Although it has been rather chilly over the last few days, today the sun is shining and Spring has truly sprung! For me, it means the season for foraging has properly begun and my first foray into wild foods this year has been to collect a bag-full of nettles. I am rather partial to nettle soup but I really fancy a change…

Nettles have a deep earthy flavour, they are vitamin rich, particularly in iron and vitamin C, so they’re tasty, healthy and free! I know nettles can make a delicious substitute for spinach, so I decided to try a recipe where I would normally use spinach (Chicken stuffed with spinach). We bought a plump organic chicken at the weekend, so it was a perfect opportunity to combine the two. I jointed the chicken and used just the breasts for this recipe but you could use de-boned thighs and legs, it works equally well.

Chicken breast stuffed with nettles

Serves two

Ingredients

2 Chicken breasts, skinless
300g Nettle leaves, washed & drained (wear gloves for picking & washing)
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped/crushed
Slices of pancetta or streaky bacon, 6-8 depending on how large the chicken breasts are.
1 tbsn olive oil
Salt & pepper
Cocktail sticks

Pre-heat the oven to 180C

Heat the oil in a pan and gently fry the onion and garlic until softened and cooked.

Add the nettles to the onions and garlic, they will only take minutes to wilt, so keep an eye on them.

My chicken breasts still had the smaller fillet attached underneath, so I used this as an ‘envelope’ for the stuffing. But if yours don’t have the smaller fillet, you can create a pocket in the breast by taking a very sharp knife and cutting half way through the breast and open it out like a butterfly.

Put 1-2 tablespoons of the nettle mixture onto half of the opened chicken breast and fold the remaining half over the top, to create a ’sandwhich’.

Lay 4 slices of pancetta on a board, side by side and slightly overlapping. Lay the stuffed chicken breast on top of the pancetta and wrap the edges over the breast. Secure with cocktail sticks to hold everything together. Repeat for the other chicken breast.

Brown the wrapped chicken breasts in a hot frying pan to seal them. I didn’t use any oil as the fat in the pancetta was sufficient in a non-stick pan.

Once browned all over, transfer the chicken breasts to a flat roasting tray and bake in the oven for 20-30 minutes (depending on the thickness of the chicken).

When the chicken parcels are fully cooked, let them rest for 5 minutes, remove the cocktail sticks and serve. I served them with boiled new potatoes and sauteed leeks.

Yummy, yummy, yummy!!!

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