Jamie's Stuffed Cypriot Chicken

So, I thought it was time to try another recipe from Jamie's 30 Minute Meals.

Hubby chose the recipe at random, which was stuffed Cypriot chicken, pan-fried asparagus and vine tomatoes, cabbage salad, St Clement's drink and vanilla ice cream float.   Even the list of dishes sounds time consuming and we were wondering if the first meal we had tried and completed in 34 minutes was a fluke...so how did we do?

Well firstly, last time we cooked together, this time I was flying solo with hubby taking on the role of photographer.  The recipe has a rather extensive list of ingredients, but they were all easy to find, with the exception of the asparagus which, being out of season involved trips to a couple of supermarkets.  This is what we started with:

The first step involves getting the filling ready for the chicken.  This consists of chopping parsley, basil, sun-dried tomatoes and crushed garlic with some olive oil and pepper.  Once chopped you add crumbled feta and lemon zest and mix together.  This step smells amazing!  Looks good too.

It is then on to the veg.  The recipes always start with getting the equipment ready so I already had the oven on and two frying pans heating up.  It was now time to add olive oil to the pan along with squashed garlic cloves, herb sprigs (we used rosemary as we have it growing in our garden) and the vine tomatoes.

Back to the chicken, it was time to slice the breasts in half and add the filling.  I imagine the slicing of the chicken breasts might be a bit tricky if you aren't used to it, but it was fairly easy and you ended up with something looking like this:

These are then added to the pan with damp greaseproof paper over the top.

The flatbreads also involve damp greaseproof paper.  On the same board we made the filling on we add olive oil, salt, pepper and oregano with some more crushed garlic.  You rub the flatbreads on the surface to coat, wrap in the paper and put into the oven.

Back to the veg.  The tomatoes, garlic and rosemary is still on a low heat and now it is time to add the asparagus and some olives.  That's it.  Nothing more complicated.

The cabbage salad was next up and good fun to make.  I love a kitchen gadget and this book is really making me start to appreciate my food processor a whole lot more.  I've previously only really used the standard blade, but this recipe called for the slicer.  Cabbage, onion, parsley, basil and chilli whiz round and are sliced in seconds.  In a bowl you then add lemon, olive oil and salt.  The end result is a tasty looking salad like this:

At this point the chicken is turned and you also add some rosemary to the pan.  It is then covered again and left whilst we finish up - just to make sure the chicken is cooked on both sides.

This meal also involves a drink.  You are supposed to make a jug, but we don't own one that isn't a measuring jug so we decided to make it straight into glasses.  Ice and mint are added to with lemon and orange juice and sparkling water and given a little stir.

Everything is pretty much ready at this stage and it is just a case of serving and preparing for the dessert.  Ice cream, coffee, biscuits and coffee cups to the table!

Chicken is then served and sliced, which looked something like this:

The veggies stay in the pan, unless you really want to serve them.  Personally I like Jamie's idea because it involves less washing up!

The flatbreads are taken out of the oven and moved to the table.

So that was it.  Everything ready.  Total time to cook?  29 minutes! It all looked rather impressive and I was pleased to have done it in the allotted time, alone.  This was what our dining room table looked like....mmm (the food, not the table)

Ok, so it all looks good, but what did it taste like?

The chicken was great, definitely something we will make again.  It is one of those dishes which looks impressive, is tasty, but secretly was really easy to make.

I enjoyed the asparagus, although it was far too much like actual vegetable for Hubby.  He preferred the cabbage salad.  In fact the salad was a bit of a winner and will probably reappear at barbecues over the summer.

The flatbreads tasted amazing.  So much so that it was a bit difficult to remember they had started life in a packet from a supermarket.  The flavourings added make them taste so much fresher and more interesting.

The drink was a bit of an odd one.  Hubby loved it as it was incredibly refreshing.  I'm sure it would be - in the summer.  But it is February and all the ice was just a bit too cold!  Maybe we will try this one again when it is warmer outside.

So, the only thing left to sample was the dessert.  We spooned the ice cream into the cups with a cantucci biscuit then added a shot of the coffee.  Wow!  Simple - yes, Tasty - oh hell yeah.  I love coffee anyway so this was pretty perfect as desserts go.  Want to see what it looked like?

See what I mean?  How good does that look?

So, that's the lot.  The second meal we have attempted and the second success.  So far, so good and on to the next...