Need Something Fancy for Dinner? These Stuffed Chicken Paillards will Make You Say, ""Oui!" And Your Husband Say, "Whoa..."

Need Something Fancy for Dinner? These Stuffed Chicken Paillards will Make You Say, “”Oui!” And Your Husband Say, “Whoa…”

Chicken / January 30, 2016

There are times that my cooking stays within the boundaries of the room. And then, there are days where I take over the house. Take last Thursday for example when my husband walked through the door to find his tool box pilfered and me on the floor pounding the holy bejeezus out of my chicken breasts with his huge rubber mallet.

“I wondered who had gotten into my tools..” He quipped, visibly shaken that I had violated the tower of Black and Decker and taken something from the holy of holies.

“I needed something big to make these paillards!” I chirped in, wiping my brow and looking up from my prone position to see more than just a bit of fear on his face. I needed flat chicken breasts, sweetie. See?…” And then he ran out of the room.

I didn’t mean to terrify him; or did I?

Well, anyway. If you’re longing for a beautiful dish for dinner, along with something physical to help you feel powerful, this is your recipe. And the wonderful part is you can serve it hot with creamed sweet potatoes and cheesy rice luxuriously covered with a white wine lemon butter sauce, or cold the next day as a fancy lunch drizzled with a quick honey mustard sauce.

With either choice, you can see that this doubles as way to keep your husband in line and slightly afraid of what you might do next when he’s not looking. Yeah, you’re welcome.

Ham and Herbed Cheese Stuffed Chicken Paillards

With a White Wine Lemon Butter Sauce

Serves 3 to 6 (Three breasts cut in half or 3 large breasts for a jumbo serving!)

Ingredients:

3 boneless, skinless, smart chicken breasts*
½ lb honey ham sliced into very, very thin slices, or have the deli manager slice it for you
½ C sun dried tomatoes
¾ C drained and chopped artichoke hearts
½ C herbed cheese spread, like Alouette herbed goat cheese spread
Kosher salt
A bit of fresh ground black pepper
Handful fresh dill, chopped
½ C white wine, like a Pinot Grigio
Juice of one lemon
2 T butter
1 t corn starch
3 T mild oil, like sunflower
6, 12” lengths of kitchen string
EXTRA: One heavy duty gallon sized zip lock bag and a large, rubber mallet

Method:

I promise, if you’re even the least bit angry that day,you’ll be happy when you finish pounding these breasts into submission. The goal is to make them thin but stop short of chicken mush. Pat each chicken breast dry and place in a large gallon sized plastic bag. DO NOT SEAL. It will explode and you will have chicken pieces all over. That may bring your bad mood back…don’t want that. Pound each breast with a large rubber mallet until about one eighth inch thick or less if you can do it.You may have to shake the bag a little to keep the breast where you can get at it.(You now have a chicken paillard!)Then place them on your cutting board and trim off any significant fat or sinew. Be careful to keep the shape as oblong as you can. You don’t want holes or they’ll be hard to roll.
On each spread out and flat breast you will first slather with one fourth of the herbed cheese, then the artichokes, then the sun dried tomatoes, then the ham. Dust with a bit of kosher salt. And starting from one end,tucking in sides if they’re a wild shape, begin to roll. Take your string and tie them up so that your string divides your breast into thirds, holding your round jewel together so it stays pretty when cooking. Then take the long ends and tie them together at the top for extra strength. See image LEFT at bottom.Now sprinkle a bit more kosher salt and some black pepper on top