Cook-a-long with Little Red!

Chicken Breast Wrapped in Parma Ham and Stuffed with Cheese with Fried Potatoe Slices & Salad 

Ingredients: (For a serving of two persons)  Ignore the cheeky bottle of tequila in the background, student household ayy! ;)

• Two Chicken Breast Fillets

• I used Cheddar Cheese but I'd opt for Mozarrella, I ran out!

• At least Six slices of Parma Ham (Prosciutto) 

• New Potatoes (we used ten but they tasted so yummy a few more wouldn't hurt, especially for those of you with big appetites!)

• Olive Oil

• Thyme 

• Lemon    

Please bare with me I'm not up to speed on expert culinary jargon, as I can assure you I am no culinary expert, at all. This is my first cookery post that I was inspired to do purely because I'm trying to become a bit more of a dab hand in the kitchen and I find that step by step photographed recipes are the easiest for me to follow and I enjoy reading them myself when I'm looking for student budget friendly meals or a special treat on those more luxurious occasions.

Above is a step by step collage on how we prepped the meat before undertaking the easier tasks of sorting out the salad bits and bobs which I wasn't every adventurous with, a mixed Salad bag jobby was the one with some sliced cucumber and Coleslaw, bingo!

Prepping the Meat:

• First things first, after placing the chicken breast fillets on a clean! (emphasis on hygiene, Gordon would be so proud) chopping board, simply score the underneath of the meat in a criss cross pattern being careful not cut too deeply into the meat.
• Then add your seasoning, a few twists of black pepper, rub in some thyme, and add zest of lemon using a grater. I'd advise you not to add salt as the Parma Ham is already very salty enough.
• Rub your seasoning well into the scoring of the meat.
• Turn over and slice the chicken breast almost in half, I hear this is called the butterfly! Add a slab of cheese to nestle inbetween the two sections of the chicken breast.
• Now onto my favourite part, wrapping the chicken in the parma ham! Take three slices for each breast and line then up next to your breast, ooh saucy! ;)
• Place the chicken breast an inch or two in from the first slice of parma hand and fold over creating a meaty cocoon!!
• Now to sear the meat in a frying pan with a few splashes of olive oil drizzled over the meat as well as adding more seasoning if you wish! I added some more thyme, pepper, and some garlic seasoning which just smelt delicious!
• Sear each side for three minutes each on a medium heat to crisp up the Parma Ham before placing into a pre-heated oven on Gas Mark 7 (200 degrees) in the pan for 15-20 minutes to make sure the chicken cooks through! 

For the fried potatoe slices all you need to do is simply peel off the skin and cut your new potatoes in half before then slicing them into smaller slices like you would a cucumber. I prepared the potatoes whilst my boyfriend, Jon, started to sear the meat, making sure everything was ready to go together on time. If you're on your own I would suggest preparing the potatoes before prepping the meat, it only takes around five minutes.

You then need to deep fry the potatoe slices so make sure your frying pan is covered in oil and be careful when cooking as the oil heats up VERY quickly and tends to spit a lot especially if the heat is on too high!  I sprinkled an extra helping of thyme and sea salt whilst frying for extra taste! Let the slices crisp up til golden brown before then too placing in the oven to keep warm and cook a little longer whilst the meat is cooking through.

After twenty minutes in the oven I took the chicken out cut into slices to check if it was cooked through properly. Any signs of raw pink meat and you can either leave in the oven for a furthur ten minutes or so or for a quick fix cook through again in the frying pan, placing the slices of meat face down.

And there we have it, Chicken in Proscuitto a la Salad & Fried Potatoe Slices! It beat a Saturday night take-away hands down and although not exactly the healthiest of meals I did feel a lot better for having a home cooked meal and some greens down me instead of fried chicken and american style fries. The melted cheese just oozed out of the meat and compliment the saltiness of the parma ham excellently.

Let it be said that my plate didn't stay looking so full for long as I wolfed the plateful whilst whinging about how awful Tulisa's blonde hair-do is on X Factor. It was a real treat and a meal I will cook again as the total cost for all the ingredients rounded up to just under £10 - very student friendly! The excess oil left over in the frying pan has been left stewing with all the meat juices and excess thyme to be used tomorrow to make some fried bread!

Hope my instructions weren't too all over the place and made sense to you all, as I said before I am no Jamie Oliver and Jon did help me out a bundle with this one but now I know that home made meals are SO quick and simple to do expect more of these posts - that's if you would like, of course!

Please leave me your favourite meals/recipes for me to test out and do let me know if you wouldn't mind this sort of post on Little Red again! Even typing this out has made my mouth water all over again so I'm off to hunt for some left over muffins that I made with my housemate earlier this evening...

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