Bacon-Wrapped Chicken Thighs Stuffed with Salsa Verde (AIP)

Life expectancy would grow by leaps and bounds if green vegetables smelled as good as bacon. (Doug Larson)

So, the teenager mentioned he was coming to dinner. We haven’t seen that much of him of late. He’s getting more and more independent – he finished school forever in December and then he passed his driver’s license…

I had this leftover-but-still-so-good ‘Knock Their Socks Off’ Salsa Verde sitting in my fridge… And, then LM decided it was a good day to drive to Vaucluse to visit our friends at G.R.U.B. (that’s the Grass Roots Urban Butcher, for the uninitiated)… And, then I had this brainwave – what if I put the salsa verde inside my protein of choice instead of spooning it on after it was cooked… And, of course, everything tastes better with bacon…

And so, the bacon-wrapped chook thighs stuffed with salsa verde were born.

The lovely Peter at G.R.U.B. skinned my chook filets for me. He even offered to flatten them, too. But, I have to admit to finding it strangely therapeutic to bash lovingly use a meat mallet to flatten the filets all by myself.

And, this recipe was a cracker! We’ll definitely be having these again at Casa TSL. Any leftovers make for great lunch-box fillers. I reckon it would work equally well with veal or pork, or – with a slight variation in preparation – with fish, too.

[recipe title=”Bacon-Wrapped Chicken Stuffed with Salsa Verde” time=”Just over an hour if you have the salsa verde handy!” difficulty=”easy”]

Ingredients

6 (or more!) large happy* chicken thigh fillets (boneless & skinless)
6 (or more!) rashers happy* bacon
‘Knock Their Socks Off’ Salsa Verde**
salt

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C/360°F/Gas 4.

2. Lay chicken thighs skin side down on a board. Using a meat mallet, gently pound chicken into schnitzel thickness (that’s a technical term).

3. Cover one side of each flattened thigh with a generous spoon of salsa verde

4. Roll chicken thighs up and wrap with a rasher of bacon.

5. Secure with a cocktail stick/toothpick. Bake for 45 – 50 minutes.

* pasture raised and free of nasties

**or, sub with either your favourite pesto or – in a pinch, and to make the dish AIP compliant – a couple of cloves of garlic and freshly chopped herbs to taste[/recipe]