About the Recipe
This recipe is a lot of work and fairly complex but the results are well worth the effort. If you have special guests that you want to please with an elegant and delicious meal, you can’t go wrong with anything Wellington.
Given the time required to make this recipe, you should prepare the Duxelle the day before you plan on making your wellingtons.
Ingredients
Main Ingredients
1 full batch of “Mushroom Duxelle”
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 ¼ cups of sunflower or peanut oil
2 x 400 gram packages of puff pastry (4 sheets).
You can thaw the puff pastry according to the package directions. However, I have found that the puff pastry sheets sometimes stick together when following the recommended thawing instructions. I prefer taking the the pastry out of the freezer only when I am ready to make the Wellingtons, separating the sheets and thawing them on a floured countertop.
16 slices of Prosciutto ham
1-2 egg yolks
4 teaspoons of sesame seeds
Marinade Ingredients
1 tablespoon of Chicken Bovril
⅛ teaspoon of black pepper
½ teaspoon of BBQ seasoning
¼ teaspoon of garlic powder
1 teaspoon of BBQ sauce
1 tablespoon of sunflower or peanut oil
Preparation
Trimming The Chicken Breasts
Cut the tip off the pointy side of each chicken breast and cut off the fillet as well. The fillet is the dandling flap of flesh on the underside of the breast. Doing this gives you a more uniform piece of chicken.
Marinade
In a small bowl, combine all the marinade ingredients.
Mix well.
Put chicken breasts in a medium sized bowl.
Pour the contents of your marinade mixture over the chicken.
Rub the marinade over the breasts until they are all well coated.
Searing The Chicken
Pour about 1 ¼ cups of sunflower or peanut oil into a non-stick frying pan.
Set temperature to medium-high and let the oil heat-up.
Use a trimming of chicken to test the temperature of the oil.
The oil has to be very hot as the goal is to sear the chicken, not to cook it.
Do not put the breasts in the pan until your test piece is well browned.
Fry only 2 breasts at a time to avoid overcrowding the pan, which will result in reducing the temperature of the oil too much.
The breasts will brown within 20-30 seconds. Check the underside of the breast to see if it has browned.
Flip the breasts and brown the other side the same way then remove the breasts from the pan and set them aside on a paper towel to cool off.
Once the chicken breasts have cooled off to room temperature, cover them and refrigerate them for 2 hours.
Candy Wrapping the Chicken Breasts with Prosciutto and Duxelle
Lay two long strips of overlapping cling wrap on a clean countertop.
Make sure the overlap of the second sheet overlaps the first sheet by about 50%.
If you have enough room on your counter, you can setup cling wrap in the same manner for all 4 wellingtons. Otherwise, you can do them one or 2 at a time.
The cling wrap will be used to form your Wellington, like you were wrapping a candy.
Lay 3 strips of prosciutto ham vertically on the center of the cling wrap rectangle.
Cut one strip of prosciutto in half and put a half horizontally on each side of the vertical strips, as depicted in the figures below.
Make sure each strip overlaps the other by ¼ in or so.
Put ½ a cup of Duxelle in the center of each prosciutto arrangement.
Using a spoon or fork, spread the Duxelle evenly over the surface of the ham, leaving a bit of a space uncovered around the edges. You can use a pastry roller to even out the surface.
Place a chicken breast horizontally in the center of the Duxelle, as depicted in the images below.
Starting from either the left or right, lift the cling wrap and use it to fold the ends of the ham and Duxelle layer over the chicken breast.
Once folded, press down lightly on the breast to make the ham and Duxelle stick to the breast then pull the cling wrap back to its original position.
Repeat the process for the opposite side of the breast.
Repeat the process for the long sides of the breasts.
Once you have folded over all sides, roll the wrapped breast like a candy with the cling wrap and twist the ends.
Once you have started the twist, you can roll it on the counter to tighten it up.
Twist it until it forms a nice loaf but do not overdo it.
Fold the twisted ends under the roll and set it in on a plate or platter to prevent the twists from unrolling.
Refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
This process can actually be done the day before you plan to serve your Wellingtons. I always make them ahead of time so I am not so tight for time the day I am serving.
Pastry Wrapping the Wellingtons
Separate the puff pastry sheets as soon as you remove the package from the freezer or they will stick together and be inseparable. Of course, if you are using fresh puff pastry, this step won’t be necessary.
Once thawed, lay the sheets down on a very lightly floured surface.
Remove the chicken from the refrigerator and carefully remove the cling-wrap.
You can pull on both ends of the cling-wrap to unwrap the chicken like you would a candy.
Place the chicken roll in the center of the puff pastry.
Start by folding the pastry over the ends.
If there is an excessive amount of pastry, trim a bit off before folding it over on the long side.
Fold on side over then roll it all into a loaf.
Place the Wellingtons in a baking pan lined with parchment paper.
Cut an air vent in the center of the pastry to allow steam to escape during the cooking process.
Brush the Wellingtons with egg yolk.
Sprinkle sesame seeds over the egg-washed Wellingtons.
Roasting the Wellingtons
Preheat oven to 350˚ F (176˚ C).
Roast uncovered for 45 minutes.
Remove from oven and let stand for 3 minutes.
Cut Wellingtons in half and serve ½ of one per guest. An entire wellington is too much for most people.
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