Thank you for tuning in. I am going to show you how to make my version of a ballotine of chicken with spinach, fennel, and sauteed potatoes. We’ll finish it off with a little chew as well.
The good thing about this is you get to learn to cook six or seven different things in one video. This could very easily be how to cook spinach. I’ve turned that up to as high a heat as I can possibly go on the induction so that when I put the onions in the grape seed oil, they sizzle. So it’s a gentle sizzle there. Now those are going to just gently fry off. So the garlic goes in as well, there we go. Now we’ve taken most of the big leaves off. We’ve given it a good wash, dried it out using a salad spinner, and now I am just going to throw those in and give them a bit of a mix around there. We’re going to sweat those off for probably a minute and a half.
One of the reasons why it’s important to do this part of the dish first is we’re going to wrap the spinach in the chicken, and if it’s still hot, then it’s going to start cooking the chicken which you clearly don’t want. And we’re going to put that in here and leave it to cool off. I’ve taken a baby new potato and I’ve cut it on the angle per potato about three or four times, and now what I’m going to do is just lay these in the pan like so. So I’m going to let those just cook off for another minute, turn them over. They will be looking lovely.
Right, those potatoes are looking great, so I’m going to just whip them out the pan, do it like that really, and we can set those aside. But that’s going to form the base of our garnish. The next job is the fennel. I’m quite happy to use the same pan, put a little bit more oil in there, and I’m just going to put the raw fennel which I’ve just sliced. I haven’t done anything else to them, but those will go into the pan like that. I want them to have a sheen of olive oil on both sides so that when I come to add the extra ingredient to them, there’s not that much on them, then you know, the ingredient will stick to them.
And seasoning, I can do both sides. So we’ve got rock salt, a little bit of sugar. And the reason I’m using sugar is because I want the fennel to caramelise and the sugar will really help them do that. So other side as well. I’m trying to work as quickly as I can. So that was salt, pepper, sugar, fennel seed. Now what I’m going to do is a tiny drop of orange juice. You know, fennel and orange, quite nice combination. But it would also help caramelise, and then I’m going to stick these in the oven for probably about six or seven minutes and when they come out, they’ll be lovely and caramelised.
Right, those fennel are lovely. They’ve beautifully caramelised. That will form another part of our garnish. Job done. I’m going to take a half a side of a chicken off or bone it. So you go all the way around. And then if you just run your finger along there, you can snap it out the joint. Take that out. And this is what we’re going to take off now. You could take a wingtip off. So you just mark a line down there, and you’ll see where the joint is when you do it, and all you do is just cut around the joint like so. We’ve got the breast off which is what we want. Now, I’m only going to do one side.
Right, now we have our chicken breast. There we go. Chicken breast goes on the greaseproof, and I’m just going to…right, that’s my chicken breast, and I am actually going to keep the skin on because if you keep the skin on it locks quite a lot of moisture in. So we’re going to lay the chicken breast…we’re going to lay that down like so.
I think before we cook it’s probably as well just to lightly season the breast. Spinach goes in and the spinach itself is seasoned, so I think, you know, there are no excuses. We’re just going to roll the chicken over the ingredient like so, try and lock it in as best we can. Don’t worry too much about the shape because the proteins will seal it in together. I’m now going to roll it up like so. I’ve taken a roasting dish and I’ve half filled it with boiling water, and I’ve put a rack over it. And we’re going to shove that in the oven and what will happen is it will help steam it. So in the oven it goes 12 to 15 minutes.
Right, this has come out our steamer and it will be cooked all the way through, but actually what I’d quite like to do is just give it a bit of colour. So I’m going to do just that. So what I need to do is just take it out the clingfilm. I’m going to finish it off on the induction, and if I do that, I might get some of the juices as well quite nice.
This is, like I said, really just to give it a little bit more colour. Right, I’m going to let that rest, just put a bit of that on it. We’ll cut that in a moment. I am going to place the dish out. So we have these fennel, they’re absolutely gorgeous. So we’re going to lay them as the base of the dish, and I’ll probably have three like so. Potatoes now go on, and then finally we’re going to do the ballotine goes on top of it and then garnish with the sauce. There we go.
Right. Always cut on the angle. Chicken’s cooked absolutely perfectly, you can just tell. There we go. I might cheat and just put a little bit of the end bit there so that it presents nicer. And there you have a ballotine of chicken and spinach with fennel and sauteed potatoes. Thank you for watching.
