Stuffed Chicken Roulade

[boychef]

Hi,

I had planned a breadcrumb stuffed chicken roulade as my main course for a set dinner in an event catering project.

I wanted to seal the roulade so that it will have a nice golden crust. The roulades i only did before is steamed (no breadcrumbs inside) and deep-fry.

That's where the problem lies... After rolling the chicken with cling wrap and removing the wrap soon, i don't think that it will hold it's shape well enough for sealing.

I thought of a few ways to cook the chicken but am not sure which is the best:

I thought of steaming it for a short period of time with the plastic wrap on so that the protein outside can coagulate and hold it's shape. Then i seal it and finish in the oven. But i'm afraid due to the moist cooking method, the breadcrumbs inside will turn all soggy during steaming.

Another method is to bake first with the wrap and then seal it on the grill. But i'm not sure if the plastic will melt due to the high heat in the oven.

The third method is to use string to tie the roulade up instead of plastic wrap. Then i seal it for crust and colour and bake as usual. The problem with this method is strings won't give me a nice tight roll and the strings will hinder some parts of the chicken in contact with the grill.

Anyone to enlighten me on the best method to get out of this puzzle?

[ChefRob]

boychef,

Sounds like you have a bit of a problem...

"I thought of steaming it for a short period of time with the plastic wrap on so that the protein outside can coagulate and hold it's shape. Then i seal it and finish in the oven. But i'm afraid due to the moist cooking method, the breadcrumbs inside will turn all soggy during steaming."

Out of the 3 methods you offered this one looks the best but you may want to rethink the breadcrunb filling. There are other fillings (mousses, bread stuffings, etc) that would work a whole lot better than the crumbs and might even help in holding your roulade together. The crumbs will get soggy, no question bout it.

Best of luck.

[siduri]

steaming meat WITH plastic wrap on? Yikes. I keep reading that you shouldn't even ever put plastic wrap directly on warm meat before putting it away, because it transfers chemicals through the heat and fat onto the meat. Not good.
I don;t know if roulades are small, individual sized thigns or large that you slice - for small ones, what about toothpicks? for large, what about a string?

[boychef]

Hi,

My roulade is individual boneless chix thigh with a layer of herbed breadcrumbs, follow by a slice of turkey bacon and a stick of mozzerrella cheese in the centre and then rolled up.

I chose this combo as the herbed breadcrumbs will give a diff texture (slightly crisp) with the melted cheese oozing out when the roulade is cut.

Chef Rob, I can't do anything much more complicated like mousse, etc... as my team are all students doing mis en place in school in the morning and transporting the stuffs to the restaurant for cooking to sell at night for a whole week's event. Most will be doing 14 hrs work for a whole week and we don't want anything too complicated. Nothing expensive too as food cost is around $9 for 4 courses.

Any suggestions?

In the meantime, tomorrow we'll be doing R&D. I'll try the steaming and toothpick sealing methods. See if which works better. If all else fails, think gonna change my breadcrumb stuffing.

[deltadoc]

I make stuffed chicken roulade quite often. Found I can use boneless turkey breast and its much easier.

I make a stuffing of portabellas (baby), onion, thick slab bacon, rosemary, S&P, parsley, ground fennel seed, and crimini's that have been soaking in boiled water for 1/2 hour.

Then I add Panko bread crumbs and check the seasoning.

Once that cools, I take the chicken breasts (or turkey breast) and pound them out to a very thin consistent thickness, approximately 1/4". Chicken doesn't hold together while pounding as well as turkey.

Then I place the cool stuffing on the flattened breast and roll it up. Tie with three strings for chicken breast, or 5-6 strings for a big turkey roulade.

I then brown them in oliveoil in a large (very large) frying pan on all sides. Some stuffing falls out, but that is ok.

Then I add chicken (or turkey) stock to cover, and then place the frying pan lid on and bake in an oven at 400F. I take the pan cover off about 1/2 hour before they're finished. I bake to an internal temperature of 170.

Let sit for 20 minutes, and then remove the strings. I deglaze the pan, strain the contents and add flour to make a roux. Then more stock until I get a nice brown sauce which I serve over the roulades. A garlic, rosemary mashed potato side dish goes very well as the sauce makes a nice gravy for the potatoes too.

They hold together very nicely.

doc

[kuan]

Easy.

1) You wrap your bench with plastic wrap, lay the breasts on them, plastic over, and pound them flat.

2) Remove upper plastic wrap, fill them with your filling of choice

3) Fold them over, put on sheet, slide onto speedrack, put in freezer until pretty firm.

4) Flour, eggwash, breadcrumbs

5) Fry until just light brown, back onto sheetpan

6) Wait until time to fire and put in oven

You can do thousands of these in a few hours easy.

[boychef]

Thank you for your suggestion.

I don't want to pane the roulade, as a grilled roll looks more appetizing.
But i wanna make a roll rather than a flat shape . The difficult part is maintaining the roll shape while sealing.

I actaully tried rilling it up in foil and den bake it. Follow by grilling for the nice colour. i'm still looking for a better method.

[oldschool1982]

After pounding and stuffing, wrap each roulade very tightly in pre-moistened cheese cloth and seal ends with butcher twine. Should look like a salami. Poach for 1-2 min in hot chicken stock. Place on coolig rack lined sheet tray in cooler or reach in with cheese cloth still in tact. After cool remove cheese cloth and place on a well seasoned grill. Mark accordingly and finish with a 400 degree oven and flash for 3 minutes. Serve per your taste or specifications
Since you wish to grill them leave the BC off the outside.


Now If you insist on doing the BC crust follow quans method. Looks like the most suitable for the product. BTW IMHPO a properly breaded, fried and presented roulade sounds very appetizing too. Not to sound abraisive here but you're gonna have to realize that you may not be able to provide a grilled product with a BC crust and have it be perfectly round and sealed... all at the same time. There are too many methiods of cooking you're trying to get outa one simple product. You just have to pick HOW you wish to do things and then follow thru.

Good luck

[boychef]

Hi,

thanks everyone for the info and suggestions.

I'll try the baking-grilling method for the breadcrumb stuffing again to see if i can get the perfect roll. At the same time, i'll also try a herbed carrot stuffing using the poach-grill-bake method using a cheese cloth which i think will give me a tighter and nicer round.

Will get bk once i got the answer to my experiment.