CHICKEN BREAST WRAPPED IN PARMA HAM RECIPE

A succulent chicken breast stuffed with watercress, cream cheese and garlic then lightly wrapped in Parma ham. Serve with a velvety full cream watercress sauce and you have an especially tasty dish to wow your audience. And its under 450 calories too, would you believe!
The dish is not too difficult especially as it can all be prepared beforehand.
The cooking time for succulent chicken is all important. You can see from the photograph just how juicy the chicken turned out cooked this way.
The watercress was very peppery and we found ours in Sainsburys. The Parma ham came from Aldi at £1.99 - enough to cover four chicken breasts.
Take a look at our mouth watering recipe below:

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STUFFED CHICKEN BREAST WRAPPED IN PARMA HAM

Ingredients

Serves two (just double up all ingredients for four people)

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2 x 160g chicken breasts 

Parma ham

30g full fat cream cheese

4 tablespoons double cream
30ml Masala or sherry (you could use Martini too)

100ml chicken stock (or just add water to a stock cube)

Small pack watercress (about 80-100g)

1 clove garlic, crushed

salt and pepper

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Chop the watercress quite finely - stalks and all. 

Take half the watercress and mix thoroughly with the garlic and cream cheese.

Dry chicken breast with kitchen towel and lightly season with salt and pepper.

Make a slit, about an inch long, in the side of the chicken breast (enough to get your finger in).

Put the cream cheese mix into the hole. It's easier if you put the cheese onto a teaspoon and push it into the hole with your fingers. 

Lay overlapping slices of Parma ham onto a chopping board. Place the chicken with the filling hole facing upwards (so it doesn't run out when cooking). Tuck in the thin ends of the chicken breast so it doesn't dry out. 

If you've prepared this earlier and returned the chicken to the fridge, just remember to get them out and bring to room temperature before cooking.

Heat the oven to 180ºC (fan) or if you haven't got a fan oven 200ºC. 

Quickly sear the chicken all over in a pan.

Place chicken onto baking tray with the overlapping Parma ham facing downwards. 

WATERCRESS SAUCE:   While the chicken is cooking, make the sauce. Put the stock into a small saucepan add 30ml Masala and heat then reduce by half. Add the remaining chopped watercress and cream. If the sauce seems too thick, add a little hot water. Taste and season with salt and pepper.

Cook for around 20 minutes. Pierce the top with a sharp knife and when the juices are clear this indicates the chicken is cooked.  If you are still not sure, you can always slice one chicken breast in half and have a look - as you'll be slicing it up anyway. Don't forget the chicken needs resting before serving and its own heat will carry on the cooking.  We always check ours with a meat thermometer, as it's pretty good for smaller dishes like this where meat can quickly and easily become over cooked by adding another 5 or 10 minutes to the cooking time. 

Rest the chicken, covered in foil for around 10 minutes before serving.

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