Christmas cherry chicken

Of course we immediately think of dessert with cherries and that is perfectly fine, because it is rather hard to resist Cherry Almond Tart with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Or go all French with a decadent Cherry Clafoutis.

However nothing stops us from using cherries in savoury dishes and, with the festive season at hand, you can clam up chicken, pork or duck by adding a few cherries.

Christmas chicken with cherry sauce

Ingredients

4 chicken fillets
Salt and pepper
150 g spinach raw
3-4 good quality pork sausages (remove meat from the casing)
12 strips pancetta

For the cherry sauce

500 ml fresh cherries pitted
80 ml sugar
1-2 star anise
15 ml balsamic vinegar
Pinch of salt
Lemon juice to taste
5-10 ml cornflour
A little cold water to mix with cornflour
A few sprigs fresh thyme
100 ml water

Method

Preheat the oven to 180 C.
Place each chicken breast between two layers of plastic and use a meat mullet to lightly flatten the chicken to about 3-4 mm thick.
Season lightly with salt and pepper.
Lay a single layer of spinach on the chicken.
Use the meat from one sausage and place it in a sausage shape at the top end of the chicken closest to you.
Start rolling the chicken and place it on a plate with the join at the bottom.
Use three strips of pancetta on each chicken. Roll and cover the chicken with it.
Cover the chicken with foil and make sure there are no gaps in the foil.
Make the other rolls in the same fashion and place on a baking sheet.
Bake for 30-40 minutes.
Remove foil and place back in the oven to brown. (Five minutes)

For the Cherry Sauce

Place the cherries, thyme, sugar, salt, water and star anise in a pot and bring to the boil.
Cook until cherries are soft and almost mushy.
Add the vinegar and lemon juice.
Mix the corn flour with water and add to the sauce.
Keep the sauce in a glass jar until needed. Serve with the Christmas chicken.

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