Lovely, relatively easy dish where both chicken and peppers cook in the oven at the same time.
This is a great recipe which makes use of time well and the result is a very smart and delicious plate of food.
I sprinkled mine with some dehydrated black olives but you can replace with chopped Kalamata olives, chopped sundried tomatoes, quickly fried capers or anything you have that can lend an ‘umani’ finishing touch to the dish. Or just sprinkle some finely chopped herbs.
Ingredients (serves 2)
- 2 chicken breasts
- 3-4 bell peppers
- 1 medium courgette, thinly sliced
- 1 garlic bulb
- ½ fennel bulb, finely chopped
- 1 banana shallot, finely chopped
- A splash of vermouth
- 100ml of chicken stock
- Extra virgin olive oil, approx.. 50ml
- 50g feta cheese
- 1 tbsp cream cheese, ricotta or mascarpone
- ½ tsp dried oregano
- some extra virgin olive oil
Method
Preheat the oven to 180 C fan.
Wash the peppers and pat them dry. Place on a baking tray and drizzle with a little olive oil. Cut the tail end of the garlic bulb, drizzle with 1 tsp of olive oil, wrap with foil and put on the tray with the peppers. Cook in the oven for 45 minutes. Cover the peppers with some plastic wrap so that the steam loosens their skin. When the peppers are cool, remove their skin and keep them to the side. Squeeze the garlic out of its shell and reserve.
In a bowl, crumble the feta and stir in the cream cheese and oregano.
Use a mandolin to cut the courgette very thinly after trimming it. Season the courgette slices.
Bring a griddle pan to a very high heat and add 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil. Add the courgette slices and cook for a minute each side to get scorch marks. Leave to cool.
Put each chicken breast between two pieces of baking paper or in a bag and use a mullet to flatten. Season with salt and pepper. Place the chicken breasts on a large piece of foil. Top each chicken breast with half the courgette slices. Spoon the mixed cheese over the courgettes and top with 2-3 cooked cloves of garlic.
Roll each chicken breast very tightly and cook in the oven for 40 minutes.
While the chicken breasts are cooking, bring a frying pan to a high heat and add 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil. Cook the shallot and fennel root over low to medium heat for a few minutes until translucent. Add the pepper and the remaining garlic cloves and stir. Add the vermouth and let evaporate. Add the stock, cover the pan, lower the heat and cook the peppers until almost dry.
Transfer the pepper mix into a blender or use a stick blender to blitz. Pass throug a sieve if you like the puree very smooth.
Take the chicken out of the oven, unwrap and brown quickly in 2 tbsp of very hot extra virgin olive oil. Leave to rest for a couple of minutes and slice.
To serve, spoon some pepper puree onto the plates, positition the chicken slices on top and garnish with the ingredients of your choice.