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Jamie’s Ministry of Food – parmesan chicken breasts with crispy posh ham


00:00:00hi guys welcome to the Ministry of food

00:00:02I got a beautiful beautiful chicken

00:00:04recipe it’s going to blow you away it’s

00:00:06delicious it’s tasty it’s exciting I

00:00:08want to show you exactly how to do it

00:00:10what the critical points are and how you

00:00:13can be absolutely brilliant so what I’ve

00:00:15got here is some thyme you literally

00:00:16only need that much of time but you can

00:00:19buy them in all the supermarket’s

00:00:20you could use rosemary we’ve got some

00:00:22Parma ham here which you can get in all

00:00:25the supermarkets I’m using Parmesan but

00:00:28absolutely you could use a cheddar

00:00:29cheese and some free-range chicken you

00:00:32could use our SPT a freedom food chicken

00:00:34free-range organic so if you’re going to

00:00:37cook this dish with RSPCA freedom food

00:00:39chicken this comes in about two pound a

00:00:42year portion which i think is nice and

00:00:43reasonable i’ve got a nice large pan I’m

00:00:46going to put it onto a medium heat what

00:00:50you want to do is get a clear surface

00:00:52get your cling film rip it off and then

00:00:55I’ll do another layer because you don’t

00:00:57want it to care do it about two foot

00:00:59long okay if you look at a chicken

00:01:02breast right you’ve got a thick end here

00:01:05which is about an inch thick for a

00:01:07regular to underground portion and then

00:01:09you’ve got a thin bit here which is

00:01:10about a centimeter just over in

00:01:12thickness now the thing is a lot of

00:01:15people are worried about cooking chicken

00:01:16you know this chicken dish that I’m

00:01:17going to do will cook in about seven

00:01:19minutes and I’ll show you how to check

00:01:21exactly if it’s cooked but you don’t

00:01:23want to overcook your chicken

00:01:24don’t fall for it I’ll show you exactly

00:01:26out get it perfect now what I need to do

00:01:29is make that thick end as thin as that

00:01:32end so what I want to do is lay the

00:01:34chicken on here like this I’m then going

00:01:36to fold the cling film over the chicken

00:01:39like that right and then using a pan or

00:01:42something flat and heavy or you could

00:01:44use a little rolling pin right just bash

00:01:48the chicken

00:01:51what you’re doing is it’s going to

00:01:53flatten out and it’s going to cook nice

00:01:54and quick

00:01:55now once you Fang the chicken out if you

00:01:58look here you can see it’s the same

00:02:00thickness all the way along here now I’m

00:02:06going to show you just how to do this

00:02:07get yourself literally one sprig of

00:02:10thyme like this you could use rosemary

00:02:12and just put that around the chicken

00:02:16like this this is going to give it

00:02:18flavor beautiful flavor don’t worry

00:02:21about time if you’ve never used it don’t

00:02:22think it’s like finicky or anything like

00:02:24just a tiny bit makes a huge difference

00:02:26then I’m going to use the Parmesan

00:02:29cheese you hardly need any it’s

00:02:31literally to season it and to stick it

00:02:35to the hand that we’re going to add

00:02:36flick surely 10 grams of parmesan get it

00:02:41on the actual chicken and then you can

00:02:43put a little pinch of pepper and if

00:02:46you’ve got a grater you know again a

00:02:47nice little tip is lemon zest right

00:02:49just a tiny just literally that much

00:02:53that pathetic amount of lemon zest will

00:02:55make all the difference

00:02:57now Parma ham get me get it everywhere

00:03:01it’s basically a cured leg of ham you

00:03:08can get it in these little sachets like

00:03:09this just want to peel it off like this

00:03:14and what this is gonna give the dish is

00:03:17obviously a great flavor but it’s gonna

00:03:19give it a crisp eNOS right I’m gonna lay

00:03:21this Parma ham over the meat like this

00:03:25now what’s quite critical at this point

00:03:28is that when you put this Parma ham on

00:03:30the chicken you kind of want it to cover

00:03:33up all the cheese and the meat so if you

00:03:36got like a bit of chicken that’s poking

00:03:37out like that that’s you might need to

00:03:39use another half a slice depending on

00:03:42the size of the Parma ham so I’m just

00:03:44gonna put a third slice on here guys or

00:03:46half a slice just like that

00:03:49now when you’ve done that that’s what

00:03:53you got you got a beautiful equally thin

00:03:56piece of chicken seasoned with the

00:03:58pepper the herbs and lemon zest the

00:03:59parmesan you got this ham on top right

00:04:02once you’ve done this you will do it

00:04:04again and again and again we want to put

00:04:06a little olive oil in the pan you could

00:04:08cook four portions of this at one time

00:04:10absolutely I’m going to show you one

00:04:12right now I’m just going to literally

00:04:15put the chicken in and the ham I’m

00:04:17cooking it on a medium heat not on an

00:04:19aggressive heat a medium heat so

00:04:21actually preparing the chicken takes

00:04:23about three minutes per chicken breast

00:04:26you notice if you’re doing four it’s

00:04:27gonna take about 10-12 minutes don’t

00:04:29walk away don’t start jamming a

00:04:31conversation and not love in this pan

00:04:33right so you need a fish slice okay and

00:04:36if you look here you can see it cooking

00:04:39right and you can see the heat rising up

00:04:42the chicken and I think it’s really

00:04:43important to sort of absorb right I’ll

00:04:46put this in the pan about a minute and a

00:04:48half ago all right and in that time you

00:04:50know it’s almost 1/3 cooked and you can

00:04:53see the heat coming up so instead of

00:04:55this cooking chicken breast for half an

00:04:57hour and 25 minutes blah blah blah you

00:04:59know you can see what’s going on if you

00:05:01look in the pan now we’re two and a half

00:05:02minutes in you can see the Parma hams

00:05:04getting crispy right it’s boiling you

00:05:07can see the heats come halfway up and

00:05:08you can see the raw chicken right so

00:05:10that gives you a good impression

00:05:12cooking time then I’m gonna get my fish

00:05:14slice in carefully right and be

00:05:18confident and just flip it

00:05:19there’s no point worrying about it just

00:05:22flick it now if you look on the top here

00:05:25look at that that’s what we’re after

00:05:28crispy Parma ham all that loveliness

00:05:32underneath when you’ve tasted chicken

00:05:35like this it’ll blow you away

00:05:37you get the crisp you get the flavor and

00:05:39it’s juicy so while that’s happening I’m

00:05:42gonna get me board sharp knife

00:05:49serving plate it’s got a little mixed

00:05:54green salad pinch of salt little olive

00:05:58oil little lemon juice dress it nice and

00:06:05gently dress every single leaf nice

00:06:09little fresh salad there okay so this is

00:06:12that about three minutes on each side

00:06:13now I’m just gonna put it from the board

00:06:15here right when you’ve cooked it for

00:06:18three minutes on each side right when it

00:06:20looks golden and crisp get your knife

00:06:22put it in the middle and just slice it

00:06:25at an angle like that and then we can

00:06:29have a little look inside it right and

00:06:32we can see if it’s cooked right and as

00:06:34you can see

00:06:34commonsense raw chicken is pink cooked

00:06:37chicken is white right that is look out

00:06:40the couldn’t you see the juice coming

00:06:42out that is a perfectly cooked juicy

00:06:45piece of chicken so I’m literally gonna

00:06:46plate this up like this if you want to

00:06:52finish it off and be absolutely

00:06:54incredible balsamic vinegar right

00:06:56literally a teaspoon just a couple of

00:06:59little drops this is not to be sheffy

00:07:00alright if you’ve never used bowl

00:07:02something vinegar get some because you

00:07:03can get it really cheap like sweet and

00:07:06sour and a tiny bit of extra virgin

00:07:09olive oil right that is an absolutely

00:07:12beautiful way to prepare cook and serve

00:07:15chicken if your mates try that they will

00:07:17go absolutely crazy

00:07:18pass it on good luck and thank you very

00:07:21much

00:07:29you

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