Chicken thigh ballotine with turmeric infused red lentils

Preparation time: 45 min

Preheat your Vapeur at 212 °F

• Preparation

  Prepare both stocks, chicken and vegetable.

  Finely slice the shallots.

  Open the chicken with a knife like a wallet or butterfly.

  Clean the mushrooms if necessary.

  Soak the lentils for at least 2 hours before cooking in cold water.

• Mushroom stuffing

  Cut the mushrooms as finely as possible, in cubes (5mm is ideal). Otherwise you can always chop them in the food processor.  Just be careful not to over chop.

  Cut the sundried tomatoes the same way.

  In a hot skillet with a little oil and butter, cook the mushrooms and tomatoes until you reach a compote like texture.

  Deglaze with the white wine, reduce to almost dry and then add the white balsamic vinegar and continue to cook.  Once you reach a nice consistency to stuff the chicken, transfer to a baking sheet to cool.

• Making the chicken ballotines

  Cooking in broth

  Stuff the chicken with the mushroom mixture.  Place in the center of a piece of plastic wrap.  Tie both end making sure the roll is nice and tight and without air bubbles.

  Transfer to a pot with simmering vegetable broth and cook for 15-20 minutes.

  Cooking in a steam oven

  Place the chicken rolls in the oven for roughly 10 minutes or until cooked through.

  Finishing

  Remove the plastic wrap and then sear the chicken on all sides in a hot skillet with oil.  Season to taste.

• Lentils

  In a hot sauce pot with butter, sweat the shallots making sure not to color them.

  Add the lentils, making sure they are well coated with oil and then cover with 3x the volume of water.

  Bring to a boil and continue to cook on a simmer for roughly 30 minutes.

  20 minutes in, add the turmeric.

  Once cooked, season to taste.

• Plating

  Cut the chicken rolls into 4 nice slices.

  In the serving dish of your choice, place a bed of lentils and top with a slice of the chicken roll.  Garnish with young sprouts or fresh herbs of your choice.