A simple but tasty recipe for chicken thigh fillets stuffed with goat cheese and wrapped in bacon. The herbs give a special taste and your kitchen will be filled with beautiful aromas while cooking.
Eating red meat too often is, in general, not recommended for a healthy and balanced diet. On the other hand, we are humans and we have our weaknesses. Anyway, even if I am constantly drooling with the thought of a juicy steak, I try to keep it low and eat red meat once or twice per week.
Chicken comes to fill the gap and need for a meaty meal. I can hear you say: “Is chicken healthier than red meat? What about all the hormones and antibiotics they stuff them for fast production in the factories?”
And you will be right. We live in a society where we cannot control the quality of food we put on our plate. You can taste the difference between chicken you buy in the supermarkets and the one you buy from a butcher in a village who grows his own livestock, lets them run, play and make love in the open fields. There is no comparison!
Limited by the choices modern society offers us, I went to the supermarket, went to the “fresh meat” aisle and bought 6 chicken thighs for the price of a bottle of water in Switzerland (which means, chicken was cheap).
The meal I was preparing was for a Saturday dinner so I thought, what the hell, I will wrap the thighs in some bacon rashers. We only live once (unless you are a cat). I had decided that the filling would be some soft cheese, so goat’s cheese was a straight-forward option. I wanted to experiment a bit with the flavours so I added tarragon and fresh thyme.
The result: Incredibly tasty!
- 6 skinless chicken thigh fillets.
- 200 gr (7 oz) goat cheese.
- 6 bacon rushers.
- 1 garlic clove finely chopped.
- 1 eggplant.
- 2 zucchinis.
- A small bunch of fresh thyme.
- A small bunch of tarragon finely chopped.
- ½ cup of extra virgin olive oil.
- 2 tomatoes sliced.
- A pinch of dried oregano.
- Salt and ground pepper.
- Place the thighs on top of a sheet of kitchen foil and cover them with a sheet of cling film. Use a heavy-ish object with a flat surface (like a saucepan) and hit the fillets hard a few times so they flatten.
- In a bowl, add the cheese, thyme, tarragon and garlic. Season with pepper and mix well to create a homogeneous mix.
- Season the chicken fillets with salt and pepper. Add 1 tablespoon (or may be less) of the mixture in each fillet and roll it. Wrap each fillet with a bacon rusher.
- Preheat the oven at 180 degrees Celsius (360 F).
- Cut the eggplant and zucchinis lengthwise into relatively thick pieces. Add a bit of olive oil on a medium tray. Place the eggplant and zucchini pieces to cover the bottom of the tray. Season with salt and pepper and place the stuffed fillets on top. You may add any remains of the cheese mixture on the tray. Place a tomato slice on top of each fillet. Pour in the rest of the olive oil on top of the chicken and vegetables. Sprinkle some oregano on top.
- Bake in the oven for about 45 minutes until chicken starts to get brown.
- Bon appetit!
I made this, and absolutely loved it! I decided against the veggies on the bottom, although I might go for something like potatoes and carrots – but that’s just a reflection of my preferences. The chicken and bacon, though, were completely fantastic. Thanks!