Cook and Drink

Earlier we wrote about ‘butterflying’ meat, a technique that allows you to turn a bigger piece of meat into a roulade. Ideal for pork loin or turkey. But what to do when you have smaller pieces of meat and butterflying is not possible? Then it’s a matter of flattening the meat, for instance with a hammer. Better to ask your butcher to do it for you with the head (blade) of a butcher’s axe: easy, quick and a much better result. Thin is better!
Once you have flattened pieces of meat it’s a bit of a puzzle to create the roulade. Just give it a try and see what works best. When you think you have the right combination, make sure the kitchen twine is in place and the filling ready.
Obviously, you want to match the filling with the side dishes. We served the roulade with caponata and decided to make a filling with sage and thyme.

Wine Pairing

What You Need

• 4 Boneless Chicken Thighs
• 1 small Shallot
• 1 clove of Garlic
• 10 leaves of Sage
• Thyme
• Butter
• Pancetta
• Olive Oil
• Lemon
• Black Pepper

What You Do

1. Ask your butcher to flatten the chicken thighs
2. Chop the shallot and the garlic
3. De-vein the sage
4. Remove the thyme leaves from the stalk
5. Grate the butter
6. Add olive oil to a heavy iron skillet and gently fry the shallot
7. After a few minutes reduce the heat
8. Add garlic and thyme. Stir
9. Add some lemon juice
10. Allow the filling to cool
11. Put strings of kitchen twine on your work top
12. Decide on the pattern for the meat and put it on top of the kitchen twine. This way you can easily roll up the meat and tie the twine
13. Cover the meat with sage
14. Spread the mixture over the sage. Keep the edges free
15. Add grated butter
16. Cover with slices of pancetta
17. Roll up the meat
18. Tie with kitchen twine
19. Tightly wrap in plastic foil and transfer to the refrigerator for at least 2 hours
20. Remove the roulade from the refrigerator and allow to rest at room temperature for 30 minutes
21. Preheat your oven to 180 °C or 350 °F
22. Remove the foil
23. Put the roulade on a rack (this way it will brown evenly)
24. Add water to the pan
25. Fry in the oven until the internal temperature is between 70 °C and 75 °C, or 160 °F and 165 °F
26. Transfer to your worktop, wrap in aluminium foil and allow to rest for 10 minutes
27. Serve with caponata