Chicken stuffed with Mozzarella & Roasted Red Pepper

There is nothing like the comfort food of stuffed chicken and this dinner was no exception.  The extra cheese topped the roasters and I served a little roasted pepper bruschetta on the side.

For the Chicken:

Chicken breast, with a pocket cut into the side of it

2 or 3 slices of Serrano ham, you can also use Prosciutto or a stretched rasher

Slice of roasted red pepper

Couple of slices of mozzarella

For the Potatoes:

Baby new potatoes

Sea salt & freshly ground black pepper

Cubes of mozzarella

Olive oil

For the Roasted Pepper Bruschetta

An orange, red and yellow pepper, halved

Couple of shallots, finely chopped

Garlic clove, crushed

Fresh thyme, leaves picked from stalk

Sea salt & black pepper

Olive oil

Cut a pocket into the chicken and carefully slide the red pepper slice into it and then squash in the cheese.  Season the breast with black pepper, no salt needed as the ham will be salty. Wrap tightly in the Serrano ham and set aside until ready to cook.

To get your peppers roasted, halve them and place under a very hot grill or directly onto the gas flame. Let the skin get completely blackened and put into a plastic bag to steam away until cool. Once cool, remove the black skin. Do not do this under a running tap as you'll lose the roasted flavour.  Chop into thin slices, keep the slice for the chicken aside and place the rest into an ovenproof dish.  Add the chopped shallots, garlic, seasoning, thyme and a teaspoon of olive to the peppers and stir to combine.  Set aside until really to heat.

Slice your potatoes lengthwise and rinse off to remove the starch on them.  Make sure they are completely dry before you add them to the roasting pan. I used low-fat spray oil, spray a layer on the pan then add the slices of potatoes giving them another spray and season generously.  Place in a preheated oven at 180C/fan 160C, they'll take 35-40mins to roast.  Turn them over every ten mins or so to ensure even cooking.

After the potatoes have been in the oven for 10mins then place the chicken in the oven uncovered to cook.  If the chicken looks like its burning then you can cover it with foil but not too tightly as you want to retain the crispy nature of the ham.  The chicken will take 25-30mins to cook it all depends on much they are stuffed.

Ten minutes before the end of the cooking time, top each potato with a cube of mozzarella and return to the oven.  You can also top the chicken with some mozzarella as well if you want.  At this stage you add the pepper bruschetta to the oven to let it heat through.  Its probably best if you can rest the chicken out of the oven for 5mins covered.  When ready to eat, pour over whatever juices have come from the chicken over it for some extra juiciness.

Salt & Chilli Prawns

Tesco had their frozen raw tiger prawns reduced to half price this week so I got a couple of bags. Then what to do with them? I was in a picky mood and couldn't face a big dinner. I decided to try and replicate the Salt & Chilli prawns that you get in the Chinese, turns out it isn't hard to!

I scored the back of the prawns and then coated them lightly in cornflour.  You then toss them in a combination of sea salt, chilli flakes and a pinch of Chinese Five-Spice powder making sure that each prawn is covered.  The traditional recipe calls for them to be deep fried but as I'm dieting I didn't do that. I poured a scant teaspoon of olive oil in a frying pan and fried the prawns for 2 mins on each side on a high heat. This means that you get a similar crispy coating to that you would get if you deep fried and your prawns will still be juicy and not over-cooked.

These are delicious on their own or dipped into sweet chilli sauce.

Spicy Noodle Soup

Last weekend when I was doing a bit of study I got an awful craving for something hot and spicy. I couldn't get warm so thought a bit of chilli heat might do the trick.  This was literally a 5-minute wonder.

1 nest medium egg noodles, broken up

Chicken stock, made with cube or if you're fantastic your own homemade
2 scallions, including the green tops, chopped roughly
Small clove of garlic, finely crushed
Quarter of a Red or yellow pepper, sliced finely
Pinch of chilli flakes
Teaspoon of Thai red curry paste
Handful of peas



Gently fry off the scallions and garlic until soft for a minute or so.  Then add the hot chicken stock and let it come to the boil.  Once boiling throw in the rest of the ingredients, reduce to a simmer and allow to bubble gently for 4mins. Slurp immediately.  You could also add shredded cooked chicken or prawns to this for a more substantial meal.

French-Style Chicken with Peas & Bacon

I took this recipe from the BBC Good Food site French Style Chicken at BBCGoodFood.Com

I'd never cooked Little Gem before and it was a revelation! It stayed nice and crunchy and added a nice green texture to the dish.  I served it with plain boiled rice which absorbed all the lovely juices.

French-Style Chicken with Peas and Bacon

Serves 4

6 rashers smoked streaky bacon, chopped

8 skinless, boneless chicken thighs

2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

1 bunch spring onions, roughly chopped

300ml hot chicken stock

250g frozen peas

1 Little Gem lettuce , roughly shredded

2 tbsp crème fraîche

In a large frying pan, dry-fry the bacon over a medium heat for 3 mins until the fat is released and the bacon is golden. Transfer the bacon to a small bowl, leaving the fat in the pan. Add the chicken and brown for 4 mins each side.

Push the chicken to one side of the pan and tip in the garlic and spring onions, cooking for about 30 secs, just until the spring onion stalks are bright green. Pour in the chicken stock, return the bacon to the pan, cover and simmer for 15 mins.

Increase heat under the pan. Tip the peas and lettuce into the sauce and cook for 4 mins, covered, until the peas are tender and the lettuce has just wilted. Check chicken is cooked through. Stir in the crème fraîche just before serving.

Nigel Slater's Chicken with Mustard & Crème Fraîche

I can't take any credit for the creation of my dinner last night. It was all down to Nigel Slater's column in the Guardian.  There was some software downtime at work so there was nothing to do only trawl through t'internet for inspiration, luckily this is what I found:

 Nigel Slater's Chicken with Mustard & Creme Fraiche

Serves 4

4 chicken thighs
250ml crème fraîche
2-3 heaped tbsp grain mustard
2 garlic cloves, crushed
150g pancetta or bacon in the piece
3 or 4 small sprigs thyme

Set the oven at 200C/gas mark 6. Put the chicken thighs in an ovenproof dish. Put the creme fraiche in a mixing bowl with the mustard, crushed garlic, a little salt and black pepper. Pull the thyme leaves from their stalks and add them to the creme fraiche.

Cut the pancetta into short, thick strips then fry in a non-stick pan until the fat is golden. Mix with the sauce then spoon over the chicken. Bake for 35 minutes until the sauce is bubbling and the chicken skin is nicely coloured.

It tasted delicious, lovely and lusciously creamy. To cut down on the fat and calories, I used chicken breast, low-fat crème fraîche and low-fat smoked bacon medallions.  Using chicken breast also means reducing the cooking time to approximately 20mins or less depending on how you chop the chicken. I served it with garlicky mushrooms and roasted new baby potatoes.

Muffin B.L.C.

Aldi do lovely toaster muffins and I had these for lunch today with bacon medallions, cheese and lettuce.  I bought the smoked bacon medallions in Aldi also, they are from their Belight range so are pretty guilt free.  This is a simple lunch for simple people like myself.

• You grill or fry up the medallions until crispy on the edges. 
• Slice up some cheese as thick or as thin as you like. I used low-fat cheese.
• Rinse then dry 4 slices of Little Gem lettuce.
• Once toasted, spread some low-fat cheese spread across the holey centres of the muffins.  You can use Laughing Cow light or even some Philadelphia would be nice.
• Top the muffins with the rest of the ingredients, then sandwich the sides together.

Spicy Pasta Bake

In the search for tasty and different lunches I decided to try a home-cooked pasta bake this week.  The previous night I cooked up some pasta spirals and mixed them with the following:

• Some passata
• Crushed garlic
• Chopped chorizo
• Finely sliced shallots
• Finely chopped mushrooms
• A big pinch of chilli flakes
• Finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
• Plenty of sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

I put this mixture into a baking dish and topped with grated low-fat mozzarella and some grated parmesan. Let this cook in a medium oven until the cheesey topping is bubbling and golden brown.  

I ate some for my dinner and then put some into a lunch box for the next day.  Mr. Chops was slightly dubious that it would be nice unheated but it was a pleasant surprise.  Maybe it was because the chorizo is slightly oily but the bake hadn't lost any of its moisture and in fact, the heat had increased a little bit in terms of the chilli flakes.

Thursday Night Tapas

I felt like some picky things tonight so opted for my own version of tapas. I had Chilli Prawns, Chorizo in Wine with Shallots and Prawns with Garlic and Lime juice.

Chorizo in Wine

• Slice the chorizo into half inch thick slices.
• Finely slice a shallot and a garlic clove.
• Fry the chorizo until crispy and slightly blackened at the edges. Remove from the pan.
• Add the shallot and garlic to the pan and fry until slightly golden but not browned.
• Add the chorizo back to the pan and throw in a big splash of red wine.  Allow it bubble down to half its original quantity.
• Then add some finely chopped black pepper, flat-leaf parsley and fresh thyme. Give the whole thing a stir and place into a small dish and place in the oven at the same time as the prawns.

Prawns with Garlic & Lime
This one's easy. For this and the next prawn recipe, used cooked and peeled king prawns.
Mix the prawns well with a couple of teaspoons each of olive oil and lime juice, a finely chopped garlic clove, some seasoning and chopped flat-leaf parsley.  Heat gently in the oven for approximately 15mins.

Chilli Prawns

Mix the prawns well with chilli flakes, smoked paprika, finely chopped garlic clove, some seasoning and finely chopped flat-leaf parsley. As with the other prawn dish, heat gently in the oven for approximately 15mins.


These dishes are nice served with a crusty roll.

Any of these dishes would also make a nice starter or lunch dish.

Sausage & Mash

I needed comfort food this evening and having bought sausages the other day with the plan of trying a new recipe for an Italian ragu I went with proper grub. There is no easier dinner to make.

• You boil then mash some floury spuds add lashings of butter if you're not watching your diet (lucky you!). 
• Then fry off some chopped onions until soft and lightly browned then set them aside. 
• In the same pan fry off your sausages until fully cooked. 
• Make some gravy with the onions, which you then pour over the sausages right before you serve up.  

I tried to be restrained eating this meal but I was so hungry it disappeared off my plate in a few minutes!!!