Chicken Roulade

Chicken Roulade with spinach, Swiss cheese, bacon, and tomatoes.

Roulade simply means flattened, stuffed and rolled, it just sounds fancy. It can refer to pretty much any meat variety, so chicken cordon bleu, and beef or pork braciole are both roulades. As you know from some of my other posts, fillings can range fro various cheeses and cured meats to herbs and aromatics.

This particular recipe / experiment was inspired by a couple of things:

• In preparation for a week of travel away from home, I needed to purge some perishables from the fridge

• I had a crave for a goo BLT but am avoiding carbs in deference to my waistline

• I wanted to do something fun in the kitchen so I could share it here.

A Meat for a Roulade

I found chicken tenders in the freezer which were quick to thaw and needed no trimming or de-boning, so they were selected over some thin cut pork chops.

Chicken Tenders are a Staple

When they are on sale, I buy family packs of chicken tenders and make individual packets of 2 or 3 tenders each wrapped in wax paper and then placed in a zipper bag to freeze. This give me the versatility to thaw just enough depending on what I'm suing them for and how many people I'm serving. One of the things I love about tenders is versatility; one can cut them into chunks for a quick stir-fry, or shish kabob; leave them intact for a sate, or as I did for this dish, pound them into cutlets.

I pat the tenders dry and place them ( one-at-a-time) between 2 pieces of wax paper and gently pound them until they are uniform in thickness. If you get too rough with them and go beyond 1/4" thick, they can fall apart and be really difficult to work with. Once they are pounded, I place them on wax paper with the 'shaggy' side up and sprinkle with a bit of salt, pepper, and onion powder. By shaggy side, I mean the side that may have imperfections in the meat texture and the tendon running through it; by keeping that on the inside when you roll them, they will hold together better with less of a tendency for shards to stick to the frying pan when the time comes.

Roulade Filling Search

A little tour of my fridge turned up a few slices of bacon that was leftover from weekend breakfast, about a half of a 20 ounce package of baby spinach, some sliced baby Swiss cheese, and some heavy cream.

So, guess where I started.....

Some garlic, olive oil, pepper, (no surprises here) and the bacon crumbled up went into a sauce pan to provide the base to cook the spinach. While that was cooking, I grabbed a handful of dried sun-dried tomatoes, covered them in water in a small cup and nuked them for a couple of rounds of 20-30 second to soften them up.

When the saute in the saucepan was emitting a nice aroma, I stirred in the spinach and let it cook on low. I minced the tomatoes but reserved the water from the re-hydration. (You never know when something might come in handy later). I removed the spinach, bacon, garlic mixture to a bowl with a fork in order to leave any liquid behind, and stirred in the minced tomatoes.

Assembly is next:

I lined each pounded tender with Swiss cheese and spread a tablespoon or 2 of the spinach mixture in on each one before carefully and gently rolling them. I had both tooth picks and butcher's string at the ready with the tooth pick being my preference. Thankfully, the picks held the rolls and saved me the trouble of cutting and tying the string.

Since this was an experiment, I had additional spinach mixture after stuffing and assembling the roulades. I save that right next to the tomato water.

Roulade is typically cooked in 2 phases; browned in a saute pan and then baked in a liquid to poach and finish. I used a simple egg wash and unseasoned flour for the saute.

Once the roulades were dipped and coated, in a large skillet, I heated a bit of olive oil and about 1/4 cup of butter until it was just about to brown. Here's another place where patience comes in handy.... place the roulades in the pan and let them slowly brown on one side before touching them to gently roll them over. Using tongs, roll them until each side is toasted golden. When they are done, with tongs transfer them to a baking dish and set aside leaving the sauteing residue in the skillet.

This is where that tomato water, leftover filling and the heavy cream come into play -- along with some white wine.

I turned up the heat on the skillet and added the spinach mixture, the leftover spinach liquid. and a splash of white wine to deglaze anything that stuck while browning the roulades. Then I let it singe a bit for color and added the tomato water and let that further deglaze the pan. Once it was a nice rich color, I added some heavy cream and let it bubble to thicken for a few minutes before pouring it over the chicken for baking / poaching.

I covered and sealed the baking dish with foil to hold in the steam and baked these in a 325 degree oven for 40 minutes or so.

THE RECIPE:

4 chicken tenders pounded to a uniform thickness to create cutlets

1 slice of Swiss or other cheese / cutlet

1 - 2 T of topping / cutlet plus extra for the sauce.

In this case it was about 10 ounces of fresh spinach, a few hydrated sun dried tomatoes minced, a couple of strips of bacon crumbled, and a couple of minced garlic cloves and some olive oil for sauteing.

one egg beaten coating

1/2 C of flour for dredging

1/4 C butter plus 2T olive oil for browning

1/4 C white wine

1/2 C heavy cream -- or more depending on your taste

Salt, pepper, onion powder for seasoning cutlets and the sauce

Saute and drain the spinach, garlic in some olive oil sand set aside to cool reserving any cooking juices

Pound, season, and line each cutlet with a slice of cheese

If necessary, hydrate sun dried tomatoes and remove from the liquid to mince. Reserve liquid.

Mix tomatoes with spinach and spread about a tablespoon or 2 on each cutlet.

Roll and fasten the roulades with either tooth picks or butcher string

dip in egg yolk and dredge in flour.

Heat butter and oil in a skillet unit just browning.

Carefully place the roulades in the skillet and brown on all sides until deep golden in color.

Place roulades into a deep baking dish set aside.

Reheat skillet and add any leftover filling and the wine to deglaze the pan.

After it begins to darken add liquid from the tomatoes and continue to simmer until it becomes a rich color.

Stir in the heavy cream and simmer until is thickens a bit.

Season with salt, pepper, onion powder if desired.

Pour the liquid over the roulades, cover tightly and bake at 320 degrees for about 40 minutes.

Enjoy!