“As part of my push to lose weight and get fit and healthy I’ve been redesigning some of my favourite recipes with less fattening ingredients. Obviously I want to do this without losing the flavour hit that comes with high fat foods and cooking techniques so I can confuse my taste-buds into thinking they’re still being spoilt. I have a recipe from my classical music range called “Nutcracker Chicken”. It consists of a chicken breast that’s been filled with a combination of goats cheese, blue vein and pistachios, coated in macadamia and panko crumbs, then fried and baked. I serve it with roast capsicum sauce, roast potatoes, asparagus spears and honeyed pine nuts. YUM! I’m getting hungry just thinking about it! …but for now here is a much healthier alternative that packs a huge amount of flavour in the sauce and chicken filling. Enjoy!”
Stuffed chicken breast ingredients
- 1 leek
- 4 garlic cloves
- 8 mushrooms
- 150g sun-dried tomatoes
- Splash of white wine
- zest and juice from half a lemon
- 1/3 cup pine nuts
- 1/2 cup basil leaves
- 6 chicken breasts
- 12 slices of prosciutto
- Clean the leek then quarter and dice. Add to the pan with a small amount of olive oil. Cook until leeks have softened slightly.
- Finely dice the garlic and add to the pan for a few minutes.
- Dice the mushrooms and sun-dried tomatoes and add to the pan with the white wine.
- When liquid has reduced to almost nothing remove from the heat and stir in the pine nuts and diced basil. Set aside to cool.
- Cut a cavity in the chicken breast and put stuffing inside.
- Wrap 2 slices of prosciutto around chicken to keep the stuffing in and refrigerate until ready to cook.
- Heat a small amount of light olive oil in a pan and on medium heat cook the chicken on each side until prosciutto has cooked (about 1 minute per side)
- Transfer to a baking dish and cover with foil. Bake for 20 minutes at 180 degrees c or until chicken is cooked all the way through.
Roast Tomato and Capsicum Sauce
- 2 red capsicums
- 6 tomatoes
- 1 onion
- Light olive oli
- Salt
- Pepper
- 3 tbsp kecap manis
- Cut the tomatoes into quarters and remove stem end.
- Cut capsicums into quarters and remove stem ends and seeds.
- Peel and quarter onion.
- Place all in a roasting dish and drizzle with light olive oil and some salt
- Roast for 30 minutes in a 220 degree c oven or until capsicum skins start to blacken.
- Let cool slightly and transfer to a blender adding the kecap manis. Don’t throw out any of the remaining juices from the pan as you will use them later!
- Blend on high until smooth. Season to taste. (If you want a smoother sauce pass the mixture through a drum sieve)
Vegetables
- 4 carrots
- 12 asparagus spears
- Peel and cut carrots into battens and transfer to the roasting dish you cooked the tomatoes in and coat with the juices. Add a little more olive oil and salt in needed.
- Bake in a 200 degree c oven for 30 minutes stirring occasionally.
- Cut asparagus into thirds and steam until cooked.
Plating up the dish
- Gently reheat the sauce and put a generous smear on the plate.
- Cut the chicken breast into 3 rounds and lay onto of the sauce (You can save the off-cuts for lunch tomorrow!)
- Put a pile of asparagus and carrots on the plate and garnish with 2 basil leaves.