Picture this if you will. It’s Saturday afternoon and I’m headed for the grocery store to pick up some items for dinner. After 10 minutes of roaming around aimlessly, and no inspiration in sight, I call home. A beautiful sultry (she has a cold) voice answers “Hello! Hello! I say back! What would you like for dinner? I dunno, what do you feel like?” She says in that mysteriously husky voice. “That’s why I called you! I say. Anything you want is good with me.” Again, sultry, mysterious, coughing every so often! Ugh! Don’t you hate this call? If I felt like “anything”, I would make it. I must have walked through the meat and produce areas so many times that people must have thought I was crazy. It didn’t help that I was carrying an empty basket for almost 15 minutes. We’ll just order from out I think to myself – but it’s only 4 p.m. and delivery is never good, and once I got home I didn’t want to go back out to pick up again. So, with lots of time to make a nice meal, I picked up fish – put it back, chicken – put it back, lamb – put it back, duck – put it back and finally, went back on my 5th pass to something that caught my eye the first time chicken fillets.

My mind went racing, you would have thought I hit the jackpot! Schnitzel, perfect, no wait, that’s fried, can’t do that, she doesn’t like fried. I know, stuff it with carrots, green beans and braise it in some type of flavorful broth, which I could later turn into a beautiful sauce – but no cream. Serve it with what? Rice? Pasta? Ah, let’s try those shisito peppers I saw in the produce section. These are generally not hot and typically served as a tapas style entree – although just try limiting yourself to 3 or 4, just not possible. I will sear them in a little oil on a hot pan, sprinkle gently with salt and serve together with the chicken. Okay done! Now I could have very easily sliced those chicken breasts on my own, but sometimes you just want to take the easy way out. And besides, my inspiration came from those chicken fillets. Only fitting I use them.

I knew I had those fancy french carrots and green beans at home. I could do some sweet potato sticks as well. This then, is my meal for the evening. Cooking for 2 is sometimes easier than you can imagine. You just need inspiration or a spouse that will actually tell you what she wants to eat (the latter would be ideal – ahem!). A little fiddly but so tasty! As always – enjoy!

8 chicken breast slices (fillets) – pre-cut or cut your own
16 french cut carrots
16 french cut green beans
1 sweet potato, cut into french fry sized pieces
1 – 2 cups chicken or vegetable stock (if vegetable, use the liquid from the braising of the carrots, beans and sweet potato)
1 package shisito peppers or just plain peppers, sliced
2 tbsp olive oil
1 can, good quality cream of mushroom soup (or cream of chicken) (I like Campbell’s brand – it’s what my mum used when cooking)
2 tbsp sambal oelek – or to taste
16 toothpicks – the firm kind as they have to pierce the chicken and vegetables
1 package assorted mushrooms

In a medium to large non-stick pan with a lid, over a medium-high heat, add the olive oil and when hot add the mushrooms
Cook the mushrooms until all the water has been released and absorbed and the mushrooms take on some color from searing
Remove from the pan and add 1/2 – 1 cup water (just enough to cover) the carrots, green beans and sweet potato – bring to a boil and cover with a lid
After 1 minute, remove the green beans, after another minute, the sweet potato fries
After about 5 minutes total, using the tip of a sharp knife, pierce the carrots, they should be semi cooked, remove from the pan
Lay the veggies out in stacks of 2 carrots, 2 beans and 2 sweet potato fries (okay really, I know you don’t need to be told this but use any amount of veggies you want and any kind – right!!  Just remember you need to wrap the chicken fillet around it.)
Pour any liquid left in the pan into a small bowl – you can use this as part of your vegetable stock to braise the chicken in, don’t wash the pan as you will need it to cook the chicken
Lay the chicken fillet towards one end of a large piece of plastic wrap
Fold the wrap over and pound lightly to stretch and thin out the meat
Unwrap and continue to do this with the remaining chicken
Lay the chicken pieces out across the work surface and sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper
Grab a stack of veggies and put them towards the end closest to you – wrap the veggies keeping the roll tight
Skewer to seal with the toothpicks – repeat until all the pieces are finished
Add another two teaspoons of oil to the pan – heat
When hot, add the chicken rolls to the pan and sear all sides – remove the chicken from the pan and set aside
Add the cream of mushroom soup, reserved liquid and additional stock to come up to about 1/4″ of the pan
Bring to a boil, whisking to combine and break any lumps
When the liquid is boiling, add the sambal and stir into the sauce, add the chicken to the pan – spoon some sauce over the chicken Cover and reduce to a simmer and cook for 15 minutes giving the pan a shake every 5 minutes or so – add more liquid if needed but not too much as you don’t want a watery sauce
When the chicken is cooked remove to a tray, cover to keep the chicken moist and warm
Taste the sauce in the pan – add additional seasoning – salt, pepper, sambal etc, taste again
If it is too runny, continue to cook until it has reduced to the desired consistency – add the seared mushrooms and stir
Add the chicken pieces back to the pan and cover with sauce – remove from the fire, keep covered
In another pan, over medium high heat, add 2 tbsp olive oil and drop in the peppers – you may get sputtering. It’s recommended whenever you are working with whole peppers on a fire that you poke holes in the pepper to allow the steam to escape – so please do this to prevent a pepper explosion
When the peppers are lightly charred and the skins are bursting, transfer to a serving platter and sprinkle with sea or Kosher salt
Serve the peppers along side the chicken in sauce