Chicken Romesco - Chef Recipe by Jesse White

Ingredients

Brine:

3L water
300g salt
330g sugar

Filling:

3 egg whites
15g salt
100g dried tomato
20g espelette pepper
1.25 kg chicken thigh

Romesco:

750g roasted capsicum
500g puréed tomato
40g smoked paprika
25g roasted garlic
25g raw garlic
150g roasted pine nuts
5g espelette pepper
30g sherry vinegar
60g olive oil

Pickled and macerated tomatoes:

500g green tomatoes
500g heirloom tomatoes
200g sherry vinegar
200g sugar

Romesco sauce:

100 g Romesco
1 L chicken stock
200g butter

Plating:

150g roasted capsicum
200g macerated tomatoes
100g pickled green tomatoes

Method

Brine:

Combine water, sugar and salt in a pot and bring to the boil. Once dissolved, cool down.

Break down chicken by removing legs and deboning them, then remove the breast from the bone, butterfly and using a mallet, flatten until 0.5cm thick.

Place in cold brine for an hour.

Romesco:

Place everything except olive oil in a blender and blitz until smooth. Heat oil in a pot and add Romesco paste and cook out at low temperature for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Filling:

Place deboned meat, Romesco, dried tomato, espelette, egg whites and salt in a blender and blitz until a farce is formed.
Place into a piping bag.

Remove chicken from brine, wash and pat dry.

Roll cling wrap onto the kitchen bench. Place two breasts onto cling wrap, slightly overlapping each other.

Pipe filling onto chicken breasts, peel the cling wrap up and roll into a tight log. Tie the ends off tight and place in a sous vide for 90 minutes at 75 C, until internal temperature of 65 C.

Pickled green tomatoes:

Cut into 1 cm chunks and make a pickle liquid using sugar, sherry vinegar and water by dissolving in a pot then pouring over the top of the tomatoes.

Romesco sauce:

Place the romesco and chicken stock in a pan and reduce by half, once reduced whisk in butter till emulsified.

Macerate tomatoes:

Cut into 1 cm chunks, season with salt, sugar, sherry vinegar and leave for 30 minutes till the tomatoes begin to break down. Drain off the tomato juice after 30 minutes.

To plate:

Cut the sous vide chicken into 3 cm thick pieces, then steam for 6 minutes, place onto the plate with the macerated tomatoes, pickled tomatoes, roasted capsicum.

Pour the Romesco sauce over and garnish with herbs.