New Year Chicken

[rfn]

On NYE I have a load of friends coming around, and I'll be cooking for eight people. It's the first time I've cooked "properly" for so many people.

I am currently thinking of cooking cheese stuffed chicken breast, wrapped in bacon with rice. I cooked this a couple of weeks back but felt that it was quite dry - so wondered if it'd be best to serve with a sauce and some veg of some sort - could anyone recommend one and appropriate veg?

Also, the recipe's for the chicken I looked at seemed to offer wildly varying cooking times and methods. I wrapped and stuffed the raw chicken and cooked for (I think) about 40 minutes at 200 degrees, should I be cooking for longer on a lower heat?

Many thanks in advance!

[bananapieface]

Chicken breast should be done in about 25 mins with that heat.

You could wrap it in foil to keep it moist.

[RizzoTheRat]

Would probably work better with potatoes than rice, but how about leeks or cauliflower in a white/cheese sauce rather than having a sauce for the chicken?

[Pferdestarke]

rfn said:

I am currently thinking of cooking cheese stuffed chicken breast, wrapped in bacon with rice. I cooked this a couple of weeks back but felt that it was quite dry - so wondered if it'd be best to serve with a sauce and some veg of some sort - could anyone recommend one and appropriate veg?

No, no and no once more. Don't waste your time and money on chicken breast. It is tasteless, dry and boring if you overcook it (which you will)

Buy something with more flavour such as a lamb shoulder, a pork loin or beef rib. With any of the above, as long as you rub it with light olive oil and then season liberally with salt and pepper you will be on to a winner.

Get a massive roasting tin and chop up lots of root veg like carrots, parsnips, onion, sweet potato and season. Add a little oil and balsamic vinegar and mix together getting your hands in there. Roast until sweet, charred and sticky. Remove to a warm serving dish.

Boil some good quality potatoes and when they are really soft, add a little warm milk and half a pat of butter with some white pepper and two teaspoons of salt. Mash until there are no lumps. Taste it, adjust seasoning/butter/milk until you are happy with the consitency.

In your roasting tray that your meat has rested in, skim off most of the fat. Pour over enough boiling water to deglaze the tray to unearth all the meaty goodness and pour this into the stickyness that is left in the bottom of the veg roasting tray. Add more boiling water and stir over a high heat to bring to the boil and reduce. Add a little red wine and allow to 'cook out'. Taste. If you need more meaty flavour then add some gravy granules or a stock cube but watch the saltyness.

Carve your rested meat and pour any juices in to your gravy. Serve and enjoy.

Chicken and cheese? Never again!

[f13ldy]

I'd go with above.

You don't wanna be wrapping and stuffing 8 chicken breasts.

I'm bored after 2.

[Wadeski]

agree with the above. your taking a dinner for two and upping the quantities till you get to eight - this isnt good cooking sense.

either roast a whole chicken (seriosuly not a daunting prosepect - just buy a nigel slater book and roast away) or as has been said slow-roast some lamb or pork.

[grumbledoak]

40mins is far too long. Even then, Pancetta-wrapped chicken with rice is always going to be pretty dry. And, you won't find a sauce to marry them IME.

Go with bananapieface and RizzoTheRat- 25mins, potatoes, and vegetables au gratin. Pretty good for pre-preparing, too.

hth

[f-fuxake]

I've done chicken stuffed with cream cheese wrapped in parma ham.
The sauce was basically chicken stock, red wine and soft brown sugar. Not sure of quantities but have a play with it it's fantastic, should have a thickish consistancy.

[Papoo]

I'd go with a rib of beef. It's completely foolproof, has a tollerant range of acceptable temperatures, and is a winner with guests. Just get a meat thermometer, stick it in to the middle of the roast. Look for it to say 127'F. Once rested, that'll be beaufitully pink in the middle.

Cook using the method mentioned by Pferdestarke. Nom nom nom..

[Papoo]

I'd go with a rib of beef. It's completely foolproof, has a tollerant range of acceptable temperatures, and is a winner with guests. Just get a meat thermometer, stick it in to the middle of the roast. Look for it to say 127'F. Once rested, that'll be beaufitully pink in the middle.

Cook using the method mentioned by Pferdestarke. Nom nom nom..

[Don]

Pferdestarke said:

rfn said:

I am currently thinking of cooking cheese stuffed chicken breast, wrapped in bacon with rice. I cooked this a couple of weeks back but felt that it was quite dry - so wondered if it'd be best to serve with a sauce and some veg of some sort - could anyone recommend one and appropriate veg?

No, no and no once more. Don't waste your time and money on chicken breast. It is tasteless, dry and boring if you overcook it (which you will)

Buy something with more flavour such as a lamb shoulder, a pork loin or beef rib. With any of the above, as long as you rub it with light olive oil and then season liberally with salt and pepper you will be on to a winner.

Get a massive roasting tin and chop up lots of root veg like carrots, parsnips, onion, sweet potato and season. Add a little oil and balsamic vinegar and mix together getting your hands in there. Roast until sweet, charred and sticky. Remove to a warm serving dish.

Boil some good quality potatoes and when they are really soft, add a little warm milk and half a pat of butter with some white pepper and two teaspoons of salt. Mash until there are no lumps. Taste it, adjust seasoning/butter/milk until you are happy with the consitency.

In your roasting tray that your meat has rested in, skim off most of the fat. Pour over enough boiling water to deglaze the tray to unearth all the meaty goodness and pour this into the stickyness that is left in the bottom of the veg roasting tray. Add more boiling water and stir over a high heat to bring to the boil and reduce. Add a little red wine and allow to 'cook out'. Taste. If you need more meaty flavour then add some gravy granules or a stock cube but watch the saltyness.

Carve your rested meat and pour any juices in to your gravy. Serve and enjoy.

Chicken and cheese? Never again!

Sorry - but I have done a recipe called "Millenium Chicken" ever since 2000 when I did it for a large party and it works great for numbers.

Chicken breast, stuffed with cheese and tarragon, wrapped in bacon, sprinkled with garlic salt and more tarragon and more cheese and cooked in the oven at 220C for 25-30 minutes.

The bacon becomes crisp, the chicken remains moist for that time and the cheese does wonderful things inside the chicken to keep it moist and goes crisp and tasty on top.

Its a great recipe and you can do huge trays of it, prepared in advance, and ready in no time for the hungry hordes.

YES YOU HAVE TO WATCH THE TIMES! But it scales up beautifully.

Serve with mashed potato - another thing that scales up. And I usually do steamed veg...because I have a lot of steamers and can scale that up, too.

If timing is a problem than I agree your choices of things you can do long and slow are good.

[Pferdestarke]

Sounds lovely Don. Maybe the OP's original description did it no favours.

[Don]

Another Chicken dish that scales is bone in chicken thighs, topped with pancetta, tarragon and garlic salt. An hour at 200C.

Serve with mash and roast veg is good.

I cook a lot of chicken as my wife doesn't eat fish. There are endless variations on the "big tray of chicken pieces" recipes that scale well.

[Don]

Pferdestarke said:

Sounds lovely Don. Maybe the OP's original description did it no favours.

Ah yes. But there's talking the talk and tasting the grub.

I can make it sound lovely - but will you like it?

I can honestly say it's worth trying out as a recipe. That and using good tasty chicken from a farm shop will help, of course.

[Pferdestarke]

Don said:

I can make it sound lovely - but will you like it?

Probably!

[Papoo]

Our 'staple' meat is chicken. Probably 3-4 times a week. There are a whole world of things you can do with it. I do believe that there is absolutely no comparison in flavour between boneless skinless, and chicken on the bone. Chicken on the bone is much more flavourful, much more moist, more tender, harder to dry out/mess up, and it has skin.... delicious skin...