Chicken Roulades With Bacon and Dates

I like making roulades (chicken, turkey, beef) and I like to play with the combination of the sweet and the savoury.

The Arabs showed us how to use this combination when they came to the Iberian al-Andaluz all that time ago. 

 

 

Allow two roulades per person.

Chicken breast, thinly cut as if for esalopes

bacon, 1 rasher per roulade

dates, 1 date per roulade

salt and pepper

cream

Heat oven to 200º C.

 

Lay the chicken breasts out on a large board and salt and pepper them. Lay a rasher of bacon on each and placing a date on each, roll them up and either tie them with cotton or hold them together with toothpicks. Put some oil in a roasting tin and  place the roulades in it side by side. Cover with foil. Cook for approx one hour. Check to see that the chicken is cooked through and then pour over the cream and return to the oven for 5 minutes without the foil.

 

If there are any left over they are delicious eaten cold the next day.

Chicken Soup (from Roald Dahl’s Revolting Recipes)

Roald Dahl has always been one of my favourite authors, not only for his children’s stories. I once was fortunate enough to sit next to him on a sofa. He was a very tall man. Impressive.

Occasionally, Roald Dahl published recipes in his stories. I have tried some of them. They all seem to work.

Try this one. It serves 6:

large saucepan
2 small or 1 large corn-fed chicken (2’5 kg approx.)
4 small onions
100 g mushrooms
3 large carrots
2 leeks
15 ml tarragon
salt & pepper

Quarter the chicken and roughly chop 2 onions. Place the chicken and onions in a large saucepan and cover with water.

Bring to the boil and simmer until the liquid has reduced by half. Skim the surface when necessary. Top up and reduce by half again. This takes at least 4 hours. Cool. (Alternatively, mix in a chicken stock cube with hot water).

Strain and reserve the liquid – you should have approx 1’5 l – 1’75 l.

Pick the meat off the bones, chop and set aside. If you have time, continue boiling the bones in fresh water to add more flavour to the stock.

Chop remaining onions and other vegetables, add to the stock with the tarragon and cook until tender.

Season to taste.

Before serving, add the meat and heat through.

Bon appetite.