A dish to impress with. Preparation 30 minutes, cooking 1 hour

Ingredients

4 large skinless boneless chicken breasts

2 oz /55g butter, margarine

11 oz/ 300g finely sliced leeks, use green parts for added colour

Grated zest of a lime or lemon

Salt and pepper

1 glass white wine

4 fl oz / 120 mls chicken or vegetable stock

120ml (4fl oz) double (heavy) cream

15ml /1 tablespoon of lime or lemon juice

Method

Cut horizontally into each breast to make a deep pocket, but make sure you don’t go all the way through. Melt half the butter in a large heavy frying pan over low heat and add the leeks and citrus zest and cook, stirring occasionally, for 15-20 minutes or until the leeks are soft . Turn the leeks into a bowl and season with salt and pepper. Leave to cool. Now divide these leeks among the chicken breasts packing the pockets well. Secure with cocktail sticks. Melt the rest of the butter in the frying pan over moderately heat and brown the stuffed breasts lightly on both sides. Now add the wine and stock, bring to the boil and then turn down to a simmer for about 10 minutes, turning meat after 5 minutes. Your chicken should be perfectly cooked. Remove breasts and keep warm. Reduce pan liquid by half by boiling. Stir in cream and reduce by half a second time to really concentrate flavours. Stir in the lime juice and season to taste. Remove cocktail sticks from meat and cut each breast into diagonal slices to display filling to its best advantage. Pour over sauce and serve with creamy mashed potatoes and vegetables of your choice.

You could substitute spinach in which case it won’t need much precooking. Jus t a few seconds in a hot pan after washing. The water clinging to the leaves is enough, but you will need quite a lot, at least 600 grams as they cook down to almost nothing.

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