Tapenade Stuffed Chicken Breasts and Rotlis

"The best comfort food will always be greens, cornbread, and fried chicken."

~Maya Angelou

Before I ate tapenade filled pechugas for the first time, at a restaurant in India, I usually made stuffed chicken breasts with paneer, cheese and spinach. The version I make has an anchovy free tapenade. I'm not too happy with the overly salty and fishy flavour of anchovy. However, you can go ahead and add it to the stuffing. 

I like both dishes but do lean a wee bit more towards the cheese-paneer-spinach ones, because I make a nice ajwaini sauce to pour over it. The pictures you see here are of my first attempt, some years back. I didn't think of clicking any as I improved on the execution! Trust me, it is so bothersome to stop to click a pic while everything is going along so smoothly and you break the flow just to take some pictures! And then one pic won't do...there's always a better angle and better light if I bend this way or twist that way...and leave my camera or phone, quite often, with smudges from oily or sticky fingers ugh! And of course, there's the standardization fact which gets me. If truth be told and it does get told on my website and on my Facebook page: I am an "approximate" cook and do not measure and weigh my ingredients, so to write a recipe really worries me because I am concerned about those who aren't really well versed with the techniques and 'feel' for measures, timing and methods of cooking. Okay, this isn't a confessional box, so let's just get on with it and power to you who try my recipes! You are rocking cooks!

Ingredients:

Chicken breasts, boneless................................as many as you need

Ripe orange......................................................1-2, acc to quantity of chicken

Salt to taste

Olive oil to fry the chicken

For the Tapenade:

Black olives......................................................1 cup of deseeded olives, or acc to requirement

Capers..............................................................2 tbsps, drained of preservative liquid.                                                                                       

Garlic...............................................................1-2 cloves chopped

Lemon juice.....................................................2 tbsps

Parsley (flat leaf)............................................1 tbsp (I sometimes substitute it with cilantro when                                                                                                                             parsley is not available) 

Extra Virgin olive oil......................................a little more than 1/4 cup

Adjust quantities according to number of chicken breasts.

For Rotlis:

Maize flour (makki ka atta)...........................3 cups

Wheat flour....................................................1 cup

Tender corn kernels.......................................1/2 cup, give it a quick blitz, do not make a mince!

Chilli flakes acc to taste

Thick curd to knead the flour into a dough

Salt to taste

Herb Goat Cheese

Cream Cheese

Adjust quantity of flour according to requirement. The amount given is for 2-3 people.

Accompaniments: Optional

Stuffed capsicums and cauliflower sauted in butter

Wash the chicken and pat dry.

Slice the chicken breasts from the thick side, to make a pocket. Be careful not to slice through to the other side. If they are too thick you could tenderize it with a mallet or a rolling pin!

Squeeze out the orange juice.

Rub the sliced breasts with salt and orange juice.

Keep to marinate for 25 minutes.

Take all the ingredients for the tapenade and put them in a mixer and mince but not into a paste.

Now stuff each chicken breast with the tapenade mixture. You can tie it with string or use toothpicks to pin the sides together.

In a non stick pan heat the oil and shallow fry the chicken two or three at a time, depending on the size of the pan. Do not over crowd. Chicken breast gets done quicker than legs do, so keep turning them to fry uniformly, and check to see when done. Overcooking will result in dry chicken. (The first time I made this, that's what happened!!)

For the rotlis: Mix together both the flours add the salt, chilli flakes and tender corn kernals. Add a little curd and knead. Continue to add a bit of curd at a time and knead until the dough is soft. Keep aside, cover and allow to stand for some time. You should do this before you start on the chicken.

When done, roll out into 3-4 inch rotlis and roast on a tava. When each is done, rub some butter or ghee on one side, as soon as you take it off the tava. 

Serve hot with herb goat cheese spread over it or with cream cheese. 

Herb Goat Cheese

These rotlis have goat cheese on one and cream cheese on the other.

You can have the rotlis just as they are too!

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