Creamy Tuscan Chicken Rolls & Raspberry Bombe Alaska
Main: Creamy Tuscan Chicken Rolls
A Tasty recipe found on the internet by accident
Dessert: Raspberry Bombe Alaska
Women’s Weekly Complete Book of Modern Classics
“These chicken rolls are sure to be your family’s new favourite dinner. The béchamel sauce gets a boost of flavour and texture from the tomatoes and spinach, which balances the crunchy chicken rolls perfectly.”
Hi Everyone!
I am so excited to bring you this yummy recipe I happened to stumble upon in facebook. I haven’t had much to do with the recipes from Tasty, however, this one looked too interesting to overlook so I printed it off and gave it a go. It.was.a.major.hit. The beautiful crunchy texture surrounding the chicken is inviting in itself but then when you take a bite you are met with the savoury hit of sun-dried tomatoes. Moosh that up with the divine béchamel sauce and you have food heaven.
Now down to the nitty gritty. What I love here is that you could quite easily prep the chicken the day before you need it and leave it in the fridge until crumbing time. It’s very important to get an even thickness when bashing out the breasts so that you don’t end up with one end undercooked and the other end dry. Once crumbed don’t fry immediately but put the breasts in the fridge again for an hour to firm up the crumbs. So basically you can have all that done by the morning of the day you wish to serve these. The frying is last minute, however, that can be done and then place the breasts in the oven to keep them warm or finish cooking them through.
The sauce can be made an hour ahead of time and just place a cover of plastic wrap on the top to prevent a skin from forming. I served these on a bed of rice rather than spaghetti but the choice is yours. A simple green salad is all that is needed to accompany this scrumptious main course. I did find that three half breasts went a long way and were more than enough for four people.
The sauce also makes up to a massive amount so tonight I’m using the leftover sauce with a diced BBQ chicken and some packaged tortellini. Bam! Thursday night’s dinner sorted. Yes ladies and gentlemen, I scored a 10/10 thank you. Wahoooo!
Bombe Alaska is something I have always wanted to try and it was so much fun to make. The first thing I need to say here is don’t use lactose free ice-cream as I did because it doesn’t freeze as hard as normal ice-cream. Nevertheless it was okay and of course I am lactose intolerant so had no choice if I was going to eat it. And trust me I didn’t just make this so others could devour it. So whilst a bit fiddly doing individual bombes, there is still so much you can do ahead like the ice-cream in the moulds, prepping the fruit filling and cutting out the cake. Where you need an extra pair of hands is very, very quickly coating the upturned moulds with the meringue to go into the oven for 3 minutes.
If you did one big mould it would probably be easier at this point. As you can see from the photos they turned out just great and everyone loved them.
I have an idea though for Xmas. Trifle Bombe. Yes, I have it figured out in my head and I’ll do it a few weeks before Xmas to trial it and let you know how it goes. Exciting! 10/10. Yep a real winner this week. Good grief I’ll have to be on my game next week.
Till then.
From my table to yours with love.x
Creamy Tuscan Chicken Rolls
I found that for four people in fact 3 half breasts were enough but it will depend on everyone's individual situation .
Chicken Rolls
- 4 chicken breast fillets
- 2 tsps pepper
- 1 tbsp onion powder
- 4 tsps kosher salt
- 1 tbsp garlic powder
- 225 g baby spinach
- 200 g sun dried tomatoes
- 2 c canola oil
- 2 c panko bread crumbs
- 4 large eggs (beaten)
- 1 c all purpose flour
Béchamel Sauce
- 3 tbsp unsalted butter
- 5 cloves garlic
- 2 medium shallots (diced)
- 80 g baby spinach
- 1½ tbsp sun-dried tomatoes (chopped)
- 150 g tomatoes (diced)
- 2 c heavy cream
- 1 tbsp all purpose flour
- 1½ tsps kosher salt
- 1 tsp pepper
- 80 g grated parmesan cheese
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
The Chicken Rolls
-
Butterly the chicken breasts and season on both sides with 1 tsp of pepper, the onion powder, 2 tsps of salt and the garlic powder.
-
Place a chicken breast between 2 sheets of plastic wrap and pound with a meat mallet, rolling pin, or heavy pan until about 6 mm thick.
-
Remove the top sheet of plastic wrap and place a handful of baby spinach over the centre of the chicken breast, then cover with ¼ cup of sun-dried tomatoes. Starting from the bottom, tightly roll the chicken, using the plastic wrap to help. Wrap the chicken roll tightly in plastic wrap to secure. Repeat with remaining ingredients.
-
Chill the chicken rolls in the fridge for 30 – 60 minutes.
-
Heat 5-7cm of oil in a large heavy-bottomed pan over medium heat until it reaches 180° C.
-
Add the panko to a shallow dish and stir in 1 tsp of salt and ½ tsp pepper. Add the eggs to a separate shallow dish. Add the flour to a third shallow dish and stir in the remaining salt and pepper.
-
Remove chicken rolls from the fridge and coat in the flour, then the eggs, then the bread crumbs.
-
Fry the breaded chicken rolls in the hot oil for about 5 minutes per side, or until the outside is an even golden brown and the internal temperature reaches 165 °c. You may need to work in batches, so as not to overcrowd the pan. If a good colour is achieved and the chicken's centre is still not to temperature, place the chicken on a wire rack set over a baking sheet and finish cooking in the oven at 170°c until the proper temp is reached. Once the proper internal temperature is reached, place the rolls on a baking sheet lined with paper towels on a wire rack to cool slightly before slicing and serving.
-
Slice the chicken rolls and serve over a bed of spaghetti or rice with the béchamel sauce and a green salad alongside.
Béchamel Sauce
-
Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the garlic and shallot and cook until softened and the onions are beginning to caramelise and become very fragrant, about 5 minutes.
-
Stir in the spinach, sun-dried tomatoes, and diced tomatoes and cook until the spinach is wilted, about 3 minutes.
-
Add the heavy cream and flour and stir to incorporate.
-
Add the salt and pepper and bring to a boil.
-
Stir in the parmesan cheese and cook until the sauce thickens slightly 5-7 minutes.
-
Remove the pot from the heat and stir in the lemon juice.
Raspberry Bombe Alaska
- 1.5 litres vanilla ice-cream
- 1 c frozen raspberries (fresh when available)
- 1 tbsp caster sugar
- 4 egg whites
- 1 c firmly packed brown sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp cornflour
- 200 g madeira cake
-
Line four ¾ cup moulds with plastic wrap. Press quarter of the ice-cream firmly up and around inside of each mould to form a cavity. Cover with foil; freeze about 2 hours or until firm.
-
Preheat oven to very hot (240°c/220°c fan-forced)
-
Combine raspberries and caster sugar in small saucepan; stir gently over low heat about 5 minutes or until sugar dissolves. Cool 15 minutes.
-
Cut cakes into four thick slices; cut one round from each slice, large enough to cover top of mould.
-
Beat egg whites in small bowl with electric mixer until soft peaks form. Gradually add brown sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating until sugar dissolves between additions. Fold in extract and cornflour.
-
Spoon a quarter of the raspberry sauce into one mould; turn mould onto one cake round on oven tray, peel away plastic wrap. Spread a quarter of the meringue mixture over cake to enclose bombe completely; repeat with remaining raspberry sauce, moulds, cake rounds and meringue mixture. Bake, uncovered, about 3 minutes or until browned lightly.
Comments are closed