Garlic and herb roasted potatoes with stuffed chicken and a sweet nutty mustard sauce

Garlic and herb roasted potatoes with stuffed chicken and a sweet nutty mustard sauce... Or you know, chicken and potatoes with sauce.

I just like to be fancy but this dish is pretty simple as well as being pretty DARN good. In fact, this may be my favourite dish i've made so far.

I got inspired with the sauce from a recipe I found in a Masterchef book then paired it with some chicken and potatoes since I thought it would make a good combination.

The sauce is nutty and sweet with a slight tang to it from the mustard.

The potatoes are crisp and explode with flavour in your mouth. And then the chicken is the perfect accompaniment to the flavours in this dish.

This dish is also healthy, getting in your 5-a-day from the asparagus and potatoes, a source of omega 3 oils and antioxidants from the nuts in the sauce and a big load of healthy protein from the chicken and bacon. What else do you need?

Garlic and herb roasted potatoes with stuffed chicken and a sweet nutty mustard sauce

Serves: 2

Ingredients

• 2 chicken breasts

• 6 bacon rashers

• 8 sun-dried tomatoes (or however many you can stuff into both chickens)

• salt and pepper, to season

For the potatoes:

• 250g small new potatoes

• 25g melted butter

• 2 garlic cloves, finely minced

• sprinkle of black pepper and a pinch of salt

For the sauce:

• 25g walnuts

• 15g pine nuts

• 100ml chicken stock

• 2tbsp honey

• 3tsp dijon mustard

• 3 bay leaves

• a few sprigs of thyme

• 2 shallots, finely chopped

• knob of butter

Method

- Preheat a fan oven to 200 degrees

- Cut a deep slit down each chicken breast and stuff the gap with as many sun-dried tomatoes as you can. Secure the tomatoes in by wrapping each chicken breast with 3 bacon rashers. Season them well.

- Heat a glut of oil in a medium sized saucepan and put both chicken breasts into the pan. Cook it for about 8 minutes on one side the flip it to cook the same on the other side. Once they're cooked on both sides turn the chicken breasts onto the edge and cook both sides lightly.

- Melt the butter and add the minced garlic. Cube the potatoes and season with black pepper and salt. Pour over the butter and evenly coat the potatoes in it. Place the potatoes onto a lined tray and bake them in the oven for 45 minutes or until puffed and crusty.

- Wrap each chicken breast fully in tin foil and place them in the oven 15 minutes after the potatoes have baked, and bake for 30 minutes.

- Meanwhile, Melt the butter in the same saucepan that the chicken has been fried in. Once it's sizzling add the bay leaves and thyme. Fry for 1-2 minutes or until fragrant. Then add in the shallots and stir everything together, mixing in the juices from the chicken. Add some seasoning. Remove to a bowl.

- Wip the pan clean and dry fry the pine nuts until golden. Blanch the walnuts in boiling water for 30 seconds and drain. Try to remove as much as the skin of the walnuts as possible then place both of the nuts into the blender and blitz into a a crumby paste.

- Combine the stock with the honey and mustard and place in the pan. Add in the nut mixture. Stir everything together until the mixture starts boiling. Finally add in the onion mix and combine everything briefly together then remove the sauce back to the bowl and cover to keep warm.

- Boil some water in a medium sauce pan and cook the asparagus until soft with a bit of crunch (that's how I like mine but do them any way you want)

- Remove the potatoes and chicken from the oven and spring some thyme over them. Serve with the sauce and asparagus. Bon Apetit!