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Monday 25 February 2008

TLC Challenge - Roast Chicken with Cheese. Roasted Tomatoes & Salsa

The Cooks Journal Forum has a monthly TCJ Challenge and last month’s winner Carolyn picked three ingredients for this months challenge. Every challenger has to incorporate each chosen ingredient into his or her recipe. This month the three ingredients are; chicken, cheese and tomatoes.

Now for the best bit folks!! You don’t need a blog or web site to join in with this challenge; all that is needed is for YOU to join the forum, simple isn’t it! Getting better even still, Carolyn is even providing an award for the winner of this month’s challenge of a cute tea towel and tredny cleaning cloths!! Come on folks what are you waiting for? Join up to “The Cooks Journal forum” and join in on the Challenge, and YOU just maybe the lucky winner this month!! See you there on The Cooks Journal Forum………..

The chicken to this dish is very moist, tender and flavoursome, which makes a wonderful creamy juicy sauce from the cream cheese as it cooks – slurp -drool. (Of course you could use chicken thighs and or chicken legs instead of chicken breast meat for more flavour). Now for the tomatoes, they have a sweet roasted flavour from the garlic and sugar. Coming onto the side dish of salsa, this gives a lovely light fresh bite of textures and flavours to serve with the rich creamy chicken. You could simply serve this dish with your chosen veggies etc, which I am sure will complement the chicken dish to your own selected requirements.


Roast Chicken with Cheese. Roasted Tomatoes & Salsa


Serves 3

Ingredients
For The Chicken & Tomatoes
3 large chicken breasts –with skin on
200g (8 oz) tub of cream cheese with garlic & herbs – I used Philadelphia light
3 medium tomatoes – cut in half
1 clove garlic – crushed & chopped finely
A little olive oil
A little caster sugar
Freshly ground black pepper
½ tsp dried thyme - for sprinkling
For The Salsa
1 small red onion – thinly sliced
1 ripe avocado – peeled and cut into smallish cubes
2 tomatoes – skinned, deseeded and cut into small strips
A little extra virgin olive oil
½ juice from a large lime
Freshly ground pepper & a little sea salt

Double line a roasting tin with foil (tip it saves scrubbing the tin when washing up).

Method

Preheat oven to 200°C/fan 180°C/400°F/Gas mark 6.

For the chicken when washed and patted dry, carefully loosen the skin with your fingers on each breast to make a pocket. Place half of the cream cheese on a plate and place the rest back in the fridge, which is not needed. With a teaspoon fill each chicken pocket between the skin and breast meat with the garlic & herb cream cheese. Place into the prepared roasting tin. Place the tomato halves into the roasting tin in available spaces. Drizzle a little olive oil over the chicken and tomatoes then sprinkle over with freshly ground black pepper and the dried thyme. Just over the tomatoes sprinkle a little caster sugar on each half. Place into the preheated oven and roast for about 45 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through.

Meanwhile whist the chicken is cooking put together the salsa. In a bowl add the thinly sliced red onion, strips of tomato, cubes of avocado. Sprinkle over the lime juice and a little extra virgin olive oil. Toss all the ingredients together making sure they all coated in the lime and olive oil dressing. Add freshly grated pepper and sea salt to taste. Cover with cling film and chill in the fridge until the chicken is ready to serve.

Serve the chicken with tomatoes and salsa spooning over the chicken the creamy juices from the pan.

You could also serve this with roasted potatoes crushed with a fork with added thinly sliced spring onions, Parmesan and Gruyere cheese melted into the roast potatoes towards the end of cooking time.

16 comments:

Valerie Harrison (bellini) said...

Chicken is my all time favourite and this dish looks like a winner to me.I love the sounds of the potato side dish as well :D

Donna said...

Geez...this looks wonderful! How do you find all the time to do these things!!lol...Have a fun day Sweetie!

Chibog in Chief said...

oh i would love to join..but seeing your winning entry....i dont think i could come up with something better than this. roasted chicken with roasted tomatoes this is soo lovely my dear rosie!!

Finla said...

Rosie I am surprised you made something other than cake.
Looks really delicious. I love roast chicken

Ivy said...

This looks great Rosie, how can a recipe with all these nice ingredients not be good.

Sagari said...

chicken with salsaa yummmmmmm looks delecious rosie

Dhivya said...

Loves these rosie..pic looks wonderful and yum

Ruth Strong said...

What a great weeknight meal, nice and simple yet sounds fantastically delicious!

Loving it!

glamah16 said...

Now that looks and sounds tasty! I like that cheese mixture under the crispy skin.

Pixie said...

A lovely combination of ingredients, it's been a while since I've visited Carolyn (shame on me). I have those canadian ribs in the back of my mind and in my freezer-been so busy, it's so hard to keep up with all these wonderful events! Oh and your dish sounds wonderful, btw. :)

Rosie said...

Hello my dear friends and lovely to *see* you all! :D

I was racking my brains of what to come up with for this challenge. Well I could have made muffins I suppose, but with chicken some how I didn’t quite fancy them :-S

I cook everyday for the family but I don’t get that high adrenaline rush I would say if I were baking up some creation of a cake. But occasionally, I never say never, a few dishes that are not cakes will crop up here from time to time ;)

Have to agree with you Pixie, with all the wonderful food events it is very hard to keep up with them all.

Thank you all for your lovely comments as I feel somewhat out of my comfort zone posting a non-cake item & many thanks for calling by! :D

Rosie x

Maria♥ said...

Rosie this looks really yummy and my kind of food ;o)

Maria
x

Mansi said...

That looks really appetising Rosie! wish I was eating chicken!!:D hehehe

Rosie said...

Hi maria, I like simple pleasures in life as you know sweetie and this is one easy dish to make :)

Hi Mansi, awe thanks, wish I could pass you some to try! :D

Thanks ladies for your lovely comments much appreciated :)

Rosie x

Chef Jeena said...

This is lovely recipe Rosie it looks such a delicious meal. :-)

Rosie said...

Hi Jeena, ahh thanks sweetie you are so kind! :D

Many thanks for calling by and lovely to *see* you! :)

Rosie x