Chicken mignon with harissa butter
I may not have the most chilli-tolerant constitution as the next person, but nothing stopped me from making up another batch of harissa soon after the first one was used up.
Can I say I’m kinda in love with it?
I’m particularly in love with harissa butter – a condiment that’s easy to knock together, freezes well and can be thrown into many things.
I already had some chicken thigh fillets sitting in the fridge and wondered how I could introduce them to the golden, spicy butter. Simply pan-fried in it would have been good enough, but I wanted more.
I was craving bacon. Chicken and bacon? We’re on the right track.
Chicken, bacon and harissa? Now we’re talking.
I could have put my wacky chefs hat on and spiked the bacon with a bit of booze, but I settled on rolling the chicken in the rashers; cooking it mignon-style. Although a bit of bourbon flavour would have worked well with the smokiness of the bacon.
Next time.
A bit of herbage, a good dollop of harissa butter, some asparagus, cavalo nero and cherry tomatoes I picked up from the farmers market, and dinner was done and dusted.
*Maitre D’ Mini Casserole supplied by Scanpan
| Servings |
servings
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- 4 chicken thigh fillets
- fresh thyme leaves
- Salt & black pepper
- 4 rashers bacon
- 4 tbsp harissa paste recipe link in notes
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 onion sliced 5 mm thick
- Vegetables of choice to serve
Ingredients
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- Preheat the oven to 180°C.
- Lay the chicken thighs on a cutting board, scatter with the thyme and season well with salt and pepper.
- Roll the chicken tightly and then wrap the bacon rashers around each roll of chicken. Secure with a toothpick.
- Coat the bottom and inside of an ovenproof dish with the olive oil. Lay the sliced onion in a single layer in the bottom of the dish, then sit the rolled chicken on top of the onions.
- Drop 1 tablespoon of the harissa butter on top of each roll of chicken, top with a sprig of thyme and then bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes - basting a couple of times during cooking.
- Prepare your vegetables as the chicken cooks - serve as soon as it comes out of the oven, removing the toothpicks beforehand.
