Mother's Day at the Old Salzburg

As with any special occasion, any decent restaurant will have a special menu.  Mother's day, the most special of them all, is certainly no exception.  I always like creating these special menus because it usually gives me a chance to break away from the regular menu and make something that is, in essence, different from the day to day.

This year, I chose to feature a feta-cheese and sundried tomato stuffed chicken breast supreme on a rosé sauce.

It is really quite simple once everything is together, and I am sure that any chef who is reading this is probably thinking how completely elementary this is, but when simplicity and speed is the key, then this is the item of choice.

I started with quality feta, sundried tomatoes, fresh garlic, and fresh chopped parsley.  I avoided using salt because feta is already a salty cheese.  Coupled with sundried tomatoes, it renders salt for the filling unnecessary.   I added all of my ingredients in to the trusty, and well worn Cuisinart Mini-Prep Processor, and gave it a spin.

I pureéd this until it formed a semi-smooth paste.

I put this aside and prepped my chicken breasts.  I started out with fresh chicken breast supremes.  The difference between a regular chicken breast, and a supreme, is the presence of the wing bone.  The wing bone gives it a certain amount of height.

Then, with my Victorinox 6-Inch Flex Boning Knife with Fibrox Handle I cut around the tip of the wing bone in a circular fashion, and push the meat down towards the breast.

After that, I cleaned the excess meat from the tip of the bone and discarded it, leaving a nice, clean wing bone.  It is important for the presentation. This technique is known as "frenching". It is common with meats such as duck, chicken and turkey breasts, as well as pork crown roasts and lamb racks.  When properly done, it gives these items a clean, professional presentation.

Afterwards, I turned over the breast to butterfly it.  This entails splitting the breast to make it wider. It aides in the filling of the breast, and also makes it thinner to allow a faster cooking time.  Of course, if you stuff a breast, it can increase the cooking time in some cases.

 Then I placed a small amount of stuffing in the middle,

and folded over the two sides, trying to overlap to keep the filling in.
When finished, it should resemble a nice, plump breast, with the wing bone sticking up.

For service, the chicken was placed in a 400 degree oven for 12-14 minutes, and then I sliced it 3 times, and served it with the aforementioned rosé sauce.  A rosé sauce is, quite simly, a light tomato cream sauce.

So there you have it.  My Mother`s day feature at the Old Salzburg restaurant in Radium BC.  Sorry about the picture quality, but you can't do too much with a camera phone.  Happy cooking!