Thursday, June 20, 2013

A summery dish of chicken with bacon

IMG_5830.jpg
Recipe originally posted in August 2006, fully revised and updated with a new photo in June 2013.

The first time I cooked this delicious dish was in August 2006 in Edinburgh. I had some Estonian visitors from Cambridge. Trying to stay close to our Nordic roots, I had boiled some potatoes (the staple back home) and scoured the Swedish Arla site for recipes. This recipe for klassisk sommarkyckling aka Classic Summer Chicken caught my eye and, with small adaptations, was served to my friends. They liked it, as did I. The creamy-mustardy sauce was especially delicious, and dill added a very summery touch indeed (the original recipe used chives, which also sounds lovely).

That was seven years ago - and I still cook this to my family every now and then. I'm especially fond of the crispy bacon garnish, which complements the mild chicken and the creamy mustard sauce beautifully.

Chicken with creamy mustard and dill sauce and crispy bacon
(Suvine kanaroog koore-sinepikastmega)
Serves 4

about 500 g chicken thigh fillets or chicken breast escalopes*
butter for frying
200 ml whipping or double cream
2 tsp Dijon mustard or 1 heaped Tbsp mild MEIRA mustard
2-3 cloves of young garlic, skins off and slightly crushed
100 grams of smoked bacon rashers, chopped
3-4 Tbsp fresh dill, chopped

To serve:
500-750 grams of new potatoes, boiled
sliced cucumbers or this wonderful shaken Estonian cucumber salad

Heat the butter in a heavy-bottomed frying pan. Add chicken fillets and brown on both sides (7-8 minutes in total).
Pour over the cream, add garlic cloves and mustard. Cover the pan and simmer on a medium heat for about 10 minutes.
Add the chopped dill, season with salt and pepper.

Meanwhile, fry chopped bacon on a dry non-stick pan until golden brown and crispy. Transfer onto a sheet of kitchen paper to drain off excess fat.

To serve, place chicken fillets on heated plates, pour some sauce on top and sprinkle with crispy bacon.

* A chicken escalope (also called 'scallop') is a thin piece of chicken breast meat that's been pounded to make it thinner. If you cannot find them at your butcher or local supermarket, then it is really easy to make them yourself. 
Place a large chicken breast on your chopping board and cut it horizontally into two. If your chicken breasts are on the small side, then cover with clingfilm/plastic wrap and simply pound them with a rolling pin until about 3-4 mm thick.

UPDATE 12.8.2006
Kalyn has included this recipe in her weekly round-up of South Beach Diet friendly recipes. Thank you, Kalyn!
Amsterdam-based Swedish foodblogger Henrik made this dish and liked it

19 comments:

Kalyn Denny said...

Gorgeous, and sounds absolutely delicious. Saving this recipe!!

Anonymous said...

What a wonderful idea, looks and sounds really yummy!! Will definately give this one a try!

Pippurimylly said...

Looks good! Glad you made the leap of faith with chicken and bacon! I absolutely love the combination. As plain chicken tends to be a bit bland unless heavily spiced, the juicy tastiness of bacon is just the right thing to liven it up.

One good (and British) way to roast a whole chicken in the oven is to cover it with strips of bacon. The bacon protects the chicken from drying up and prevents its surface from charring - and also gets lovely and crisp in the process. Optimally, the chicken is put in the oven without bacon and the strips are laid on it when the chicken is approximiately halfway done.

Clivia said...

The Arla site is so good! I have found so many recipes there. This sounds so good - have to buy a big bunch of fresh dill soon for freezing!

K and S said...

this sounds really good!

Pille said...

Kalyn - thanks! Note that the original recipe used chives instead of dill, and heated the cucumber slices through at the end (i.e. included them in the sauce).
How would it score on your South Beach Diet?

Pam, oh please do! I'm sure you can get some good bacon in Switzerland to go with the chicken.

Pippurimylly - I'm happy to have leaped, too:) I've seen the bacon covered turkey here in the UK, but it would surely work with chicken, too. And I have sometimes grabbed chicken & bacon sarnie for lunch. Just hadn't combined these two in my kitchen yet..

Clivia - I agree, Arla is good. I guess some 5 per cent of the recipes in my Estonian language database are from Arla. The dishes are very suitable for an Estonian palate, too, which is probably the reason why I rely on Arla so much.

K&S - it tasted good, too:)

Kalyn Denny said...

I’m including this recipe today in a feature on my blog I call South Beach Recipes of the Week, where I spotlight South Beach friendly recipes I find on other great blogs. It includes your photo (with a photo credit for you, of course) and a link to the recipe. Please let me know if you have any concerns about how I’ve done this.

(So I guess it scores very well on South Beach, wouldn't you say!)

Kalyn Denny said...

Pille, Thank *you* for letting me use it!

Jeanne said...

Mmm, that looks heavenly! Chicken breasts in a creamy sauce with crispy bacon - it's a winning formula every time!

Thredahlia said...

See tundub küll väga maitsev, mitu lemmikmaitset üheskoos... peekon ja kana ja sinep ja ...
Kuna peale pikka puhkamist on külmik õte tühi, siis saab nüüd poenimekirja täiendada :D

Pille said...

Kalyn - you're too kind! It is an honour to be included in your round-up, and I'm glad to know that this chicken dish would pass the strict GI test (with some modifications, that is).

Jeanne - I wish I had known it earlier that this is a winning combination. I could have avoided many anxious moments of "what to cook for tonight":)

Thredahlia - tore, et maitsev tundub. Anna teada, kuidas siis tegelikult maitses! Ja Põltsamaa kange sinep ajab vist ka asja ära..

Thredahlia said...

Maitses väga hästi, Põltsamaa sinepiga ja tilli asemel vähese murulauguga :)
See sobib vist isegi mu karnivoorsete kalduvustega meeslemmikule - kohe kaks liha korraga. Teen kindlasti inimkatseid, kui juhus avaneb :D.

Pille said...

Rõõm kuulda! Muide, rootslaste originaalretseptis oligi kasutatud murulauku, aga mul oli kapis kokkamise hetkel vaid tilli. Loodetavasti lähevad ka inimkatsed edukalt;)

Anonymous said...

Pille, just wanted to let you know that I've tried this - being a Swede living in Amsterdam, finding this (Swedish) recipe on an Estonian expat blog in Scotland I felt I had to close the circle somehow. It was absolutely delicious and my take on it is on http://mums.blogsome.com/2006/08/23/sommarkyckling/ . (I am guessing that if your Swedish is good enough to decipher the original recipe you might also be able to decipher the credit you're given. ;))

Suresh Urs said...

Fantastic post. Clickrecipe

Anonymous said...

Maitses väga hästi, Põltsamaa sinepiga ja tilli asemel vähese murulauguga :)

See sobib vist isegi mu karnivoorsete kalduvustega meeslemmikule - kohe kaks liha korraga.

Eestinaine said...

Klopitud kurgisalat on nii maitsev! Häda on selle valmistamisega UK-s, kus ei leidu kanget äädikat ja lahja kohaliku äädikaga see lihtsalt välja ei tule. Hakka või Eestist äädikat smugeldama :)

Gizem Sena said...

Seems to be a very light menu, great for summer I believe :)

Sumon Ahmed said...

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If I can, I want to get the food to eat as soon as possible.
Thanks for sharing.