Chicken with Tapenade, Basil & Goat's Cheese

Recipe for: CHICKEN with tapenade, basil & goat’s cheese 

Ingredients: 

• Skinless chicken breasts
• 80g soft goat’s cheese, crumbled
• 30g pine nuts
• 1 tblsp black olive tapenade (but green is OK)
• 2 tsps tomato puree
• Bunch fresh basil leaves, roughly chopped
• 2 tblsp olive oil
• To serve:
• Salad leaves, baby spinach etc
• Salad dressing of your choice
• 1 tblsp grated parmesan flakes 

Method: 

1. heat oven to 180C/ fan 165C/ gas 4
2. in a bowl mix together the goat’s cheese, tapenade, pine kernels, tomato puree and half the basil
3. make a deep horizontal cut in each chicken breast
4. stuff with as much mixture as will allow you to pinch the chicken breasts together again, and secure with small cocktail sticks
5. mix the remaining mixture with the olive oil and smear it all over the chicken breasts
6. place in a baking dish and roast in the oven for 35-45 minutes, depending on the size & thickness of the chicken.  Cook until there is no pink meat
7. to serve, place salad leaves on plate, dress lightly with the dressing
8. remove the chicken breasts from the dish to a carving board
9. remove the cocktail sticks carefully
10. cut the breasts diagonally into two or four pieces, and arrange them with the salad leaves
11. pour over any remaining oil/ juices from the baking dish
12. scatter over the flakes of parmesan and the remaining chopped basil 

What else you need to know: 

1. this is simpler than it looks, but the result is impressive