Pancetta wrapped chicken

Pancetta ( A cured thin Italian Ham) is a great way to keep chicken breasts (or other chicken pieces) moist and tender. This is a very versatile recipe which we always make when we have a few guests coming at a time with little preparation time on the day. You can prepare the chicken the day before and simply oven cook 30 minutes before you need to serve. The rest is easy. Chicken breasts are flattened and you stuff them with a filling of your choice. In this case we combined chorizo sausage with some pesto (out of a jar), sun dried tomatoes and mozzarella cheese. Serve with a creamy mushroom sauce.

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Ingredients

Main Ingredient

• Chicken Breasts

For the filling

• Chorizo sausage
• Fresh Parsley
• Sun Dried tomatoes
• Mozarella Cheese
• Mixed herbs
• Salt & Pepper

For the Sauce

• Mushrooms
• Double Cream
• Fresh Parsley, coarsley chopped
• Chicken Stock
• Dry Sherry(Optional)
• Butter
• Olive Oil

Method

• On a large chopping board, cover your chicken breasts with cling film (both sides) and beat gently with a meat mallet until they have stretched in size, reduced in thickness enough to be able to wrap them into rolls
• In a food processor, blend the chorizo & parsley.
• Fill the centre of each flattened chicken breast with your filling, add slices of sun dried tomatoes and mozarella cheese and top with mixed herbs. Be careful not to overfill as it will become difficult to seal later.  Roll each chicken breast and place aside, season with salt and pepper.

• Line 5-6 strips of Pancetta overlapping each other on your chopping board. Place each rolled chicken breast at one end, and roll tightly with the Pancetta. use wooden toothpicks to secure.
• Repeat until you have completed all your chicken breasts
• When ready to cook, preheat your oven to 180 degrees.
• Add the chicken breasts to a non-stick tray, add a few whole cloves of garlic and some thyme to the tray for flavour and aroma (No oil is needed as it will come out of the fatty pancetta and chorizo. The chicken should take 30 minutes, but may require longer depending on the size.

For the Mushroom Sauce

• Chop up your mushrooms to the desired size and begin by frying in olive oil and butter.
• Once they are browned Flambé them in the dry sherry  to burn off the alcohol.
• Add the cream and a 1/2 cup of chicken stock and allow to reduce slightly.
• Season with salt & pepper  to taste
• Garnish with the parsley

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