"Voted best dish at Rockstar Lincoln first Guest Chef event, these small chicken wraps hold a surprisingly powerful richness of flavour. It doesn't matter how many you prepare, you'll always want another one. Mouth watering."
Ingredients
- 2 chicken breasts
- 4/6 slices of Parma ham
- 10/12 medium sage leaves
- 10/12 small cubes of any hard cheese (nice cheese please!)
- 10/12 short skewers/wooden tooth picks
- 1/2 glass of white wine
- salt and pepper
- a table spoon of olive oil
Tools
- good kitchen knife (smooth/even blade, no dents) and chopping board
- 26/28cm frying pan, ideally non-sticky, but not essential
- pan lid
Preparation
- Cut the hard cheese in small cubes
- Wash the sage leaves and dry them quickly by shaking them
- From each chicken breast take off the small piece half detached that you always find on the bottom side of the breast and use the knife to make thin fillets out of the remainder, by holding the chicken pressed against the chopping board with your hand and slowly sliding the knife through - try to make them fairly even, not too thin, not too thick. You should be able to get one uneven smaller piece and 2 nice full length fillets off each chicken breast
- Cut the 2 nice fillets in half, to obtain 4 pieces, roughly 5/7cm long
- Once you have your 10/12 pieces of chicken, beat them gently with the part of your palm close to your wrist in order to flatten them a bit - the chicken is already dead, so take it easy!
- Sprinkle some salt and ground pepper on one side of each piece of chicken
- Depending on the number of chicken pieces, cut the Parma ham in an equal number of pieces, roughly the same size of the chicken if possible
- Take one piece of chicken and place the ham on the side you haven't put any salt/pepper on
- Put a piece of cheese in the middle
- Roll or fold the chicken/ham around the cheese - if thin and long, roll, if squared and small, fold; or try both and see which makes it hold together best!
- Place a sage leaf where the skewer will go through and close the fold/roll with the skewer, ensuring the cheese is well blocked inside and the sage leaf is securely attached
- Repeat the above until all the wraps have been prepared
Cooking
- Heat up a full table spoon of oil in a large frying pan
- When pretty hot, add the wraps and make them brown on high heat
- When nicely browned (not burnt!) turn each of them - you can use your hands by picking them from the skewer if you are careful
- When browned on both sides and sizzling add the wine and cover with the lid
- Let them cook for 3/5 minutes with the lid on to ensure they cook thoroughly
- Remove the lid and keep stirring/moving them until the wine reduces and the juices brown slightly creating a sticky glaze - this can take 5/10 min depending on how high is the heat and how much wine you added
Serving
Tips
OK, it can sound daunting, but trust me, it's a lot easier than it seems. First thing first, they will not all look cute and nice. Each wrap will be bigger or smaller, well closed or a bit held together by a miracle, it takes time to master, but the truth is that there's no right shape. I like to make them small and simple with little cheese inside. Making the cheese cube too big will make it harder to close. The choice of cheese is very important too. I recommend medium/hard cheese, like Comte or Gruyere. If the cheese is too soft it will melt out of the wrap potentially spoiling the whole dish (or making a nice creamy cheesy juice!). As soon as they cook, they will hold together, as long as they have a minimum of stability when they first get in the pan. Either way, even when they don't look that pretty, they always taste great!
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