Ballotine of chicken with fondant potatoes, purple sprouting and a red wine reduction

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Prep Time10

Cook Time45

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: English

Keyword: chicken breast, chorizo, potato, purple sprouting, red wine

Servings: people

Calories: 348kcal

Author: Chief Cook and Bottle Washer

1 Chicken Breast
Chorizo enough to fill the chicken rolled out
2 Potatoes medium, such that they can be made flat top and bottom and will be about 30mm thick
300 g Purple Sprouting
300 ml Chicken Stock
200 ml Red Wine reserve the rest for drinking!
3 cloves Garlic peeled but not sliced or chopped
4 sprigs Thyme don't use dried, it will be too overpowering
2 sprigs Rosemary as above!
1 Shallot we almost always use banana shallots
Butter
Olive Oil

This is the hardest part of this whole recipe!
Peel the potatoes and slice the top and bottom so that they lay flat and are about 30mm thick
Heat 1 tablespoon of oil with a large knob of butter in a frying pan or sauté pan and, when melted and the butter begins to bubble add the potatoes
Fry the potatoes on top and bottom to get them nice and coloured. Once coloured add the garlic, two sprigs of the thyme, the rosemary and 200 ml of the chicken stock
Cook until soft (fondant) and flavoursome - about 30 minutes

Take the chicken breast and bash it out until it is very thin, then roll it around the chorizo. Take some cling film and roll it around the chicken, making it into a sausage shape with the chorizo inside. Twist the ends of the cling film to make the roll as tight as you can.
Drop the roll of chicken into a pan of simmering water and cook for 20 minutes.
Take the chicken out of the water and remove the cling film. Put it in a frying pan with a little butter and turn gently until you get some colour on it. Once coloured take it out and rest it for 5 minutes

Don't overcook vegetables!!! Bring a pan of water to the boil and drop the purple sprouting in.
Cook for 5 minutes and remove - it's cooked!

Roughly chop the shallot. Put 1 tablespoon of oil in a pan with a large knob of butter and fry the shallot with the remaining sprigs of thyme until soft. This should take about 5 minutes.
Add the red wine and boil until the alcohol is burned off, then add the remaining 100ml of stock
Cook for a few minutes to allow the flavour of the shallot and thyme to infuse in the sauce before passing the sauce through a sieve into a fresh pan.
Reduce the sauce by half, add a knob of butter to give it sheen and serve with the ballotine of chicken