Chicken herb roll

Sometimes I want to make something a little more elegant, but still simple. For Christmas, I decided to make rolled chicken. The inspiration came from when I was a teenager in Australia - at that time, frozen boneless turkey rolls were sold for Christmas. It is a pity I can't buy turkey fillets in Japan, but chicken is great!

For something more gorgeous, get some expensive brand name chicken. This time I cut costs by using some "a little expensive" meat plus some "very expensive" meat. In this case, the fillets were "jidori" and the sasami fillets were "red meat jidori". I forget the price but the red meat jidori was not something I can buy every week :)

I try not to cook in the oven so much because it takes time and electricity is expensive. If you make this dish, try to cook other oven foods such as roast vegetables and a baked pudding after that.


Preheat the oven to 210 degrees.
1. Put a flat chicken fillet onto a cutting board, skin side down.
2. Put a 5mm slice of butter in a small dish and melt it in the microwave.
3. Add some chopped herbs into the butter - chives, thyme, rosemary, sage.
4. Spread the herb butter over the meat side of the fillet.
5. Put two sasami chicken fillets in the middle of the big fillet.
(Make sure you put the sasami with two different ends together - one thick end and one thin end so it is one even log.)
6. Wrap the big fillet around the sasami and tie up with meat string in 4 places.
7. Top with some more herbs and black pepper.
8. Bake on a tray in the oven for 40 minutes.

These rolls are best hot because the skin is crunchy. The are also nice cold in a lunch box or as picnic or party food.