I bought a block of Wensleydale Cheese w/ cranberries at Costco the other day on a whim and that stuff is AMAZING! It’s a mild, crumbly, white cheese that comes in several flavours, with cranberry for the season. The cranberry one is mildy sweet and totally addictive! I had some small chicken breast thins thawed, so I decided to try making roulades with the cheese. Worked great! I also had some cranberry juice, so I made a cranberry glaze as well. The rainbow carrots were simply cooked down with butter and honey. Easy recipe with a big WOW factor! Enjoy!
Chicken Roulades
1 pack thin chix breast (larger ones are easier to work with)
s/p
ground sage (or whole fresh if you have it)
Wensleydale Cheese with cranberries
Honey Glazed Carrots
rainbow carrots (baby or cut to 2″ pieces, about the same size)
water
salt
2Tbl butter
1Tbl honey
Cranberry Glaze
3/4 cup cranberry juice (no sugar kind)
splash red wine (optional)
2 Tbl butter
pinch salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp cornstarch slurry
Preheat oven to 350-375F. The thin chicken breast cuts I used were the smallest of a pack I’d split up. Larger ones would be easier to work with, but you don’t want them too large or too thick. You’ll need to pound out the chicken so they are all about the same thickness. Once that’s done, lay them smooth side down and season the top with S/P and ground sage.
Cut pieces of the cheese to fit the size of your roulade and place in center as shown (put a piece of whole fresh sage here if you’re using it). Roll up the chicken around the cheese and secure with a toothpick. Heat an oven proof skillet over med hi heat and put the roulades in seam side down. Brown on all sides then put in the oven to finish.
While the roulades are finishing, put about a half inch of water and 1 tsp salt into a skillet and add the carrots. Bring water to a boil, cover and let carrots cook until the water starts to evaporate. Add butter and cook until water is almost gone then add honey, bring heat down to Med and let carrots finish in the glaze. You may need to add more water if your carrots need to cook longer. It will take about 15 minutes.
While the carrots are cooking, get a small saucepan and add cranberry juice. Bring to a boil and let reduce to about half. NOTE: if you have a lot of chicken, you may want to double this recipe. It’s only enough for about 3 roulades. Once the cranberry juice is reduced, add wine, butter, salt, pepper and sugar. Reduce a few more minutes. To give the glaze some body, make a cornstarch slurry with a bit of cranberry juice and 1 tsp of cornstarch and add to glaze. Cook at a boil for 2-3 more minutes or until the consistency is satisfactory.
The roulades should be a nice golden brown and register a temp of about 160-170F when done. Hopefully you’ll have very little cheese oozing out – I had just a little bit. Serve with glaze on the chicken and the glazed carrots.
