Weekly Veg Box Recipe: Stuffed Chicken Fillet with Herb Roast Potatoes, Buttered Carrots & Creamy Leeks

Ingredients (Serves 4):

4 chicken fillets                                   1 ½ tsp. dried rosemary                   250ml double cream

4 smoked bacon rashers                     5 garlic cloves                                 salt & pepper

800g-1kg potatoes                              150g butter                                      2 tbsp. rapeseed oil

3 leeks                                                 ¼ white onion                                 1tsp. dried thyme

600g carrots                                        400g button mushrooms                     

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 200⁰C, add rapeseed oil to a roasting dish and allow to heat up in the oven.

2. Wash and peel the potatoes and carrots. Chop the potatoes into rough 2cm cubes and cut the carrots into batons.

3. Put the potatoes and carrots into a large saucepan with a pinch of salt and par boil for 8 minutes.

4. Strain the veg then transfer the carrots to a foil lined oven proof dish (you need enough foil to group together on top to form a sealed package) add 100g butter, seal it and add to the oven. Shake the potatoes about in the pan till you get fluffy edges on your spuds. Remove the oil filled tray from the oven, add the potatoes, 3 peeled and crushed garlic cloves, thyme and 1tsp. of the rosemary, jostle it all about until it’s all coated and return to the oven.

5. Slice the mushrooms and add to the frying pan with a little oil and add the onion, 2 peeled and finely chopped garlic cloves, pinch of salt and pepper and the remaining butter. Cook on a medium heat until soft and cooked through, then blitz it all into a coarse paste in a food processor. Set aside. Wipe the pan clean with kitchen roll, you’ll need the pan later.

6. Prepare the chicken by slicing down the side of the fillet with a sharp knife creating a pocket in the fillet for the mushroom mix. Fill the pocket with the mushroom mix and wrap the chicken fillet tight in a rasher of bacon, wrap in tin foil and place on a baking tray, repeat for the others, turn the oven down to 180⁰C and cook for 35 mins then open up the foil for the last 10 mins to crisp up the bacon.

7. Whilst everything in the oven is cooking, top and tail the leeks and slice into 1cm pieces then give them a thorough wash under cold running water. Put your frying pan back on a medium(ish) heat, add the leeks, salt and pepper and remaining rosemary, cook until soft.

8. Remove the chicken from the oven, unwrap and plate. Add cream to the leeks and stir for 1 minute, then leave to gently simmer on a low heat whilst the rest of the vegetables are plated. Add the leeks.

9. Quickly whip up a gravy with some stock cubes, serve and enjoy.

Toms Top Tips:

When cooking meals, you need to remember people taste things differently and so you must keep checking seasoning, always taste a little while after adding salt and pepper and only a little at a time, it’s all too easy to go overboard with it. On another note this meal is well accompanied by a nice Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Grigio.