If I ask my family what they would like me to cook for them it is usually Chicken with Red Pepper Sauce and even my husband, who really dislikes peppers, loves this sauce. It is great with chicken or fish and I have also served it with pasta.
The dish itself is a handy one to have in your arsenal if friends or family are coming to dinner – the sauce can be made and chicken wrapped early on or indeed the day before and kept chilled, then all you have to do is cook the chicken and heat the sauce – easy. Tonight I stuffed my chicken breasts with roasted peppers and tomatoes (sprinkled with olive oil, salt and pepper and roasted for around 40 mins at 200ºC) and creamy mozzarella. I used spanish bacon but I also use pancetta or slices of serrano or parma ham depending on what is available that day. The sauce also freezes well so I often keep any left over sauce in a freezer bag ready for a quick supper for one.
To serve 4:
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4 chicken breasts
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8-12 slices of pancetta (or serrano / parma ham)
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3 tablespoons of olive oil
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1 red onion, finely diced
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2 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
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3 red peppers, diced
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1 teaspoon of chopped thyme
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1 tablespoon of tomato puree
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250ml white wine
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500ml chicken or vegetable stock
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250ml cream
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salt and pepper
Wrap each chicken breast in 2 or 3 slices of bacon.
The sauce: Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a sauté or large frying pan on a low heat. Add the red onion and sweat until softened – do not brown. Add in the garlic and continue frying for another couple of minutes and then add in the thyme and diced red peppers, turn up the heat to medium and cook for approximately 10 minutes until the peppers are starting to soften. Add in the tomato puree, a pinch of salt and pepper and stir.
Turn up the heat to high and add in the white wine – allow the pan to simmer until the liquid has reduced by half. Add in the stock and allow to reduce by half, then add in the cream and continue to simmer, stirring occasionaly, until the liquid has again reduced by half and then turn off the heat. Allow to cool for a few minutes and then blend the sauce for a few seconds so it is a rough consistency and not too smooth. Leave to one side (if you are preparing early then cover and allow to cool before chilling until ready to reheat later).
The chicken: preheat the oven to 180ºC. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a non-stick frying pan on high heat, brown the chicken/bacon on each side then place in a roasting tin and in to the oven for approximately 20 minutes.
Served below with green salad and oven roasted baby potaotes.
This looks really good – wonder if it would work with chicken thighs?
Hi there Caroline – I haven’t tried with Chicken thighs yet, I think if they were skinned then it should work fine. If you do try let me know how it goes :)
think i might try this tomorrow, except with good ol’ rashers! Not that pancetta doesn’t sound devine it’s just that where i’m at for the last few days of summer it isn’t an option. Looking forward to trying out the sauce as looks really tasty…
Hi there :) I use rashers too – usually smoked, sometimes it’s all I can get my hands on but still delicious. Have stuffed the chicken with cream cheese too and it goes really well with the sauce. Hope you like it :)
Hello again! I made this sauce at the weekend and it was deee-licious!! Went down very well with husband who is a sucker for cream! Didn’t stuff the chicken due to lack of time so it was a bit dry but will do next time. Thanks for lovely recipe!
Oh brilliant! I don’t find it too creamy though which is good :) My husband doesn’t like his chicken stuffed so I always do one just wrapped in ham/bacon for him. Glad you enjoyed x
Not too creamy no, it was just right!!:-)
My favourite part of this was the sauce – I think I made it a little too liquidy so we had the leftovers as soup! Gonna make it as a soup on its own tonight – it was so yum!
Heehee… glad you enjoyed it :) Haven’t tried as a soup…mmmm.
I made this yesterday and served it with pasta for tea, it went down a treat, my husband devoured it! I’ll be making it again on Saturday when I have friends round for dinner,but I want to stuff the chicken with something different as I thought it was a bit samey stuffing the chicken with peppers and then all the pepper sauce (still yummy though). Any suggestions for stuffing my chicken breasts with something that would compliment the sauce? Thanks for the recipe, it’s the best sauce I’ve ever tasted :D
Hello and welcome! Glad to hear it went down well :) How about stuffing with a spinach. ricotta and pinenut stuffing? Or just the mozzarella and roasted tomatos with basil? I have actually had this stuffed with good old Philadelphia too and it’s really delish! Let me know what you opt for and thanks a mill for the comment :)
any other sudtitute to cream trying to lose a little weight?
Hmmm perhaps using a natural low fat yoghurt – haven’t tried in this particular dish but I have used in curries to add creaminess. It isn’t too much cream though when it’s divided out – I think I would prefer to use the cream and have a little less sauce :)