Chicken Rollades with Tomato Roasted Red Pepper Sauce
My Chicken Rollades With Roasted Red Pepper Tomato Sauce is a great make-ahead comfort dish. It’s great for a dinner party or buffet – I made it for a group of 20 once, 10 of them visiting Italians – everybody loved it! It’s nutritious, tasty and will satisfy even the heartiest of appetites. It’s a great take-along dish too!
My Chicken Rollades With Roasted Red Pepper Tomato Sauce is a great make-ahead comfort dish. It’s great for a dinner party or buffet – I made it for a group of 20 once, 10 of them visiting Italians – everybody loved it! It’s nutritious, tasty and will satisfy even the heartiest of appetites. It’s a great take-along dish too!
- 6 slices prosciutto
- 6 chicken thighs organic, skinless, boneless
- 6 ounces apple-sage
- 2 tsps avocado oil or grapeseed oil
- 6 cups organic tomatoes roughly chopped
- 2 large organic carrots minced
- 1 medium onion minced
- 2 roasted red peppers seeded & peeled
- 1 1/2 tsp minced garlic to personal taste
- 1/2 cup white wine
- 1/4 cup fresh basil chopped, additional for garnish
- 1 tsp sea salt
- grinds fresh pepper to personal taste
- Carbohydrate 29.4242912606103 g
- Cholesterol 389.76 mg
- Fat 142.107656564794 g
- Fiber 7.12502939607078 g
- Protein 75.8282867037296 g
- Saturated Fat 44.4060713485268 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Serving (1043g)
- Sodium 1309.8517632014 mg
- Sugar 22.2992618645395 g
- Trans Fat 11.8537786025614 g
- Calories 1713 calories
Step-by-step
- On your work surface, lay a piece of prosciutto. Center a chicken thigh on top of the prosciutto. Scoop out about an ounce of Apple-Sage Chicken Sausage and place it in the center of the chicken thigh. Using the prosciutto as a help, wrap the chicken thigh & prosciutto around the sausage. Secure your bundle with toothpicks by skewering each rollade forming an ‘X’ with the toothpicks. I like two ‘X’s’ one nearing each end of the rollade – then you know that your rollade will stay together during cooking. Place each rollade on your large plate as you go.
- Preheat your pan over medium heat. You will know that your pan is ready when you feel heat radiating from pan while holding your hand about 1-inch above the pan surface. Now add your avocado or grape seed oil & swirl it around the pan. With your tongs, add your rollades to the pan, giving them each a little bit of room. Sautee them until they are brown on the bottom side. This usually takes about 5 – 6 minutes but every stove is a little different. You will know that your rollades are ready to turn when they come lose from the pan. Make sure that you are controlling your heat at medium and you shouldn’t have a problem with sticking or over-browning. Turn the rollades and brown them in the second side, about 5 minutes more. Remove them to your plate & set them aside for now.
- To the food processor, add the red peppers; puree until smooth. Add the tomatoes and process, just until chunky.
- Now back to the stove… Pour out any excess fat that may be in your pan from browning the chicken. Saute the onions and the carrots until the onions are opaque. Add the tomato/roasted red pepper mixture to the pan and bring it to a simmer; cover it for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Now add your rollades to the pans; cover the pan. Allow the rollades simmer for about 25 minutes, moving the rollades around the pan occasionally.
- Transfer the pan to your work surface. Transfer the rollades to your kitchen plate. Now it’s time to remove the toothpicks. Hold each rollade with your tongs securely and carefully pull out the toothpicks. The toothpicks will not be burning hot but the chicken will, so feel free to use your fingers when pulling out the the picks but hold the chicken with your tongs to protect yourself.
- To serve, ladle some sauce onto each dinner plate ;lay a rollade on top of the sauce; sprinkle with a little fresh chopped basil for garnish if you wish.
Swapping standard chicken breast for boneless, skinless chicken thighs completely alters the structural integrity and moisture retention of this dish. Thigh meat contains higher natural fat content and connective tissue, which prevents the bundles from drying out during the twenty-five-minute simmer. Leaner cuts would tighten too quickly and turn chalky inside their prosciutto casing. When securing the meat, wooden toothpicks arranged in an interlocking X pattern provide the necessary mechanical pressure to keep the sausage stuffing contained without tearing the outer layer.
Achieving a proper sear relies entirely on thermal control before the meat touches the metal. Preheating a pan over medium heat until radiant warmth can be felt one inch above the surface ensures the fat renders correctly. Moving the chicken too early tears the proteins; waiting five to six minutes allows the proteins to release naturally from the base once a deep golden crust forms. Controlling this initial browning phase prevents the meat from sticking while locking in the savory elements of the prosciutto.
Pureeing the roasted red peppers completely smooth while leaving the fresh tomatoes slightly chunky creates a dual-textured sauce that clings evenly to the meat. A standard food processor handles this task efficiently, though a hand-held immersion blender works as a direct alternative if pulsing is monitored carefully to avoid over-processing the tomatoes into liquid. Sweating the minced onions and carrots in the rendered pan drippings builds a foundational aromatic base before the vegetable puree goes into the skillet.
Simmering the bundles covered traps steam and allows the collagen within the chicken thighs to break down into gelatin, yielding tender meat. Removing the toothpicks requires patience, utilizing kitchen tongs to steady the hot protein while extracting the wood safely. Ladling the finished sauce directly onto the plate before placing the meat on top prevents the crust from becoming soggy while ensuring every bite receives adequate moisture.
