bigideasjust4u: Chicken Wellington

Chicken Wellington ??? You may be joking, if 2 years ago you were to ask me to cook Chicken Wellington. I have never heard of Beef or Chicken Wellington during my life in this planet not until I relocated here to NZ.

What is Beef Wellington? Beef Wellington is a preparation of filet steak coated with pâté (often pâté de foie gras) and duxelles, which is then wrapped in puff pastry and baked( Explanation from Wikipedia). In layman's term, Beef wrapped in puff pastry. I came to know about this dish from the cooking programs that I have watched. These 2 years in Auckland, my cooking skill has improved in term of the varieties of dishes that I can cook and bake. I guess I have no choice but to learn how to cook over here. As you know I am from Singapore, a city woman and I do not cook since my mom is staying with me. Mom is awonderful cook and I was blessed to have her staying with me without worrying about my daily meals. When mom took a break from cooking, we are also blessed with many Kopitiams (foodcourts) around my place with lots of food varieties-due to the ethnic diversity in Singapore. I do not need to worry about no food on the table, usually I am more concerned about WHAT to eat. This is a common headache we, Singaporean have when comes meal's time.. WHAT to eat ? With too much choice available, it become a problem! :-)

In Singapore, I don't cook at all let alone bake. But thing has changed, in NZ I have to learn to cook so that there is food on our dinner table. Though there is takeway, the takeaway stores serve basically the same food which some tasted very aweful. Dining out in a restaurant is not a daily option, it is too costly to do it on daily basis. An average meal for two is cost a minimun of $60. See..I am left with no choice..but to cook. But where do I get my ideas from ? I rang my mom in Singapore for some recipes, watch cooking programs for inspirational or surf the internet for meals idea. I must admit I do learn alot during these 2 years of cooking-chopping up a whole chicken to making dumpling.

The new series of Australia Junior Masterchef showed a young kid of barely 10 years old cooking beef wellington, it looked yummy despite the fact that I don't eat beef. Somehow it stirred up my interest in attempting to make this dish using chicken. Searched the internet for "Chicken" Wellington and was glad to find some. I adapted the recipe from www.food.com , I have modified the ingredients and methods slightly.

Servings: 3-4
Ingredients:
2 Sheets Puff Pastry (thawed for about10-15 minutes)
4 Small Boneless Skinless Chicken Thighs, uncooked
1 Tablespoon Butter

1 Tablespoon Oil

Salt
Pepper
5 Streaky Bacons, cut into 2.5cm x 2cm
1 Medium Onion , finely chopped
1 Teaspoon Fresh Minced Garlic

6 Fresh button mushroom , sliced

1/2 Tablespoon Fresh Parsley, finely chopped

56g Cream Cheese (4 Tablespoon) , softened

1 Tablespoon Yellow Mustard

1/2 Egg , slightly beaten

1. Preheat oven to 190 C.
2. Season the chicken thighs with seasoning salt and pepper on all sides.

3. Heat butter and oil in a pan. Sautee garlic, onion and bacon for 2-3min, till onion turned soft. Add in mushroom, saute until the mushrooms lose their moisture. Stir in parsley.
4. Scoop up the above mixture (topping) onto a bowl. Used the same pan (without washing), brown the chicken thighs on both sides,until almost completely cooked through; transfer to a plate. The chicken thighs will be full of flavorful from the juices from the pan.

5.On a floured surface, roll out the puff pastry sheet and you may need to roll the pastry further so that you are able to wrap 2 chicken thighs in one pastry sheet. Place 2 chicken thighs side by side.