Chicken Wellington
Electus

Best recipe review

Much cheaper than Beef Wellington.

5/5

..and just as good. Cranberry sauce sounds a great idea.

Paul R Smith
Servings:Serves 2 to 4 (see below)
Calories per serving:1628
Ready in:1 hour 25 minutes
Prep. time:45 minutes
Cook time:40 minutes
Difficulty:Average difficulty
Recipe author:Chef
First published:21st January 2013

I thought I would 'invent' this after the success of my recent Beef Wellington. Disappointingly, after I had assembled them and check teh internets (sic), I discover that I am not the first to make this :-)

It's very much an experiment, made from what was available when the shops were shut. One of the things I may change is to use Belazu chilli jelly, instead of cranberry jelly - or maybe that can be another recipe.

This version uses pâté rather than duxelles. It was an absolute success and more versions will certainly follow.

From the ingredients you would think that it would serve just two people as the chicken breasts were quite small and the bacon very thin. However we both agreed that as they were they could easily have serve 4 people, especially if served with extra vegetables.


Ingredients

Printable 🖨 shopping 🛒 list & 👩‍🍳 method for this recipe


Mise en place

  • Preheat the oven to 220° C (425° F - gas 7), [fan oven 200° C & reduce cooking time by 10 mins per hour]

Method

  1. Add the olive oil to a small pan and give it a good grind of black pepper
  2. Very gently fry the garlic and onions for 10 minutes in the oil until soft
  3. Add the pâté, heat and stir until it breaks down and mingles with the onions. remove from the heat and allow to cool a little.
  4. Lay 3 rashers of bacon out on a large sheet of cling-film and spread half of the pate over the bacon
  5. With a sharp knife, make a pocket in the chicken breast and add a tablespoon of cranberry jelly
  6. Lay the chicken breast on the bacon and with the help of the cling-film, roll up into a parcel and 'twizzle' the ends to seal.
  7. Repeat for the other chicken breast.
  8. Chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes, at the same time, remove the puff-pastry and allow it to reach room temperature.
  9. After 30 minutes, remove the cling-film and wrap each chicken/bacon parcel in puff pastry. There will be enough for two in 1 pack of ready-rolled pastry.
  10. You can either make the Wellington properly by brushing the pastry joins with egg-yolk and pressing together with the tines of a fork, or cheat as I have by twisting the joins like a Calzone pizza or a Cornish pasty.
  11. Brush the surface of the Wellingtons with egg-yolk so they colour when baked.
  12. Chill the Wellingtons in the fridge while the oven warms up, then bake for 35 to 40 minutes - Check the chicken is properly cooked then serve.

Serving suggestions

Serve with Hasselback potatoes and peas

Chef's notes

I was a little concerned that the chicken would not be cooked in the 20 to 30 minutes that it normally takes to cook puff pastry. In the event we cooked them in the oven with the hasselback potatoes, which took almost an hour. The chicken was very moist, probably due to the cranberry sauce and pate, yet the pastry was perfect - super crunchy!

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