Hazelnut chicken with spinach | Bristol Foodie

Despite the fact I have a not-so-secret love for James Martin which I indulge nearly every Saturday during Saturday Kitchen, I’ve never really had any of his recipe books.

So downloading his iPad app ‘Simplicity’ was a bit unexpected really – it was only 69p though which seemed like a bargain. I have to say it’s now one of the best apps I have. There are only 9 recipes (though can you expect more for 69p?) and these are played out to you on video, with funky music in the background and clear to follow instructions. Refreshingly different from most other recipe apps. You can see James Martin doing everything in real time and the recipes really are… simple!

Best of all is the fact that there’s a video showing you how to joint a chicken into 10 cuts (practical or what?!) I’ve only don’t this a couple of times, which means that currently the chicken is still hacked to pieces but I am getting better!

Anyway, last week we cooked our first recipe from the app – hazelnut chicken. A huge success – especially with the boyfriend who is already keen for us to have it again!

Ingredients:

• 2 chicken breasts (no skin) White breadcrumbs
• Lemons Peeled
• hazelnuts
• Freshly grated parmesan
• Fresh thyme
• Butter
• Plain flour
• Eggs
• Spinach

Method:

1) Heat the hazelnuts in a dry pan for a few minutes to remove the husks. Keep them moving and don’t let them burn. Should take 5-10 mins

2) When the skins are visibly coming off, pour them onto a clean tea towel, fold the teatowel over the hazelnuts then rub vigorously until the husks come off. Get as much off as you can but don’t worry if a few are still in there.

3) Add the hazelnuts to the blender with the breadcrumbs, parmesan and leaves of thyme (not the springs)

4) Blitz until you have a fine crumb

5) Put the hazelnut crumbs on a large plate, on another plate put the flour and on the other crack and whisk the eggs

6) Butterfly your chicken breasts then coat with the flour, then eggs, then breadcrumbs making sure it is well coated at each stage

7) Heat the pan and melt the butter, season the chicken and one the butter is bubbling, add the chicken to the pan and cook on a medium heat. Flipping half way through. The chicken should be a rich golden brown colour on each side. Depending on how large the breast is you should just need to cook it for 3-4 minutes. Our chicken breasts were particularly beasty so we finished them off in the oven

8) Heat the butter in your second pan and add the spinach until it wilts. A whole bag of spinach will serve both of you. Once wilted, put on to the plated ready to serve (should take a matter
of minutes)

9) Once the chicken is cooked, serve with the spinach and lemon which you can squeeze over to taste.

Serving suggestion – it wasn’t in the recipe but I also served with corn on the cob which worked really well and bulked the meal out a bit.