Chicken Wrap

So as I was wandering through Manchester yesterday I came across the deli counters in the Arndale... purely accidental of course...

Then seconds later I was in the possession of Peccorino Romana and Prosciutto di Parma. Weird!

Luckily I had some organic chicken breasts at home. I was toying with the idea of stuffing the breasts into a foil bag with some herbs and white wine, but when I looked at the breasts they were practically crying out to be stuffed; they had arrived almost butterfly'd, all i had to do was lay the stuffing down and just fold over the rest of the breast. It was a sign.

So after a few slices of the Peccorino, some cracked black pepper (the cheese was salty enough) and some parsley-butter they were ready to wrap. I laid the breast on the end of a diagonally laid slice of ham, picked it all up and rolled away from me, tightly. I rubbed a little olive oil onto the top and banged it in the oven.

I prepared two breasts. I was ravenous/gluttonous. To go with it I boiled some purple sprouting broccoli. Once cooked I poured a little of the purple water into a saucepan with the juices from the chicken, freshly chopped parsley and some white wine. Simple sauce followed.

Chicken Milanese.... kinda

Things were a bit sparse in terms of food when I got back from holiday. I'd emptied out the fridge, and didn't have anything in the freezer but peas (I don't generally have much frozen food in anyway).

Therefore when I shopped online I was getting a little click happy. Did I really need all the fresh food I was buying? Specially since one of my Xmas pressies was a deep fat fryer :-D

I've been busy frying everything from chips to broccoli (in an ale batter) yesterday and at lunch before the game (come on Utd!). I would have taken pics of the onions etc... but all you'd see is blurring of hands, food and dip ;-)


Now I had lots of basil swiftly on it's way to wilting beyond control, along with crispy rolls that were not so crispy...

This was when the idea of a basil crumb crust for my organic chicken breasts surfaced. So i whizzed them together (this was when I decided chunky bread crumbs would be best), beat an egg, butterflyed the breast.

With the supporting cast of purple sprouting broccoli and new potatoes ready, it was just a matter of dunk, cover and pan fry.

It was very crunchy, with a lovely moist centre.


PS I wasn't deep frying the purple broccoli, I had the regular sort too. Told you: click happy!

And a good Xmas was had...

...by all but the bullock, turkey and pheasant!

Well that was fun, now all I have to do is run it all off :-) What follows is a small sampled of what I sampled. Needless to say there was some aged brandy and whisk(e)y mixed in, and a bit of chocolate...

First up was a fabulous rib-eye roast. With tahters :-)

It was tre delish, to be sure...

Here's the Christmas cake, that's fruit cake with marzipan and icing on top. It usually has some plastic santa/reindeers on the top. This year it was a plastic holly arrangement :-)


Then we're onto the turkey, a huge beast - cooked for hours! It's stuffed to the gills with sage and onion stuffing. Turkey rules! (This was butcher bought)



Now we're onto the pheasant. A friend of the family, or a cousin?, has his own farm and rears all this kinda stuff. I think we got duck eggs from him last year. It's good to have friends.

Now my Nan has plucked her fair share of these birdies, she was on hand to make sure I didn't make a right hash of it. As you can see, I did :-) Oops, I'm sure no-one wanted the skin anyway ;-)

Note to self, don't try and rip them all off at once!

I'd show you the finished article, after roasting, but my camera ran out of space and the battery died. It tasted great, with a bit of bacon (added to prevent the bird from drying out [some Muppet tore off the skin!])