Pesto Chicken with Buttered Leeks and Potatoes

• Sponsor: Calgary.isGreen
• Author: Marinus Hoogendoorn

Ingredients:                 Serves 2

• ½ Deboned chicken (+/- 350 gr)
• 300 Grams  Small leeks (sliced slanted)
• 30 Grams  Butter
• 3  Potatoes
• ¼ Medium onion (chopped)
• Salt, Pepper
• Oil for frying

PESTO:

• 70 Ml  Olive oil
• 1 Medium onion (chopped roughly)
• 3 Cloves Garlic
• Handfull Fresh Basil leaves
• 50 Grams Roasted cashew nuts (unsalted)

METHOD:

• Boil potatoes with skin, when cooked, place in cold water and peel the skin.
• Slice potatoes in ½ cm slices and keep aside

PESTO:

• Place onion, garlic, cashew nuts and basil leaves in a blender, grind, slowly add olive oil until you have a slight coarse paste, season with salt and pepper and let rest for an hour or so to let the flavors develop.

CHICKEN:

• Use skin on chicken to hold the leg and breast together, your butcher can help you to de-bone, remove excess fat and skin pieces if any.
• You should have one breast and one leg piece side by side kept together by the skin.
• Slice lengthwise in two halves, you now have two pieces, half a breast half a leg each.
• Place the two chicken pieces on a tray
• Season with salt and pepper and spread some pesto over the length of each chicken piece, like you butter a slice of bread.
• Leave to marinate for an hour in the fridge.
• Now roll each part from left to right, breast first.
• To hold the rolls together you can use a skewer, I used a bamboo sate skewer, pierce through the roll and press a bit from the top so you get a round “steak” like shape.

FINISH:

• Pre-heat an oven to 180 C, fry your chicken steaks 2 minutes on each side on a griddle or a frying pan with a bit of oil, place in your oven for another 15 minutes.
• Heat some oil in a frying pan, fry the chopped onions, add the leeks, season with salt and pepper, stir, add butter, when the butter has melted and incorporated with the leeks add a bit of water and braise for a few minutes.
• Fry the potato slices with some oil in another pan, simultaneously with the leeks, until golden brown.
• Place potatoes and leeks in the center of a plate, remove the skewer from the chicken, and place the chicken steak on top of the potatoes and leeks.
• Add a few Tbsp pesto to one of the frying pans for ½ a minute or so, just to warm it a bit, (the pan is still hot, so no need to turn on the heat anymore) sprinkle pesto around your steak.
• Sprinkle some chopped roasted cashew nuts on top.