Variations on a Theme of Chicken Rolatini by Chef Avi of Avi's Kosher Kitchen

This dish leaves a lot up to your imagination. I’m giving you the basic recipe, but you decide how far to take it. This is truly a dish that can be a showstopper. Basically we’re going to take some organic fed, free range chicken breasts, flatten them and stuff them with your choice of fillings.

I served this at a Shabbat meal and half of the people thought we were having sushi, until they really looked at it. It made for a very interesting surprise and dialogue.

What You Need:

• 4 pastured, organic-fed, KOL Foods boneless chicken breasts
• Salt
• Granulated garlic
• Honey
• 1 egg beaten (bad egg, bad egg!)
• Herbed Panko Crumbs
• Suggested Fillings:
• Garlic Spinach
• Moscato Mushrooms
• Fresh Fruit – (I love to use sweet mango)
• Coconut (along with some honey coconut crème)
• Whatever else your imagination says.

What You Do:

This is a versatile dish because you get to make it up as you go along. However, the first step is to lay out your breast fillets on a cutting board. I like to first put some plastic wrap down on the board and then cover the fillets with a second sheet of plastic wrap. I take a food mallet and then gentle pound the fillets thin. Be careful not to hit them too hard or you’ll destroy them.

I then dust both sides with salt and granulated garlic. Now is when your creativity comes into play. You want to take a filling of your choice and spread a thin layer on top of the breast. I like to use garlic spinach, Moscato or any wine sautéed mushrooms, I also use some fresh fruit, mango is always a great one, and finally some honey. Chicken and honey play very well together. I line the fourth fillet with some coconut honey crème and some dried coconut.

Now you just roll the fillets length wise from one end to the other. You’ll end up with four compact rolled breasts. If you want to leave the skin on you can. For this version I take them off and brush some beaten egg on top and then coat in herbed panko crumbs. They then go onto a baking sheet that has been lightly sprayed with non-stick oil and then into a 400-degree oven for about twenty minutes.

About five minutes before they’re done, I drizzle a little honey on the top of each breast. I also add a touch of coconut to the coconut breast and some thin mango slices to the mango breast. Once they’re done it’s out of the oven, and allowed to rest for about five minutes. Then slice each breast against the grain into four one-inch slices. When pulled apart, the slices should slightly resemble sushi.

I serve by mixing a slice from each breast onto each plate, add a little herbed rice and greens and then have drizzling sauces on the side. You can even lay out chop sticks for everyone, just to help sell the illusion, besides it’s a fun way to eat them.

L’Chaim . . . Avi