Little Pockets Of Surprises With Fruity-Stuffed Chicken Breast Fillet

This is a totally new dish in the sense that I’ve never cooked nor eaten it before. Strangely, it’s a dish that isn’t very popular in Singapore, at least as far as I know of.

I was initially thinking of roasting a whole chicken, but thought it would be better to try something smaller first. Luckily I did, because this dish is so delectable that I’m definitely going to bake it frequently here. After all, the oven is sitting there idle and begging to be used.

Ingredients:

  • Chicken breast fillet: 4 medium-sized (120g each)
  • Honey: 1/2 tsp per fillet
  • Thyme: 1/2 tsp per fillet
  • Ground black pepper: a pinch per fillet
  • Mixed herbs: 1/2 tsp per fillet
  • Apple sauce: 1 tsp per fillet
  • Small mandarin oranges (nectarine):1, divided into 4 portions
  • Cherry tomato: 1 per fillet, sliced
  • Ham slices: 2, sliced, divided into 4 portions
  • Mozarella ball: sliced (only 4 slices needed)
  • Onions: 1 small, chopped, divided into 4 portions
  • Gruyere cheese: sliced thinly, divided into 4 portions
  • Unsmoked, cured gammon steak: 2 slices, each halved to form 4 long strips
  • Basil leaves: 2 per fillet, washed
  • Parsley: 1 stalk, chopped, divived into 4 portions
  • Olive oil: 3/4 tbsp per fillet

Method:

  1. Use a fruit knife to cut a pocket vertically (from the breadth) and deep enough in each of the breast fillet.
  2. Apply honey, thyme, pepper and herbs to the surface of the fillets. Leave to marinate for 2 hrs (or overnight).
  3. Apply apple sauce to the interior of the pockets using a spoon.
  4. Place oranges and tomatoes inside the pockets. Close the pockets and squeeze them a bit to get the juices coming out first.
  5. Squeeze the portioned ham, mozarella, onions and Gruyere into the pockets. Set aside the remaining ingredients that cannot be squeezed in.
  6. Wrap one strip of gammon steak over each fillet by covering the pocket opening. Set them in a baking or aluminium tray.
  7. Stuff 2 basil leaves and some parsley underneath each gammon steak.
  8. Squeeze the juice of the remaining oranges and tomatoes onto the fillets.
  9. Scoop the remaining ingredients into the tray.
  10. Drip olive oil onto the fillets. Bake for 45min at 200 degrees Celsius.
  11. Serve hot with some bread to soak up the juices in the tray!

Tricks:

  • The juice of the oranges and tomatoes helps to make the meat tender and even juicier.
  • The gammon steak is bigger, so it wraps up the fillet more effectively than bacon strips. Most recipes use the latter though.
  • Prepare more ingredients than is necessary so that the rest can go into the oven with the chicken and serve as garnishes later.
  • Use the apple sauce (Step 3) as an alternative way to serve the dish with.

Serving:
2 persons

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