Italian Chicken and Bacon Rotolo
My culinary adventures continue! Thanks to Ma Snook’s generous birthday gift of a delicious subscription, I always have lots of food pr0n inspiration lying around. Tonight I made Belinda Jefferey’s “Rotolo,” which (as she herself admits) is really just a glorified chicken meatloaf. It starts with chicken mince, to which you then add tiny cubes of salami, an onion, fresh thyme and parsley, garlic, two types of mustard, and grated parmesan. Then comes the fun part – mushing all that up with your hands. Next you’re supposed to add a beaten egg, milk, and breadcrumbs, but I switched to cream and no breadcrumbs (to keep it low-carb). The mixture is spread out on a piece of baking paper and then layered with mint, ham, and smoked cheese. The whole thing is rolled up (like a jelly roll) and then covered in bacon. (How many animals are we up to yet?) Then it gets baked in the oven. YUM. I was absolutely thrilled when I saw how closely mine resembled the picture in the magazine! It was pretty darn tasty too, and very filling. We’ll be having the leftovers tomorrow…
Italian Chicken and Bacon Rotolo
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4 responses
That looks fabulous! Dave’s mom got me a subscription to Cooking Light. The best cranberry/oatmeal cookies. Soo good. I’ve looked for your recipe, but can’t find it. Care to pass it along?
yum! my mouth is watering 🙂
post up the recipe ill give it a go too!
Okay, I left the recipe at home but it’s still pretty fresh in my mind. You need:
500g chicken mince
50g salami, cut into tiny cubes
1 large onion, chopped up
2 t. of chopped fresh thyme
2 T. of chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 large clove of garlic, minced
1 t. of dijon mustard
1/2 t. of hot English mustard powder
1 T. of grated parmesan
1/2 t. of salt
Mix all that up in a big bowl with your hands.
Add 1 beaten egg, 30g milk, and 1 cup of fresh white breadcrumbs.
Mix it all up some more. Now get out a baking sheet and put down a sheet of wax paper. Dump your chicken goo on there and pat it into a nice big rectangle, about 6″ x 8″.
Press fresh mint leaves all over the top of the rectangle. Next layer a few thin slices of ham. Down the middle, lay a strip of slices (80g in the recipe) of smoked cheese. (I used King Island Smoked Cheddar.)
Now you need to roll the thing up. You kinda use the wax paper to lift up one long edge, and then keep lifting and pulling the paper as you roll the thing over on itself. Mine was seriously sticking (I stupidly used baking parchment instead of wax paper, but it still worked). Make sure you end up with the seam on the bottom. Then give it a nice pat into shape if it’s gone wonky.
Now, you need bacon. We used whole rashers with the rind cut off. (Americans, just use your normal bacon.) Lay them across the top and tuck the ends under the bottom. (We cut the whole rashers in half, which was just about perfect.) Make sure the whole top and sides are covered!
Now, bake for 20 minutes in a pre-heated 200-degree Celsius oven. (That’s about 390-degree F for the Yanks.) After 20 minutes, turn it down to 160 C (about 320 F). Let it bake for 40 minutes. (So that’s one hour in total.) Then take it out and let it stand for 20 minutes.
The recipe recommends you eat it with crusty bread and tomato relish, but we just ate it like meatloaf.