Colorful and packed with tongue-tingling flavor, your next “chicken night” meal is transformed with the addition of this very easy sauce. By pickling the oranges and cranberries with the intense flavors of the Umeboshi Plum White Balsamic Vinegar you achieve the perfect tartness. A nice balance against the salted pistachio and creamy goat cheese stuffing which literally melts in your mouth. Serve this gorgeous entrée with a little jasmine rice and your favorite green vegetable for a memorable holiday meal!
Pounding out the chicken pieces to just the right thickness will help to showcase a tighter, swirling display of goat cheese and pistachio stuffing. Make this sauce when you need a quick accompaniment to ham, turkey or even with seafood. It goes with everything and looks like a precious set of jewels on your plate.
Recipe Credit: Camine Pappas. To read more about how Caminie created this recipe and read the entire blog post, click here to visit her website: IFeelLikeCooking.com. Camine also has a new cookbook, An Introduction to Bling Cuisine, A Seductive Guide to Adventurous Flavors, Simple Plating Ideas, and Accessible Techniques.
INGREDIENTS
PICKLED CRANBERRY SAUCE:
- 6 ounces bagged fresh cranberries
- ½ cup water
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 1 cup Olive This! Umeboshi Plum White Balsamic Vinegar
- 2 Clementines, peeled and sectioned
- ½ teaspoon cracked black pepper
CHICKEN:
- 3 large skinless boneless chicken breasts, about 8-10 ounces each
- 2/3 cup salted shelled pistachios, divided
- 1/3 cup Italian breadcrumbs (I used Progresso brand)
- 1, 4 oz package plain goat cheese (Don’t use the crumbled goat cheese. Need the soft version)
- Zest from one large lemon
- 1 large garlic clove, grated
- 1 large egg
- 2 tablespoons cream (2% milk with also work)
- 1/3 cup chopped Italian leaf parsley reserving some for garnish when serving meal
- 1 ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 2 tablespoon Olive This! Single Varietal Olive Oil to grease baking dish plus a couple tablespoons oil to drizzle over the top
DIRECTIONS
FOR THE UMEBOSHI PLUM PICKLED CRANBERRY ORANGE SAUCE
Put cranberries in a small saucepan covered with the ½ cup water. Bring to boil, reduce to medium and cook for about 3-5 minutes, stirring often, until all the cranberries have popped open. Remove from heat and add the 1 cup of Umeboshi Plum White Balsamic Vinegar and the orange sections. Stir into the hot liquid. Cover and set aside until ready to use. Or refrigerate when cooled to room temperature, and then when ready to serve put it back in a small saucepan and heat thoroughly. DO NOT BOIL. Right before serving add 2 tablespoons honey and 1/8 teaspoon black cracked pepper and blend well.
FOR THE CHICKEN
Empty the goat cheese into a small bowl and add the lemon zest, and the grated ginger. Blend well. Take the first 1/3 cup of pistachios and chop with a knife into chunky pieces. Try to at least cut them so no large nuts remain. Set that aside. Take the other 1/3 cup of pistachios and chop them finely. I used a small food chopper to make them large crumb-size. You could use a coffee grinder; just be careful you don’t chop them too small. These are the nuts that will be used for breading the chicken.
For chicken cut each of the three breast sections in half lengthwise. (Note that a normal skinless whole boneless breast is the two halves, making 6 pieces. That’s too much. I used a package that was simply three halves, the usual way they’re packaged in most supermarkets.) Place the cut chicken pieces in a large plastic bag and using a mallet, gently but assertively pound them out to a little more than 1/2” thickness. I worked in two batches and used a gallon sized zip-lock so I could control the thickness more effectively.
Preheat your oven to 375° F. Gently oil an oblong glass baking dish.
Lay out the pounded breast pieces on a cutting board. Using a small spatula, spread the goat cheese, garlic, and lemon zest mixture over each of the breast keeping the mixture just inside the edges. Now sprinkle with just a bit of chopped parsley leaves. And generously salt and pepper them. I probably used about 1 ½ teaspoon of kosher salt and about ½ teaspoon black pepper evenly divided. Sprinkle the large pistachio pieces over the goat cheese dividing them evenly among the 6 chicken pieces. Rolling from the short side, roll them tightly and secure by tying with two pieces of food-grade twine on each end about ¼ of the way in. Tie it firmly but don’t squish the chicken. Cut off the ends of the knotted twine.
Crack the egg into a bowl big enough to fit each chicken rollup, add the cream and using a fork blend it until smooth. Empty the finely ground pistachios into another bowl with the Italian breadcrumbs. Blend the crumbs evenly with the nuts. Working quickly so you don’t let them sit in the egg, take a rollup and immerse it in the egg wash, and then
roll in the pistachio breadcrumb mixture. Shake off the excess. Place them in the greased glass baking dish evenly spaced. Drizzle with a bit more olive oil in a very thin stream.
Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes. You can test doneness by gently pressing on it with your index finger. If it doesn’t yield too much they’re done. If they squish in, they may need about 5 more minutes. DO NOT overcook. The chicken is thin so it will bake quickly.
Serve chicken over white rice alongside buttered broccoli and top with a ladle of the hot pickled cranberry orange sauce.
©Photo and Recipes by Copyright, Camine Pappas, 2014 – 2021
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