Pancetta-wrapped chicken parcels with a fennel forcemeat stuffing

This is one of my build-it-as-you-shop recipes. It’s a lovely moment in my day if it’s one of those days when I have no plans for what to cook. I’m in the shop, basket in hand. What will I find today?

It turns out that it will be a paupiette. A parcel. But of what? I’d better investigate.

Je tourne a gauche. I turn left to the vegetable department. Ah, there’s baby fennel. That’s the starting point. A punnet goes into the basket. (I’ve just done my daily French lesson. There may be more.)

On we go, tout droit, puis je tourne a droit and I’m walking past the cured meats fridge when my eye catches what looks like bacon. Or is it? Nope – it’s pancetta. It’s labelled “matured” pancetta – rolled pork belly that has been dry-cured for four months with peppercorns and cloves.

So we have baby fennel, and pancetta. Next stop: the pork fridge, or will it be chicken today? You know which animal won.

But before I found the chicken breasts, my eye fell upon a small pack of minced chicken. And my mind went to forcemeat. Traditionally this would be ground or pureed chicken with fat (butter, most likely) and seasonings of whatever kind you fancy. Herbs, chiefly.

Once this had gone into the basket, only one thing could follow: chicken breast fillets. They would be flattened, the mince would become my version of forcemeat, and the breasts would be wrapped in pancetta.

And that is how a recipe is made, quite by chance. I love this process.

At home, I headed for the family herb trough, a giant affair, waist high, and full of all sorts of herbs and vegetables, punctuated by marigolds to deter the beasties from eating the lovely edible leaves. I picked some fennel fronds and went back inside.

The baby fennel would be a side dish, and there would be some baby potatoes cooked whole in an air fryer, as this would please the Foodie’s Wife. And the foodie.

Tony’s pancetta-wrapped chicken breasts with a fennel forcemeat stuffing

(Makes 6 portions)

Ingredients

6 chicken breast fillets

100g matured sliced pancetta (I used Forest and Feast from Checkers)

3 Tbsp butter and a splash of olive oil

A glass of dry white wine for the pan juices

Salt and white pepper to taste (for the chicken mince and fillet parcels)

150g chicken mince

3 Tbsp finely chopped fennel fronds

6 baby fennel bulbs, trimmed

1 glass dry white wine

200ml chicken stock

Salt and white pepper to taste (for the fennel)

Fennel to garnish

Method

If you don’t find chicken mince when shopping, ask the butchery department to prepare some for you.

Count the pancetta rashers. The 100g pack I bought contained 15 slices. So I would use 3 rashers for each of the four breasts, and I chopped the remaining trio to go into the stuffing. Or adapt the number of rashers you have as best you can. If each breast only has two rashers around it, there you go.

Put the chicken mince in a bowl. Chop some fennel, and the remaining pancetta. Add this to the mince, with salt and white pepper, and mix.

Cut through each breast fillet, side-on, using a sharp knife, from one side towards the opposite edge but without going all the way. As if you were making a pocket in it. Then fold it out like a butterfly.

Lay a butterflied fillet on a clean working surface. Place a big rectangle of cling film over it. Use your palms to flatten it out carefully, without causing the flesh to break. This gives you wider, flatter fillets to encase the stuffing.

Spoon the stuffing evenly between the four breasts, in a pile, right in the middle. Fold one side of the fillet over and tuck it under the opposite side. Fold the ends under too if you can – it makes for neater parcels.

Season the outside lightly with salt and white pepper. On a separate board, lay out three (or two) rashers of pancetta. Place one breast on top and pull the longer strips of pancetta over to the opposite side, then roll the parcel over to complete the process. Repeat with the other parcels.

Melt some butter in a pan. When it is foaming, add a dash of olive oil and fry the parcels on all sides, quickly, just to brown them. Don’t discard anything left in the pan, you’re coming back to that…

Preheat an oven or air fryer oven to 180°C.

Place the browned parcels on an oven tray and bake for 15 to 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, trim the root ends off the fennel bulbs.

Add the white wine and chicken stock to a frying pan, season with salt and white pepper and add the baby fennel bulbs.

Bring to a simmer and cook until most of the liquid has evaporated. Keep aside to be reheated just before serving.

If making baby potatoes, douse them in a small amount of olive oil, season with salt and cook in an air fryer basket at 180°C until tender and golden, about half an hour.

Slice the parcels on the diagonal (at a slight angle) and lay the pieces out to overlap a little. Spoon fennel on the side.

Add a glass of white wine to the pan in which you browned the chicken parcels. Reduce on a high heat, scraping the pan. Pour this into the fennel bulb pan (in which there will be some leftover cooking stock) and cook it down a little. This is your sauce for the chicken parcels.

Pour this sauce over the chicken, and garnish with fennel fronds. DM

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Tony Jackman is twice winner of the Galliova Food Writer of the Year award.

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