SHAWARMA KEBAB BIG GREEN EGG

 KAMADO BARBECUE COOKING

Winner winner family dinner, this spicy succulent juicy smokey chicken shawarma was woofed down by my family, stuffed into flatbreads and loaded with aioli, slaw, salad and pickled kebab peppers, hot sauce not needed as there is a good chilli kick in the chicken marinade.

Kebab is such a dirty word in the UK, we have so many mass produced cheap doner kebab suppliers that cheapen the food for people who just crave food and fat after midnight, these cheap doner kebabs have their place and I have had a fair few in my days!  But kebabs are a wonderful food when done well, a joy to eat.

Ingredients 

(serves 4)

The Chicken Brine Up To 24 hrs

3 ltrs cold water

150g sea salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

1 kg chicken breasts

Combine all the brine ingredients, stir well to dissolve the salt, place the chicken breasts in to the brine and cover, pop in the fridge for up to 24 hours

The Shawarma Spice Marinade 

1/2 cup olive oil

1 leg lemon zest and juice

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp onion powder

1 tsp smoked paprika

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1/2 tsp Kashmiri chilli powder

1/2 tsp turmeric

1 tsp ground cumin

1/4 tsp cardamom powder

1 tsp sea salt

1 tsp ground black pepper

Mix all the marinade ingredients together and coat the brined drained chicken throughly.  Leave to marinate for a couple of hours or even better over night.

To Serve

6 flatbreads

(want to make your own, recipe below)

1 iceberg lettuce finely shredded

2 lemons halved

1 red onion finely sliced

1 400g jar kebab pickled peppers

Aioli 

3 cloves garlic finely grated

300g mayonnaise 

1/2 lemon juiced

Mix the ingredients together and chill until needed.

Slaw

1/2 white cabbage finely shredded

1 lrg carrot julienne

1 red onion finely sliced

1 tsp Dijon mustard

1 tsp apple cider vinegar

1/2 tsp turmeric (optional)

1/4 tsp ground black pepper

200g mayonnaise

Mix the Dijon, apple cider vinegar, turmeric and black pepper in the mayonnaise, then mix through the rest of the ingredients and chill until needed.

KAMADO BARBECUE

Oak and hickory charcoal and one hickory wood chunk 250 C / 482 F

No barbecue then 200 C / 392 F in your oven.

If you want the charr for that extra flavour then on a flat top or cast iron griddle on the stove.

Cut the marinated chicken into large chunks, place on your skewer, simply cook over your coals for approx 7 minutes, turn and repeat, if your using a temperature probe I cook chicken to 78-83 C / 172-181 F, then rest for 10 minutes.

Serve family style where everyone can dive in and stuff their breads or lettuce leaves to their likin.

Flat Breads

Ingredients 

(makes 6-8)

500g 00 caputo Italian flour

10g Himalayan sea salt 

50g extra virgin olive oil 

15g yeast

320g water

Place all the ingredients in a mixing bowl and either by hand or by machine with a dough hook mix for seven minutes, then dust a little flour over the dough mix and gently form into a ball, cover the bowl with a tea towel and leave in a warm area to prove for 1-2 hours until doubled in size if you want to use after the prove, other options are to prove the dough slowly in the fridge for 24hrs for a even better depth of flavour and texture, this is what I do as it gives me much more control over time and usage, this will keep for 48hrs in the fridge ready to go when you are, you can also freeze any left over dough at this stage, then when ready to use remove from the freezer defrost and once up to room temperature use as you would fresh.

 Take a oversized golf ball piece of dough, dust your work top with a little 00 flour, roll out a large disk no bigger than your skillet if your not cooking in a wood fired oven, heat to a hot heat, place the flat bread in the pan and cook for one and a half minutes on each side, best served warm, so wrap the cooked flatbreads in a tea towel to keep warm.  

Theseare almost as good used later the same day, to use the following day dip the flat breads in water and pop in a pre heated oven for 3-5 minutes and Ta-Da almost as good as fresh.

CHAO FAN RICE WITH STICKY GINGER PORK

 Where has this dish been all my life!  How could I have not had this, especially as my husband lived in Hong Kong and used to go The Mariners Club where this was one of his favourite dishes!

This recipe is easier to throw together after a Chinese feast using particular leftovers, but I did make this from scratch for my husband and it was totally worth the little extra effort braising the belly pork.

Ingredients 

(serves 4)

Chao Fan

200g honey, ginger belly pork (recipe below)

1 thick slice of ham small diced

1 cup of petit pois peas cooked

1 thumb size piece ginger finely diced

1 large green pepper small diced

6 spring onions finely sliced

1 cup of basmati rice

2 cups of light chicken stock

Sticky Honey Ginger Pork Belly

This gorgeous melt in the mouth belly pork is just divine, worth the hour and half wait.

Ingredients 

( 1 1/2 hrs oven cook)

500g belly pork

1 tsp five spice

1 tbsp soy

1 tbsp sliced ginger

1 ltr chicken stock

1 tbsp red wine vinegar

2 tbsp caster sugar

Glaze

4 tbsp honey

1 tbsp brown sugar

2 tbsp soy sauce

1 tsp grated ginger

1 red chilli finely diced

For the glaze, mix all the glaze ingredients together, heat in a pan until the sugar has dissolved and you have a sticky glaze.

Rub the belly pork with the soy sauce and five spice, reserve to one side to marinated for half an hour, overnight is even better.

Pre heat your oven to 160 C / 320 F.  Place the belly pork in a casserole dish with a lid, add the rest of the braising ingredients, pop on the lid and place in the oven for around one and a half hours, check after 1 hour, the pork is done when it is gelatinous and you can pull it apart with no effort.

Chop into small bite size pieces and toss in the glaze.

Perfect Rice

1 cup of basmati rice

2 cups of light chicken stock

The key to successful rice is simply do not stir or take the lid off the pan!

Rinse the rice in a sieve and place in your pan along with the stock, pop on a lid and bring to a simmer, turn down the heat to a low simmer, under no circumstances take the lid off or stir the rice!  Simmer for 6 minutes then take the rice off the heat and leave to one side for a further 5 minutes, perfect cooked rice.

Fluff up the rice with a fork and stir in all the chao fan ingredients, that is it, enjoy.

GUY FIERI BURGER WITH SMC, MAC N CHEESE AND DONKEY SAUCE

Best Burger EVER ! 

Kamado Cooking

This is out of bounds as the man himself would say…chuck steak, short rib and ribeye minced together with sweetcure bacon, pickled jalapeños and shallot, seasoned with salt and black pepper, formed into 5 oz  balls, then a single smash (no lace) so make it count, cooked on cast iron over oak and hickory coals in the Big Green Egg Kamado at 230 C / 446 F.

Best eaten in private or with people who love you!

Burger Ingredients

(makes 6 burgers)

500g cold chuck steak diced

200g cold short rib diced

200g cold ribeye diced

3 rashers sweetcure bacon diced

1 shallot roughly chopped

1/3 cup pickled jalapeños

1 tsp sea salt

1 tsp black pepper

Mix all the burger ingredients together, run through the mincer on a medium fine blade, divide the mix roughly by six and form into balls ready to smash.

Donkey Sauce

1 large bulb of garlic

Olive oil

Sea salt

Tin foil

1 cup mayonnaise 

1 tbsp yellow mustard

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

Sea salt and black pepper

Pre heat oven to 180 C / 256 F.  Place the whole garlic bulb on the tin foil sheet, drizzle with the olive oil and season with salt, wrap up the foil around the garlic creating a wigwam structure, bake in the oven for around 30 minutes until you can squeeze the no garlic purée from the bulb.

In a food processor blitz all the ingredients together.

Fixings

6 buns

150g garlic butter

1 red onion finely sliced in rings

3 dill whole pickles thinly sliced longways

1/2 cup pickled jalapeños 

2 tomatoes finely sliced

SMC

(SUPER MELTY CHEESE)

I’ve taken guy’s super melty cheese burger sauce and combined the sauce recipe with a gram flour (gluten free) roux bechamel to make cheese burger slices, this allows for more super melty cheese on the burger!

 INGREDIENTS 

30g butter

30g gram flour (chickpea flour)

3 cups half and half

280g velveeta cheese diced

140g smoked gouda freshly grated

140g white cheddar freshly grated

140g provolone diced

1 tbsp Tabasco or Franks hot sauce

1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

Melt the butter and whisk in the gram flour, cook on a medium heat for five minutes, add 2/3 cup of half and half and whisk in until you have a smooth thick paste, add another cup of half and half and repeat until all the milk is used.  Cook the sauce on a medium heat for 10 minutes,  add the velveeta and stir until melted, add the rest of the ingredients and stir until melted, at this point take two ladles of sauce and reserve keeping warm for the mac n cheese.   Line a low sided baking tray with baking paper, pour the cheese sauce on the tray, with a spatula level off the sauce, pop in the fridge to chill and set.  Cut into squares to fit your burgers.

Mac n Cheese

Cook your macaroni elbows and stir in to your warm reserved cheese sauce.

COOK AND ASSEMBLE THE BURGER

Heat your kamado to 230 C / 446 F.  Place your plancher or cast iron skillet in on the grill to pre heat.

Take your Pattie balls and place on the plancher, using two crisscrossed burger spatulas or a cast iron burger press, press down firmly and evenly only once to flatten out the burger, cook for around 2-3 minutes until a nice crust has formed, flip over, cook for 1 minute then add your cheese slice, squirt some water on the plancher and cover the burger with a dome, I use a stainless steel mixing bowl.  This will create steam that will melt the cheese without over cooking the burger.

Butter your buns with the garlic butter and toast on the plancher.

To load the burgers up…

Bun base

Donkey sauce

Cheese burger

Donkey sauce

Cheese burger

Cheeseburger

Red onion slices

Tomatoes

Dill pickles

Jalapeños 

Mac and cheese

Donkey sauce

Bun lid

Remember to tuck and roll when eating this!

KAMADO HICKORY OAK SMOKED CHIPOTLE CHICKEN FAJITAS

Big Green Egg

NEXT LEVEL FAJITAS

 This recipe uses natural oak and hickory coals from Big Green Egg and hickory wood chunks to add great smokey and charred flavour to an already marinated Gran Luchito smokey ancho chipotle chicken fajitas.  What takes this fajitas to an over the top level is from charring the peppers, tomatoes, onions, spring onions, jalapeños and lime wedges on the kamado.

Ingredients 

(serves 4)

4 chicken breasts sliced

1 tbsp gran Luchito Mexican BBQ fajitas mix

1 tbsp gran Luchito chipotle chilli paste

2 green peppers cut into 4 pieces

4 tomatoes whole (for the pico de gallo)

4 fresh jalapeños whole

8 spring onions trimmed whole

2 limes cut in half

2 red onions sliced rings

Guacamole 

2 ripe avocados

1/4 red pepper finely diced

2 spring onions finely sliced

1 fresh jalapeno finely diced

1 lime juiced 

4 tbsp fresh chopped coriander

Pico de gallo

The 4 charred tomatoes from the grill, finely chop

1 small red onion finely diced

1 fresh jalapeno finely diced

2 tbsp fresh chopped coriander

1 lime juiced

Accompaniments 

16 small or 4 large corn flour tortillas

1 iceberg lettuce finely shredded

1 large tub sour cream

1 cup pickled sliced jalapeños 

Grated cheddar optional

Fire up your kamado grill, for this cook I like to control the temperature around 250C / 480 F.  When your ready to cook pop in one or two hickory wood chunks.

Marinate the chicken in the gran Luchito dry rub and chipotle chilli paste, place on skewers and place on the grill to cook, don’t turn the chicken until half way cooked, this ensures the chicken is seared and sealed and will not stick when you turn the skewers over, also this adds a gorgeous charred flavour.  Cook the remaining side for two minutes, then take off and rest for five minutes.

At the same time as the chicken place the peppers, tomatoes, red onion rings, spring onions, jalapeños and lime halves on the grill, charr slightly for the same time the chicken is grilling, adding great flavour.

Once charred slice the peppers and mix with the onions, slice the jalapeños and spring onions then reserve the tomatoes for the pico de gallo.

Guacamole

Deseed the avocados and mash roughly

Mix in the red pepper, spring onion, jalapeños, lime juice and coriander.

Pico de gallo

Mix all the ingredients together and season with salt and black pepper.

To serve mix the smokey chipotle chicken fajitas with the charred peppers, onions, spring onions and jalapeños, squeeze the juice from the limes over the fajitas and serve family style piled high with the accompaniments of corn flour tortillas, sour cream, guacamole, pico de gallo, pickled jalapeños and optional grated cheese, enjoy your wraps to your own style.

KAMADO BARBECUE KOREAN SHORT RIBS

 BIG GREEN EGG

Barbecue by

Miss Kristi-Lou

Aromatic sticky ginger Korean short ribs, marinated in a soy, sesame, ginger, garlic and honey paste, cooked over direct heat in the BGE adding that extra depth of flavour only cooking over coals can give you.

I urge you to marinate these ribs over night as this really sets the flavour in and makes a big difference.

Ingredients 

(serves 4-6)

Marinade

5” piece ginger roughly chopped

1 shallot peeled and halved

2 cloves garlic peeled

4 tbs honey

5 tbs soy sauce (gluten free for me)

2 tbs mirin

2 tbs sesame oil

1/2 tsp turmeric

1/2 tsp black pepper

1 kg Korean cut short ribs

Ask your butcher for the LA galbi cut, this is where the short ribs are cut in very thin slices across the bone.

To serve

Garlic saffron rice, with ginger and green peppers.

Blitz all the marinade ingredients together and on a flat baking tray massage into and all over the short ribs, cover and leave in the fridge overnight.

Fire up your kamado for direct heat cooking, maintain a cooking temperature of 200-220c / 392-428f.

Place your ribs on the grill and close the lid, every 2 minutes turn until the ribs are caramelised and have charred in places, around 4-6 minutes in total.  Remind your family there are three slices of bone in the rib as they dive in, serve with a side of rice or stuff into iceberg leaves with a sweet chilli sauce.

MAC AND CHEESE PIE

Next Level Comfort Food…

What is more comforting than a hug from warm gooey cheesy gloriousness encased in a buttery flakey suet crust pastry, what a winner dinner.  A total carb overload that is worth every groaning moan from this over indulgence !

Ingredients 

(serves 6-8)

 FOR THE BEST EVER SUET CRUST PASTRY

330g supreme self raising flour

100g cold butter grated

130g atora suet

Water as needed (150ml+)

1 tsp salt and white pepper 

1 beaten egg (for pastry wash)

Six Cheese Mac n Cheese

500g small elbow macaroni pasta cooked and drained

4 tbsp butter

4 tbsp all purpose flour

1 ltr full fat milk

1/4 tsp grated nutmeg

1 tsp white pepper

100g smoked gouda cheese block

200g sharp white cheddar block

100g fontina or Parmesan block

60g Provolone block

60g Emmental cheese block

60g Gruyère cheese block

3 tbsp sweet chilli sauce

Pastry

Make the pastry first so that it can rest in the fridge.  Place all the ingredients except the water in a large bowl and very gently mix, you do not want to over work the mix as this will make it rubbery, and this pastry is the best ever because it is light and crispy with a flakey texture finished off with a hint of almost dumpling texture underneath, that soaks up the gorgeous braise stake gravy.  Add the water a glug at a time probably 150ml ish and just crush the pastry mix together, wrap in paper and plonk in the fridge for 30 minutes or until needed.

Bring a large pan of water to a rolling boil generously season with sea salt, cook the macaroni for approx 8 minutes until al dente, soft but still has a bite to it.  Drain, toss through a drizzle of olive oil to stop the pasta clumping together, reserve to one side.

Mac n Cheese

Melt the butter, stir in the flour and cook on a low heat for 5 minutes, start to add the cold milk a cup at a time and whisk in each time until smooth, repeat until all the milk has been incorporated, and you have a medium thick sauce, add the nutmeg, white pepper and stir to combine. 

On a gentle low simmer cook the sauce for 15 minutes stirring all the time, do not let the sauce catch on the bottom of the pan,

Grate all the cheeses, this really makes a difference as pre grated cheese is generally coated in potato starch to stop the cheese from clumping, add the cheeses and stir in to combine, taste and season with salt if needed.  Stir in the cooked macaroni and combine.

Take one third of the pastry for the pie lid, roll out your pastry and line your pie tin,  pour in half the mac n cheese drizzle over the sweet chilli sauce and the add the remaining mac n cheese, egg wash the pie rim, place on the pastry lid and egg wash.

Pre heat your oven 180 C / 356 F.

Bake the pie for 35-40 minutes until golden brown, serve immediately.

HOMEMADE SPAM LOVE IT OR HATE IT ?

Spam Spam Spam!

The good, the bad and the ugly…

 Love it or hate it, it is and has been such a staple in our diets since 5th July 1937 when Homel launched Spam to increase sales of pork shoulder which at this time was not a popular cut of pork.

Tinned Spam Ingredients 

Pork shoulder

Ham

Salt

Water

Potato starch

Sugar

Sodium nitrate

As a child of the 1970’s this was a staple along with canned corn beef in my childhood home, I would wake up to a fried spam, cheap white bread, buttery sandwich, where the fat and heat of the spam melted the butter in the sandwich making a hot greasy gotta shove this sandwich in my mouth gorgeousness, a personal favourite even now but alas I don’t allow myself this luxurious spam treat anymore due to cleaner healthier eating, but I did find myself reminiscing of a fried spam sandwich, so I thought why don’t I make some fresh Spam!

No nitrites, no nitrates and lower salt.

Spam a unsung Hero!

Putting aside the processed high fat and salt, tinned cooked health points, Spam got all our troops through world war 11 as getting fresh meat to the servicemen on the front line was just not logistical, a “wartime delicacy” as quoted by our former British Prime Minister Margret Thatcher.  Even today spam is still a choice on military vessels and bases.  At the end of the war Spam was sent to help feed the the people struggling in Europe.

During rationing the Spam fritter was born, served to the armed forces and British children during the school years of rationing.

US service men referred to Spam as “Ham that didn’t pass its physical” “Meatloaf without it’s basic training”.

The British were supplied with canned corn beef and the Americans with canned spam, often there would be a trade off for a change in taste between the troops.

Spam commonly referred to as low income food, unjustly so, has supported people in countries that are war torn in conflict and facing strict rationing, moreover spam is affordable, easily accessible and has a long extended shelf life.

Monty Python and SPAM

The UK television show Monty Python’s Flying Circus was an funny television series in the 1970’s, one of their sketches featured a fabulous scene in a cafe selling spam with every dish and ends in the classic song, sing…spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, lovely spam, wonderful spam, lovely spam, wonderful spam!

Processed Food

Spam is a salty processed canned pork and ham (luncheon meat), that is high in fat, sodium and preservatives that is cooked in its tin on the production line at the factory, all this does not sound healthy in todays cleaner more informed fresh is best eating, which leads spam to lean towards not terribly healthy if eaten on a regular basis.

How cool is this a SPAM history museum based in “Spam Town” Austin, Minnesota!

HAWAIIA

Spam is a super popular part of Hawaiian cuisine, a top favourite lunch dish is musubi a sort of sushi, two slices of spam sandwiched between rice and a center wrap of nori dried seaweed, it is belevied a can of spam is opened every 4 seconds, with 3.8 cans consumed every second in the US, making a approximate 122 million cans of spam consumed annually, this accounts for 30% of the US population.

In Hawaiia spam is often referred to as portagee steak or Hawaiian steak.

Spam is very much in favour in South East Asia with the Phillippines consuming 1.2 million kilos annually again due to the service men during world war 11.

Fun Facts

Spamarama

A annual competition in Austin, the founders felt there was so many BBQ cook out competitions they could promote a competition to create brilliant spam recipes.

August 8th National Spam Day in Hawaiia.

Hawaiia island Oaho every spring hosts a Waikki Spam Jam.

Burger King has a spam and cheese breakfast burger.

Mac Donald’s has a spam burger.

Johnny’s restaurant has a Spamarama menu.

Question?

Would you consider a British Melton Mowbray Pork Pie the same as Spam?  What’s the difference, pastry case instead of tin?  As a pork pie purveyor I will advocate that a traditional hand raised lard pastry pork pie is miles ahead of a tin of spam, but why when the ingredients are virtually the same bar some extra seasoning and added natural jelly gelatine and pastry case not tin?

10 minutes prep / 3 hrs cooking / Overnight fridge pressing

Ingredients

1 kg pork shoulder

100g ham

100g pork back fat finely chopped

2 cloves garlic

1 tsp sea salt

1 tbsp sugar

5g pink curing salt (optional)

Pre heat your oven 110 C / 230 F

Place the pork, ham and garlic through a meat grinder / mincer twice until finely ground, mix well with the rest of the ingredients, (I do not use the curing salt as I don’t want nitrates and nitrate preservatives, opting out of this means your spam will not be as pink).  

Place the mix in a small loaf tin and pack down well, place the loaf tin in a deep saucepan 3/4 filled with hot water (known as a bain marie) and place in the oven for up to 3 hours.

Using a temperature probe once your spam loaf has reached 85 C / 185 F remove from the oven and the bain marie saucepan, cover the loaf pan with foil, take a brick, Yes I Said Brick! Cover with foil and place on top of the loaf tin to use as a weight press to compress the spam.

Place in the fridge overnight to set, that’s it, glorious fresh spam, no preservatives and lower in salt, ready for you to use, this will keep for 5 days in the fridge.

Spam Spread may just be over my boundary’s line !!!

PERFECT ROAST BEEF

 Traditional Sunday Roast Beef

There is something very special about cooking a family Sunday roast, a relaxed afternoon with the family all helping out and a glow of love around the table where all the trimmings are being passed around the table and over each other in some form of dance, this is my favourite day of the week.

I like to roast off the bone ribeye I find the flavour is outstanding and it makes a no fuss carving for serving.  What’s more it only takes 45-54 minutes to roast to medium rare.

I always cook to the core temperature and use the minutes per pound as the guide time to reach that core temperature, generally they are always spot on.

Roasting Times

2 kg / 4.4 lb

Blue very rare 9 minutes per lb = 40 minutes cooking and core temperature 45 C

Rare 10 minutes per lb = 45 minutes cooking time and core temperature 50 C

Medium Rare 12 minutes per lb = 54 minutes cooking and core temperature 60 C

Well done 16 - 18 minutes per lb = 72 minutes cooking and a core temperature 70 C

The Beef

Approx 2 kg / 4.4 lb ribeye of beef off the bone

1 glug olive oil

1 tbsp sea salt

1 tsp fresh ground black pepper

The Mirepoix 

1 bottle good red wine

500ml beef stock

2 carrots roughly chopped

2 ribs celery roughly chopped

1 leek roughly chopped

1 onion roughly chopped

1/2 bulb garlic bashed

1 small bunch parsley with stalks

2 bay leaves

1 tsp sea salt

1 tsp fresh ground black pepper

The Best Ever Roast Beef Gravy

750ml red wine roasting stock

200ml Madeira

All the resting juices from the beef

2 tbsp butter

Sea salt and black pepper

Roast Beef

Pre-heat your oven 220 C / 428 F

Rub the olive oil all over the beef and in a hot pan sear all sides of the beef nicely brown, remove and reserve to one side.

Place all the mirepoix ingredients, except the wine and water, in a large roasting tin and toss to combine.

Season the beef with salt and black pepper all over and place in the center of the roasting tin on top of the mirepoix, add the bottle of red wine and 500ml of beef stock.

Turn the oven down to 180 C / 358 F place the beef in the oven for your required cooking time (calculations above).  Once your preferred cooking time or core temperature is reached take the roast beef out of the oven and cover with baking paper and a tea towel to keep warm while resting.

Rest for at least 20 minutes but as a rule I rest fora minimum of half the cooking time and more.

To Make the Gravy

Strain the red wine roasting stock all the juices in to a fat separator jug that also has a sieve top to catch the Mirapoix pour off the stock  into a saucepan leaving the beef fat drippings behind, this fat can be stored in the fridge and used next time for beef dripping roast potatoes, reduce the stock gravy by half, add the Madeira and reduce by a third, add all the resting juices from the beef and using a whisk stir in the butter for this gorgeous old fashioned honest gravy.  

If you want a thicker gravy…

Add 1 tbsp of plain flour to the butter and mix well, (this is called a beurre manie) this will thicken the gravy to your choice, start with half the mix and add to the simmering gravy, whisk in well until smooth, taste and season with sea salt and fresh ground black pepper if needed, if you want a thicker gravy add more of the (beurre manie) butter flour roux.

Alternatively for gluten free gravy reduce the gravy slightly thicker and whisk in the butter which will slightly thicken the gravy and add a lovely gloss sheen, you can also blitz a little of the mirepoix and add to thicken the gravy further.

CHEESE STUFFED CRISPY PAN FRIED CHICKEN

Oozy gooey crispy butter pan fried chicken breast stuffed with three cheeses and jammon serrano.

This is a family favourite and it’s amazing how much cheese you can actually stuff inside a chicken breast!  Simple to make and sure to be a winner dinner.

Prep time 10 minutes / Cooking time 20 minutes

Ingredients

(serves 2)

1 glug olive oil

30g salted butter with 10g reserved

2 large chicken breasts

100g fresh grated mozzarella 

100g fresh grated medium cheddar

100g fresh grated red Leicester cheese

4 slices jammon serrano torn into pieces 

1 red serrano chilli sliced optional

2 eggs beaten

100g flour (for gluten free use gram flour)

1/4 tsp garlic powder

1/4  tsp onion powder

1/4 tsp sweet paprika

1/4 tsp dried thyme

1 pinch fresh ground black pepper

1 pinch sea salt

Good glug of rapeseed oil

Pre heat your oven 180 C / 354 F.

Take the fillet of the back of the chicken breast and trim of the membrane, leave to one side, take the chicken breast and holding the thickest part at the top on the right side slide a paring knife into the breast towards the center making sure not to pierce through the breast.  Gently move the knife side to side and up and down cutting the inside pocket wider and deeper, go as close to the inside edges of the breast as you dare!

Mix the three cheese with the jammon and stuff as much as you can into the pocket, then cut the reserved chicken fillet to the size of the hole and stuff into the hole at the top of the breast to create a plug.

Place the beaten eggs in a shallow bowl or tray and season, gently whisk the flour, onion and garlic powder, paprika, salt, black pepper and dried thyme.

Dust the chicken in the flour, then dip in the egg and coat all over then back into the flour making sure the whole breast is coated.

(If you want to deep fry these, I would at this point dip back into the egg and then coat in panko breadcrumbs and deep fry at 180 C for 6-8 minutes).

Heat a oven proof pan medium hot, add the butter and a glug olive oil, place the chicken in the pan and leave to sear for around 3-4 minutes on each side, turning only once to ensure that crispy crust.  Add the reserved butter to the pan and once melted baste he chicken several times.  Pop the pan in the oven for 5 minutes to ensure the cheese is fully melted.

Leave to rest for a couple of minutes before serving. Enjoy.

CHRISTMAS AGA BAKED WHITE WINE GARLIC THYME CAMEMBERT

Ooey Gooey Gorgeousness

Elevate your baked Camembert with white wine, garlic and thyme infusion and serve with roasted baked pear wedges wrapped in jamon serrano, warm crusty sour dough or for me just a spoon.

There is not many things that rival a spoon and a ooey gooey baked Camembert, this is not to be shared!  

Oven baking 30-40 minutes / Aga residual warming 1 hour

When choosing your Camembert if your going to bake in the box make sure the box is stapled not glued as the heat of the oven will melt the glue and you will end up with a mass of melted cheese.

Alternatively you can use a Camembert ceramic baker, there are lots a pretty designs available, the advantage of using a ceramic baker is the cheese stays hotter and gooey for longer, great if your serving on a Christmas buffet.

Ingredients 

(one)

1 Camembert in a stapled box room temperature 

150ml dry white wine

2 large cloves garlic sliced in to 3 lengthways 

2 sprigs fresh thyme cut into 6 pieces 

To serve with

2 pears quartered 

8 slices jamon Serrano

100ml apple calvados 

Warm crusty sourdough torn in to pieces 

A spoon…

Take the cheese out of the fridge at least 1 hour before baking.

Un wrap the cheese, place back in the box or ceramic baker, pierce holes with a knife, approx 12 in the top of the cheese, push the garlic slices in to half the wholes,  push the thyme in to the remaining holes, pour over the wine slowly making sure most of the wine soaks into the holes.  Pop the lid on, you can do this hours in advance.

If your using a Aga, place the Camembert on the hot surface of the Aga not the hot plates!  Leave to bake for around 1 hour until ooey, you can move the camemberts to the warming plate to keep warm or for a slower bake time.  My Aga has a piano back which is a wide shelf at the back of the Aga which is great for warming mulled wine and baking camemberts.

If your baking in a oven heat to 180 C /  356 F, pop the Camembert in and bake for approximately 30 minutes, possibly 40 minutes for a ooey Camembert.

For the pears

Quarter the pears, soak in the calvados, wrap a slice of jamon Serrano around each quarter, bake in the oven 180 C / 358 F for 20 minutes.