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