Roladki z kurczaka background
Wherever you find an opportunity to combine chicken and pork, you’re guaranteed the Polish have already made a recipe for it. Variations of this dish can be found in countries all over Europe. However, in my opinion the Polish Chicken Roulade version has a very unique balance between comfort and flavour compared to the versions in neighbouring countries.
This recipe is prefect if you’re looking to prep in the morning and cook in the evening. Although the traditional recipe uses Ricotta, Spinach and peppers. I find a lot of filling options in this recipe work well, and recommend trying new things with it. Like smoked cheese with crushed cranberries or something like cured ham with parmesan and honey mustard.
Ingredients for Polish Chicken Roulade
| – 4 chicken breasts (around 200g/7oz each ) – 250g (8.5oz) of raw smoked bacon – 150g (5.5oz) of Spinach – 100g (3.5oz) of Ricotta cheese – 1 red pepper – 1 clove of garlic – 1 Teaspoon of butter – 2 Tablespoons of oil suitable for frying – 1/2 teaspoon of ground pepper |
Preparation for Polish Chicken Roulade
- Remove the seeds and cut the red pepper into long, thick strips.
- Peel the garlic clove
- Place the ricotta cheese in a small bowl, ready for mixing.
- Trim the fillets from any veins or fat
Method for Polish Chicken Roulade
Flattening the Chicken
For this step I recommend a meat hammer and plastic freezer or sandwich bags. You can also use plastic wrap/cling film but if its thick and unlikely to tear.
Take a Chicken breast and cut lengthwise down the centre. This should create two flat or thinner cutlets no more than an 19mm (3/4 inch) thick. However, if the chicken breast your using are very large, you may be able to make 3 cutlets.
Once you have finished making your cutlets. Its time to flatten them. For this part I recommend doing this on a chopping board with a tea towel placed under it. This helps absorb some of the impact and helps prevent the chicken from tearing or breaking.
Place your cutlets on the chopping board and place a sandwich/freezer bag on top of the chicken. This stops the chicken juices from splashing the surrounding area. Start gently and focus more on hitting everywhere evenly opposed to flattening stubborn areas. It doesn’t need to be perfect but as a general rule you are aiming for around 5-7mm thick (1/4 of an inch) for each cutlet after flattening.
Prepare the filling
In a small or medium pan. Add 150g (5.5oz) of spinach, a teaspoon of butter (or olive oil), a pinch of ground pepper and a crushed/finely diced clove of garlic. Set the heat to low and allow the the spinach to soften and shrink (around 5 minutes). Once your confident its released most of its water content, turn the heat off and allow to cool. I suggest squeezing it when its safe to handle, to clear out any remaining juices.
Next place the Spinach in a bowl with the ricotta cheese. Alternatively your can use diced or thickly grated mozzarella cheese. There is also a possibility to use Philadelphia or mascarpone cheese. However, i don’t recommend it as they tend to easily leak out during cooking in my experience.
Next cut/trim the peppers to match the width of the cutlets.
Roll & Wrap
Close to the end of a cutlet, around 2.5cm (1 inch) from where you will start rolling. Place a piece of pepper and some of the spinach and cheese mix. I recommend doing this to all the cutlets at the same time to ensure portioning the spinach/cheese mix out evenly.
Once all cutlets are ready, fold the 2.5cm (1 inch) of the fillet edge over the top of the pepper and continue rolling tightly. When rolled, set each roll flap side down and repeat for the remaining cutlets. If you have any difficulty in keeping the rolls tight or together feel free to use some cocktail sticks to keep them together.
Now wrap the bacon. There are multiple ways to do this, depending on your desired effect, bacon type and thickness. Thus, I will only suggest to use your own judgement to ensure all the bacon is used as evenly as possible. If you have a surplus of bacon then play around with different techniques to find what suits you most.
In the oven
Pre-heat the oven to 190°C (375°F). While its pre-heating, in a greased ovenproof dish. Place the wrapped cutlets in evenly apart. If you want to have a more crispy effect after cooking you can brush some cooking oil on the rolls before they go into the oven.
Once the oven is heated. Cook the rolls, uncovered in the oven for around 30 minutes. After the half hour, be sure to check with a knife or cooking thermometer to ensure they are fully cooked.
Streamlined recipe (for the pro’s out there)
| 1. Remove the seeds from the pepper and cut into large thick strips 2. Peel the garlic clove. 3. Place the ricotta in a small bowl. 4. Add Spinach, 1 teaspoon of butter, pinch of pepper and the crushed garlic to a pan on low heat. Cook until spinach is reduced. Squeeze out remaining water content after. 5. Cut the chicken breasts in half lengthwise to make flat cutlets, then flatten with a meat hammer. Aim for 5-7mm (1/4 of an inch) cutlet thickness. 6. Mix the Spinach, with the cheese filling. 7. Cut the peppers to match cutlet width and place a portion of the Spinach and cheese not more than 2.5cm (1 inch) from the end you will roll from. 8. Fold the edge of the chicken over the filling and roll tightly. 9. Pre-heat the oven to 190°C (375°F) and wrap each roll in Bacon. 10. Cook in the oven for around 30 minutes uncovered. |
Serving
Chicken roulades go well with most sides. Traditionally they are served with mashed potatoes and salad. However I find they go well almost anything.
Storing Polish Chicken Roulade
When placed in an airtight, food safe container and refrigerated within a hour of cooking. Chicken Roulade can be stored for up to three days. If you used Mozzarella for the filling, up to 5 days may be possible as long as no juices are present in the food safe container during that time.