Are you looking for a different Christmas dinner idea this year? Would you like to dazzle holiday guests with a delightful dish of mind-blowing flavours and contrasting textures? Here’s a fantastic traditional Christmas dinner recipe: stuffed chicken breast with nutmeg-scented mashed potato and baked apple. This wonderful festive roast, in which the stuffing will steal the show, goes perfectly with the side dish. Creamy mashed sweet potato with smoked cheese and a hint of nutmeg accompanied by baked apples in the oven. The crunchy layer of caramelized sugar on top of the apples hides different fruits mixed with walnut. The recipe can be easily adapted from two people to a larger group. The good news is that it doesn’t require extensive kitchen knowledge and is affordable.
For as long as I can remember, my grandmother has made this stuffed chicken breast with baked apples for Christmas lunch every single year. There wasn’t really room for innovation. The only variation was that she put mushroom, meat or chestnut pâté in the chicken, and whether or not there were prunes in it. But after all, as with anything else you repeat monotonously for years and years, this dish lost its sparkle. We, as a family, demanded something new. Collectively. Looking back now, I only can imagine the terrible headache we caused for my poor granny. She couldn’t help but buy new gastro magazines (the few that already existed at the beginning of the 2000s in Hungary) and spice up the traditional Christmas lunch with something special.
Reinventing traditions
Then, as the years passed, I moved farther and farther away. I got first-hand experience with the world’s culinary heritage and tried and cooked different international recipes. Yet, more than once, I found myself looking for my grandmother’s recipe when planning the menu for Easter or Christmas as my heart and soul craved childhood flavours.
Of course, as you are already used to, I try putting my gastronomic stamp into the traditional recipes. In this case, I incorporated sweet potato into the mashed potato and spiced it up with nutmeg and smoked cheese.
And as I look at the Christmas dinner plate of stuffed chicken, the conversations and loud laughs we used to have at my granny’s table echo in my mind.
P.S.: If you are looking for a delicious Christmas appetizer, check my sausage and cheese medialuna recipe, or for Christmas dessert ideas, go to the cookie box recipe.
Stuffed chicken breast with nutmeg-scented mashed potato and baked apple
Ingredients
For the stuffed chicken
- 4 chicken breasts or legs
- 1 slice bread soaked in milk
- 3 boiled eggs
- 100 g pâté (you can use vegetarian, mushroom or meat pâté)
- 1 egg
- handful fresh herbs (parsley, thyme, rosemary, chives) finely chopped
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- salt, pepper, grill spice mix
- dried fruits: apricot, plum or datil (optional for the stuffing)
For the baked apple
- 4 medium-sized baking apple (f.ex. Jonagold)
- 250 g fruit: sour cherry, pear, pineapple, etc. (you can use canned fruits or any seasonal fruits that have a nice texture in the oven)
- 3-4 tbsp walnut roughly chopped
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 1-2 tbsp granulated sugar
For the mashed potato
- 2 big sweet potatoes
- 4 big potatoes
- 2-3 tbsp butter
- 0,5 dl milk
- 20 g smoked cheese grated
- salt, pepper, nutmeg
Instructions
- Cut the breast horizontally in half without cutting them all the way through: you should be able to open them as if they were a book. With a meat mallet, pound them until about 3-5 mm. Season both sides. If you are using legs, only season them.
- Prepare the stuffing. Grate the boiled eggs on a cheese grater. Heat a pan over medium heat with the olive oil; place the grated eggs, pâté, squeezed bread and finely chopped herbs, and sear them for about 4-5 mins. We only want them to have a little bit of toasted flavour. If necessary, season with salt and pepper. Pour the mix into a bowl and cool for 10 mins.
- Beat one egg and pour it into the stuffing. This will keep it compact.
- Preheat oven to 180 °C.
- With a tablespoon, place stuffing on the chicken breasts' longer edge (optional: put some dried fruits on top of the stuffing) and carefully roll them up. Wrap them around with a string, so they don't fall apart. If you are using legs, carefully separate the skin of the chicken leg from the meat with your fingers, but do not cut it because we will fill the stuffing under the skin. In the end, seal with 2-3 toothpicks.
- Grease a roasting pan with olive oil and place the chicken breast or legs one by one. Cover with aluminium foil and bake for about 60 min. After 30 min, you should check them. Once the chicken is tender, uncover and grill until golden brown but not dry. This is crucial with the legs because we want heavenly crunchy skins.
- While the chicken is in the oven, prepare the side dishes. Cut out the apples' core with a sharp knife or apple corer. With a Parisienne scoop or melon baller, widen the holes, so they are 1 cm thin. I recommend using the scooped-out apple (without the seeds) with the other fruits to fill the apples. Wrap the apples one by one with aluminium foil leaving only the top out, so they remain compact. Pour a little bit of lemon juice into each apple to avoid oxidation.
- In a separate bowl mix the fruits and walnut. Fill the apples with it and sprinkle them with a little bit of granulated sugar. Place them in a baking tray, cover them with aluminium foil, put them in the oven below the chicken, and bake them for about 30-35 min. Once tender, uncover them and caramelize the sugar on top.
- Prepare the mashed potato. I like mixing the potato with the sweet potato because the starch from the potato gives a nice creamy texture to the dish. When mashing the potatoes, add butter and milk, and for the extra flavour kick, add grated smoked cheese and nutmeg. The combination is just perfect.
- Cut the breasts into roulades, serve them over the mashed potato and accompany them with the baked apple. Enjoy this delicious meal!
