Chicken Roulade with Pineapple-Beet Salad

For some reason, I'm addicted to shows like Iron Chef or Chopped.  I'm not an addict in that I have to watch them all the time, or even that regularly.  I don't even have cable or internet, so I can't really watch them at all.  Yet, when I get the chance...I am stuck.  It's not those ingredients, or necessarily the ability of the chefs, that grab my attention.  It is the challenge of using something unknown to create a tasty and edible dish.

Last week, while we were in Kalispell, I watched more Chopped and Iron Chef than I had in a long time. The Food Network is gracious enough to air Chopped nearly every night, right around dark.  Those chefs inspire me to be creative, and use whatever ingredients I have lying around.  In Kalispell, we had an odd assortment of food stuffs: pineapple, yams, vinegar, brown sugar, olive oil, zucchini, green beans, sour cream, cilantro, an assortment of Chili Lime Spices, cheese, garlic, beets and cucumber. We had originally decided we were going to have a pizza, which we did, but we still had all of those ingredients left over, and I had told Erin I would make dinner.

Summoning my inner Chopped chef. I decided to create something unique: a pineapple vinaigrette, a rolled chicken breast (which is apparently also called a roulade), and a beet salad.  Later, I recreated the pineapple vinaigrette to put on a beautiful 16" rainbow trout Erin and I caught near Helena. See “Grilled Trout” for specifics on that menu. 

The Beet Salad recipe is an effort to cater to Erin’s recent obsession with beets.  As Erin will iterate, beets are tasty and a healthy source of vitamins and minerals, including iron.

Chicken Roulade*

2 boneless, skinless, organic chicken breasts

1 clove garlic, minced

1/4 C sour cream,

1/2 C flour

1 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp salt

Stuffing

1 handful, organic, green beans (apparently you can call them Haricot Verts) grown in Helena.

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 Tbsp fresh cilantro

2 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp salt

*Roulade = a fancy term for rolling meat around stuff.  Roulade originates from the French word "rouler" meaning "to roll".

                                                                                                                                 

Pineapple Vinaigrette

See Grilled Trout with Pineapple Vinaigrette recipe

Beet and Pineapple Salad

1 Beet

1/3 Pineapple (diced), discard core and peel.

1 English cucumber, peeled - home grown, in Kalispell, by your friend's mom, the infamous Harriet from Harriet's Naughty Pavlova (good luck finding that one, talk to Norm, he can hook you up)

1 tsp Vinegar

2 Green onions

To make the chicken, butterfly the chicken breasts and pound them down to 1/8" thickness.  Set aside.  Warm the olive oil in a pan and sauté garlic.  After garlic is soft, but before it is brown, add beans, salt, pepper and cilantro.  Cook until the beans turn bright green, but are still al dente. Place five or six beans in each chicken breast and roll.  Place a dollop of sour cream where the breast wraps over itself to act as an adhesive.  Mix sour cream, flour, salt, pepper and garlic together. Roll each stuffed breast in the flour mixture.  Cook on a stove top in olive oil until the chicken is done, rotating to cook each side thoroughly.

To make the beet and pineapple salad, cut the beet, pineapple, and cucumber into 1/2 bite size pieces and mix well in a bowl with green onions.  Pour vinegar over the top and mix well.