Gastro-porn but ok for your midriff.

This is a recipe that a friend (Sally Taylor) shared and I promised to try it, making it as Slimming World friendly as I could. As a result this post has to make reference to the afore mentioned approach to diet/healthy eating. However you do not need to be following SW to try and it, and it is worth trying it.

This is recipe for Breadcrumbed Chicken Breasts Stuffed with Cheese and Ham.

You can of course watch the video and just follow that. I have tried to amend/calculate the use of cheese, flour, milk and butter to make it work for me and others with similar needs.

I made it for three people and so all my calculations are made on this basis. For larger/smaller quantities divide by 3 and then multiply by the number of people you are feeding.

The first component was the Bechamel Sauce. I opted for a simple quick version rather than one with infused milk.

Ingredients:

• 200ml semi-skimmed milk (6 syns or HEa)
• 20g Lurpack Light ( 4 syns )
• 10g plain flour (1.5 syns)
• Seasoning
• Ground cloves.

Method:

1. Melt the Lurpack in a pan.
2. Add the flour and stir until you have a thick paste and it has cooked until it starts to brown slightly.
3. Add the milk slowly, stirring all the time.
4. Cook until a creamy white sauce.
5. Season to taste including a sprinkling of ground cloves.

I used less than half this white sauce but have halved the final syn total for the whole sauce to 6 syns.

The chicken stage, including the gastro-porn in the video which I am sure you have all spotted, is quite straight forward.

Ingredients:

• Three chicken breasts
• Two slices of emmental cheese ( 6 syns or HEa)
• 2 slices of ham, all visible fat removed

• 40g grated mozzarella (6 syns or HEa)
• 40g breadcrumbs (6.5 syns)
• 1 egg
• 10g plain flour (1.5 syns)

Method:

1. Layer ham and emmental and slice 6 ways (U.K. breasts without the recourse to steroids etc not as deep as a yank breast – home grown gastro-porn this time in the style of the Carry On films).
2. Dust each breast in flour.
3. Coat each breast in beaten egg.
4. Coat each breast in breadcrumbs.
5. Unlike the video (and my picture) do not lay on a bed of cubed potatoes, cook the potatoes separately and longer (or par boiled) to let them get crispy.
6. Lay two bundles of ham/cheese along the groove in the chicken.
7. With a teaspoon dribble the sauce along the ham/cheese so that it covers most and has run over the sides a little. I only used half the sauce so will adjust syns accordingly.
8. Sprinkle mozzarella over the sauced area.
9. Put the chicken in an pre-heated oven at 180 degrees Celsius.
10. If par boiled put the potatoes in the oven at the same time having sprayed with oil. I also added cubed sweet potato pieces (from a bag of frozen cubes).
11. Cook for twenty five minutes.

Serve with veg of your choice (I had green beans in).

Now for overall syns. I weighed out all my ingredients and also weighed what was left for accuracy today. I suggest you weigh out yours but you can guesstimate what is left over if you wish or weigh it like me for accuracy. If you don’t care because you are not trying to lose weight/maintain lost weight then you can eat what you want.

2 syns for Lurpack from the 4 syns in the entire sauce mix (halve used) rounded to 1 syn per portion.

1.5 syns for flour as only half of sauce and dusting flour used. 0.5 syns per portion

3 syns for the milk as only half the sauce used. 1 syn per portion.

6 syns for emmental cheese. 2 syns per portion.

6 syns for mozzarella cheese. 2 syns per portion.

6.5 syns for breadcrumbs. Rounded to 2.5 syns portion.

Now for the fun bit. If you combine the syns per portion for the milk and both cheeses you are one syn short of a full HEa. Add a little extra mozzarella is the easiest way to make this up to a fill HEa.

If you do make all your dairy your HEa then you are left with 4 syns per portion. If you replace the potatoes with lots of speed you can even get close, if not exactly on, an SP meal. The breadcrumbs and flour stop it being truly SP but the quantities are so small you might get away with it in psychological terms. Don’t do this if you are planning a strict SP week.

Anyone reading this who knows the SW stuff, please check over my syn and HE calculations. This double checking would be really appreciated.

This is a really tasty treat of a tea so give it a go. We will be having it again.