Just when I think I’ve run out of ideas for lean chicken, I go to another cooking class and get a great one – like this recipe. Chicken breasts pounded thin and stuffed with Boursin cheese, ham and chives, then dipped in egg and a bread crumb/cheese mixture. Then the little bundles are baked at a high temp in a thin layer of hot oil in the oven to get a crispy crust on it. Like deep fried, but not really. Healthier. The crunch is wonderful!
The night I made this I wasn’t in any particular hurry (fortunately), so when we didn’t sit down until well after 7:00 I realized I should have started a little earlier. Not that it took all that long to make this – I just didn’t start working on it until after 6:00. I did have green beans left over and I sliced some tomatoes as sides. If I’d wanted carbs, I’d have made some buttered orzo, which is what Phillis Carey suggested, but I didn’t want carbs. The chicken breasts had been defrosted earlier, so I pounded them thin between two layers of plastic wrap. You need to make them fairly big (thin) in order to have enough to wrap around the filling. The Boursin cheese is part of the secret to this dish – it adds a nice, moist succulence to the stuffing (thin-sliced deli ham, chives, and a little tiny sprinkling of red pepper flakes). You can either fold over the chicken, or roll them up (I did a roll). Hopefully the sticky raw chicken will kind of self-adhese (is that a word?) on the outside edges. Carefully they’re dipped into the beaten egg and rolled very gently in the toasted bread crumbs, Parmesan and chopped parsley.
TO OVEN FRY:
Use a rimmed baking sheet, pour in some grapeseed oil (it has a higher flash point, that’s why), heat in a hot-hot oven until it’s almost smoking, gently lay the chicken in the oil and bake for just a few minutes. Turn them over and repeat. Easy. Quick.
The “trick” if there is one, is pouring a thin layer of grapeseed oil into a rimmed baking sheet (with enough room on it for as many chicken bundles as you’ve made, with some breathing room in between them) and pre-heating that oil in a very hot oven for about 4 minutes. Until it’s almost (but not quite) smoking. That part worked like a charm for me – when I placed the chicken bundles in the pan, the oil was already spitting at me. The chicken is baked for about 7 minutes on convection bake (8 minutes regular heat), turned over (and they spit at me again) and baked an additional 5-7 minutes. Done. In that last 5 minutes I plated everything else and slide the chicken onto the plates right out of the oven. Because they were really HOT, they stayed warm on the plate well for at least 10 minutes while we consumed them.
My DH (who will tell me if something doesn’t taste up to snuff) couldn’t say enough good things about this chicken. He loved it. So did I. What’s there not to like? – Boursin cheese inside, crispy coating on the outside. Yum in every bite.
What I liked: already said – crispy coating on the outside that you’d only get if you did this oven-fry method – it works because the oven is very hot and the chicken is thin – it all cooks in a few minutes. Also the Boursin cheese. Oh yes. Delish. You could also make this a few hours ahead (the pounding, stuffing, then refrigerating). Just dip in egg, crumbs and do the oven frying at the last minute. This would make a GREAT company meal. As I mentioned, Phillis said to serve with buttered orzo.
What I didn’t like: well, I suppose if I had to say something, it was getting zapped by the spitting fat in the pan, but couldn’t be helped. No burns. Otherwise, nothing at all.
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Oven-Fried Chicken Breast Bundles with Ham, Boursin and Chives
Recipe By: Phillis Carey, 2012
Serving Size: 4
Serving Ideas: For a complete dinner, serve along side some buttered orzo.
NOTES: The calorie count is incorrect because you don’t eat all the oil used in the baking sheet – most of the oil will still be in the pan when you remove them. I made this into rolls, but folding in half is easier. Just make sure the edges are sealed (chicken to chicken) with no filling peeking out. The cheeses will ooze out during baking if they have a clear path.
4 pieces boneless skinless chicken breast halves
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
3 ounces ham slice — (deli ham)
4 teaspoons fresh chives — minced
1 pinch red pepper flakes
4 ounces Boursin cheese — garlic and herb, preferably
2 whole eggs — beaten with 1 T. water
1 cup dry bread crumbs — plain
1/4 cup Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese — grated
1 tablespoon Italian parsley — minced
1/4 cup grapeseed oil — or olive oil
1. Preheat oven (convection bake if possible) to 425°.
2. Trim chicken and gently pound between two layers of plastic wrap (shiny side chicken breast down) to an even 1/4 inch thickness. Remove chicken tender if there is one and use for another purpose. Be careful not to tear the chicken breasts as you pound. Season chicken with pepper and lay a slice of ham on top, tucking and folding the ham so it fits inside the edges of the chicken. Sprinkle on chives and red pepper flakes.
3. Divide Boursin cheese evenly between chicken breasts, putting it on one side (because you’re going to fold this over or roll it). Fold chicken in half over the filling to enclose it. Pinch the raw chicken edges together gently (to sort of seal them – you may use a bit of beaten egg along the edges if you’d like). Cover and refrigerate if needed.
4. Place egg mixture in a shallow bowl or plate. In another bowl or plate toss the bread crumbs, cheese and parsley. Coat chicken pieces in egg, then in breadcrumbs, sprinkling more on each one to coat as evenly as possible.
5. Pour the oil into a rimmed baking sheet and heat for about 4 minutes, or until the oil is very hot, but NOT smoking. Remove pan from oven and gently (wearing an apron) place chicken pieces in the fat (it will spit at you a little bit – it needs to be this hot or the chicken won’t brown properly). Bake for 7-8 minutes. Remove and carefully (oil will spit at you again) turn the chicken over and bake for 5-7 more minutes or until chicken is cooked through. If you use convection bake, it will take the lesser number of minutes for both baking times. Serve immediately.
Per Serving (not accurate, see notes at top): 579 Calories; 36g Fat (56.8% calories from fat); 41g Protein; 21g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 222mg Cholesterol; 919mg Sodium.
Toffeeapple
said on June 21st, 2012:
That sounds rather delicious even if it was painful. Do you pound the chicken breast whilst it is whole, or do you, as I do, slice it almost in two before pounding?
The word you were looking for is adhere, so you got pretty close to it!
Yes, indeed, adhere WAS the word. I was in a hurry, I think, and just didn’t come up with an alternative, so I made up one! The chicken breasts I buy here are rather large. But they’re chicken breast HALVES already. But they are big in and of themselves! And I suppose they could be sliced in half to make 2 thin pieces, but I don’t. I remove the chicken tender altogether, because when you pound the breasts, they just get destroyed anyway. That meat is just too tender. You place the chicken between two pieces of plastic wrap with the shiny side of the breast down. Using a flat-edged pounder, pound away gently until the breast has thinned some. Then I begin pounding down and out so the breast meat spreads better. You can continue pounding until it’s a thickness you want. I don’t pound them a lot – just enough to get the breast to be an even thickness. . . carolyn t