Stuffed chicken roulades with almond and apricot

If you are looking for a visually appealing alternative to serving chicken try these chicken breast rolls stuffed with apricots, almonds and basil. It doesn’t take long to prepare and can be cooked in the oven, in the pan or even the barbeque and when you slice them swirls of stuffing look great.

Preparation time 25 minutes (includes 20 minutes refrigeration)

Cooking time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

3 Chicken breasts (ideally organic free range)
110g Dried apricots
50g Fresh breadcrumbs
60g Almonds
Handful of fresh sweet basil
½ tsp Cumin
Salt and pepper

To make the stuffing, place the almonds, breadcrumbs, basil, apricots, cumin and seasoning into a blender for about a minute. The mixture will resemble bread crumb size pieces and feel doughy when pressed together. The basil gives the mixture a potent green colour.

Blended stuffing mix

Now you need to flatten the chicken breast; wrap in cling film/glad wrap or a clean clear plastic bag and bash it evenly with a rolling pin. You want to end up with a piece of chicken of even thickness, no more than the width of your finger, if you madly bludgeon the chicken breast it with end up full of holes.

Chicken before rolling

Lay the chicken breast out flat on a fresh piece of glad wrap and add a layer of the stuffing mix, press it flat with the palm of your hand or a rolling pin.

Now carefully roll it up with the glad wrap around the outside. You want the plastic wrap to be as tight as possible so twist the ends.

Wrapped and ready for the fridge

Repeat this for the remaining chicken breasts and pop in the fridge for about 20 minutes.

Remove the chilled chicken rolls from the fridge and take the plastic wrap off. By now they should have formed tight packages. To ensure they don’t come unrolled when cooking, tie them up with some cooking string.

Tied and ready for the pan

To seal, place them into a hot frying pan with a few teaspoons of oil. Cook them in the pan until you have a nice bit of colour and all surfaces of the chicken are sealed, should take about 5 minutes. Put the sealed chicken rolls into a shallow oven dish, cover with foil and pop into a preheated oven (200degrees). Alternatively put them on the barbeque but be careful not to let them dry out. Cook for about 25-30 minutes.

Once cooked, remove from oven or barbeque and allow to rest for 5 minutes (in foil so they don’t get cold). Cut into 2 inch slices and serves with a fresh salad.

Ready for eating

Tags: Almonds, Apricots

About the Author

Gareth Englishman in Sydney loves a whisky, pies and all things savoury. Digital Marketer by day, cook the rest of the time. Amateur writer, photographer & aspiring anthropologists.