Stuffed Cypriot Chicken, Pan-Fried Asparagus & vine tomatoes and Cabbage salad

This is my first attempt at cooking anything from Jamie Oliver's 30 minute meals cookbook and I have to admit when I saw that in 30 minutes you can make a stuffed chicken breast and 2 sides to go with it I was a little dubious. But to my surprise I managed to do all 4 components in under 45 minutes and what was even more surprising was all the components really do go together.

One of the things that I always find frustrating is deciding what goes 'with' a dish and one of the great things about this book is that every recipe includes a side and a dessert that would go with it.

Timing is everything with this dish if you want to get it on the table within an hour so I would suggest sticking to the steps in the order described. I slightly amended from the book as I found this order worked better for me. (Perhaps this is when it took 45 minutes not 30).

Turn the oven to 220 Celsius. Pile the parsley, basil and sun dried tomatoes onto a chopping board with a little olive oil and a pinch of pepper. Crush over 2-3 cloves of garlic and chop everything together mixing with the knife as you go. Crumble over the feta, finely grate over lemon zest and mix again.

On a big sheet of greaseproof paper, put the chicken breasts down and using a knife carefully fold back the fillets and cut a little pocket in each one until you can open each breast like a book. Divide the filling equally among the 4 chicken breasts, pat down and then fold back.

Add a little olive oil to an empty frying pan, and using tongs carefully lay the chicken down. Scrunch up a sheet of greaseproof paper under the tap, slightly wetting it then flatten it out and tuck over the chicken, leave to cook shaking the pan every now and then.

 

Now it's time to get the asparagus started. Drizzle a little olive oil into a frying pan, squash and add a couple of cloves of unpeeled garlic. Add the tomatoes and the herb sprigs and reduce.

Sprinkle salt and pepper onto your uncleaned chopping board and add a teaspoon of oregano and 2 cloves of garlic. Take our flat breads and rub them on the board, then wrap them in some greaseproof paper and put them in the oven.

 

Add the trimmed asparagus to the pan.

 

Now for the cabbage salad. Shred the cabbage, peel and shred the onion and add to a big bowl with chopped parsley, basil, finely chopped chili. Squeeze over lemon juice add a little salt and pepper and mix. This is now done.

 

By now the chicken should be golden underneath, so carefully turn each breast over and add 4 small sprigs of rosemary to the pan. Recover with the greaseproof. put a medium frying on top of the chicken to push it down a bit and help it crisp up.

 

Cook the chicken for a further 10 minutes and then it should be ready. Serve with asparagus, flat breads and salad.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For the chicken:

• small bunch of fresh flat leaf parsley
• small bunch of basil
• 8 sun dried tomatoes (not in oil)
• 2-3 cloves of garlic
• 100g feta cheese
• 4 chicken breasts
• 4 sprigs of fresh rosemary

 

For the asparagus:

• 4-6 cloves of garlic
• 200g of cherry tomatoes on the vine
• small bunch of fresh herbs (whatever you have left I used rosemary)
• 250g asparagus
• 8-10 pitted black olives

 

For the flat breads:

• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 2 cloves garlic
• 6 flat breads

 

For the cabbage salad:

• 1/2 small white cabbage
• 1 onion
• a few sprigs of flat leaf parsley
• a few sprigs of basil
• a red chili
• 2 lemons

 II: 9