There are often bits of leftover blue cheese in my fridge, and always feta. For a quick midweek supper, I bought some salami and used that with feta and blue cheese to turn a simple supper into something more special, without too much effort.

A chicken breast off the bone and without its skin can dry out easily and quickly during cooking, and one way to counteract this is to stuff them with something both flavourful and moist. Salami has a component of fat which is good for the meat in the middle of the fillet, and cheese of course can only make the dish more scrumptious.

I put three folded slivers of salami into each pocket of breast, but when eating it I felt it was too much, so I’d suggest using two, or even one if it is a thick round of salami. Feta can be strong of flavour too, and blue cheese can of course swamp all other flavours, so go lightly there too.

My solution was to whip feta and blue cheese into a little crème fraîche and insert some of that into each pocket. I also made a sauce from crème fraîche, feta and white wine to serve with it. Try not to serve quite as much of the sauce as I did; I got a bit carried away. Another note about the photo: the breast looks as if it has golden, crisp skin on top, but that in fact is the browning of the lean chicken flesh itself.

Ingredients

4 chicken breast fillets, no skin

1 or 2 thin slices of salami per breast

1 Tbsp soft blue cheese whipped into 3 Tbsp crème fraîche and ½ a round of feta, crumbled or chopped very finely

½ tsp dried crushed garlic

Salt and black pepper to taste

3 Tbsp olive oil

For the sauce:

½ round of feta, finely chopped or crumbled

3 Tbsp crème fraîche

1 glass dry white wine

Salt and white pepper to taste

Method

Cut pockets into the breasts from the thickest side inwards, without going all the way through or cutting into either end.

Mix together the blue cheese, crème fraîche, ½ a round of feta, and crushed garlic.

Insert 1 or 2 pieces of salami inside each, then spoon in a little of the blue cheese/feta/crème fraîche mixture. Season both sides of the breasts with salt and pepper.

Fry the breast on both sides until just tender at the centre. Don’t go too far as they will cook further in the sauce.

Remove the cooked breasts and keep them warm.

Add the wine to the pan, deglaze and reduce for a minute. Stir in the blue cheese, crème fraîche and feta and simmer, covered, on a very low heat for 5 minutes. My sauce was not all that refined, but if it had been for a dinner party I would have strained the sauce. DM/TGIFood

Tony Jackman is Galliova Food Champion 2021. His book, foodSTUFF, is available in the DM Shop. Buy it here. 

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