Newsletter # 44 – Chicken Roulade

Roulade is style of preparation that originated in Europe. Generally, it involves wrapping or rolling thin slices of meat around a filling. The meat used is boneless, lean and of good quality. You could find recipes for roulades using beef, veal, pork, and fish as well as today’s recipe for chicken roulade.

Paupiettes, cabbage rolls and involtini are all savoury members of the roulade’s European family, while further afield, Japan inspired the California Roll in North America and South America can offer you ‘Matambre’.

Sweet examples are not uncommon. In Australia the jam roll and the Yule log are still popular while the Pavlova roulade is often a feature at Christmas time as an alternative to a traditional Pavlova.

The French dish ‘Chicken Ballotine’ is similar, but larger and uses the whole de boned bird, including the skin. Often this dish is served cold.

There are two methods used when rolling this roulade. You can completely cover the flattened chicken with the ricotta mix before gently rolling the chicken up ‘like a carpet’ which will give you a spiral cross-section; or you can roll the chicken over the filling as I have done.

Chicken roulade with citrus glaze

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Servings: 2 serves

Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients

  

• 350 g chicken breast fillet
• 100 g smooth ricotta well drained of excess water
• 40 g pine nuts gently toasted
• 1 small spring onion rinsed and chopped
• 1 egg yolk
• ¼ tsp grated lemon rind
• ½ tsp corn flour
• sea salt
• cracked black pepper
• 4 leaves of silver beet green only or the equivalent in English Spinach or baby English spinach
• olive oil
• paprika a pinch
• 100 ml chicken stock
• juice from one orange
• juice from ½ lemon
• 15 g orange/lemon zest
• 15 g brown sugar

Method

 

1. Assemble your ingredients
   
2. Pre-heat your oven to 200c
3. Blanch the green leaves in boiling water for 30 seconds before refreshing them in cold water
   
4. Gently squeeze dry the leaves
   
5. Blanch the zest in boiling water for 20 seconds before refreshing in cold water.
   
6. Drain and pat dry
   
7. In a bowl mix the ricotta, pine nuts, spring onion, egg yolk, corn flour and seasoning together. Keep chilled while you prepare the chicken breast
   
8. With a sharp knife, split the chicken breast horizontally (butter flied)
   
9. Between two sheets of plastic wrap flatten the chicken, with a meat hammer, to around 6ml even thickness
   
10. Remove the top sheet of plastic and discard and almost cover the surface of the chicken with the silver beet
11. Place a generous amount of ricotta mix down the centre
    
12. Use the plastic wrap to roll the chicken to form a cylinder
    
13. Carefully transfer the chicken roll to an oiled sheet of al-foil. Remove the plastic wrap
    
14. Wrap the chicken in the al-foil. Secure the ends by twisting the foil
    
15. Place on a baking dish (with the foil join upwards) and bake for 20 minutes before turning down the oven to 170c and cooking for a further 15 minutes
16. When ready take out and let it stand, unopened for 15 minutes
17. Meanwhile, add the fruit juice, brown sugar and chicken stock to a pan and gently reduce by half
    
18. Add the citrus zest to the pan
    
19. Open the chicken and add any collected juices to the orange juice mix
20. Diagonally slice the chicken into six pieces
21. Arrange on two plates
22. Coat the chicken with the citrus glaze
    

Notes

English spinach is a better alternative – I used silver beet

Take care with toasting the pine nuts – 2 minutes in your oven while it is preheating

Alternatively use your air fryer

I served the chicken with mashed potato and steamed vegetables