instead. Just scrape that
pan clean, get all the beans coated, and on goes my makeshift lid. Heat up to high. Just
let them steam, maybe five minutes. But check on them frequently, because if too much of
that liquid evaporates it'll burn instantly. I'm just tossing in some water whenever needed.
Keep steaming. Taste one to check for doneness and seasoning. Some pepper and salt and a
little more time.
The easiest way to get these strings off is to snip them with clean scissors then peel
them off. Get rid of them.
This is not necessary, but some fresh butter in the green beans at the very end is nice,
just to make a thicker sauce with the pan jus. Off the heat.
Now it's really important to slice this up with a freshly sharpened knife, otherwise
the meat fibers will just shred — you'll have done all this decorative work for nothing.
But look how pretty those are — little, meaty pinwheels.
When it's time to transfer this to the plate, you can just kinda mash it back together,
press and lift and deposit. Fan those out a little to show off. Get those green beans.
This is my new favorite thing, cooking my vegetable in the pan with the fond while the
meat rests. Synergistic!
Then last — and not optional at all, in my opinion — is a lemon wedge. This is the
sauce for the chicken. Gotta have it. Get that darn seed out of my thumbnail. You know,
it's not an everyday dinner, but a fun little project, and a way to get creative with chicken
breast. You could stuff it with all kinds of things. And those green beans glisten like
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Thank you, Squarespace. Now go roll one up yourself.