Chicken Strudel with Mushroom Cognac Sauce

Preparation:

1. Separate and thaw out puff pastry sheets. Soak gelatine in cold water. Wash, pat dry and finely dice liver. Season with salt and pepper, purée, chill.
2. Peel and very finely chop onions. Melt 1 tablespoon of butter, lightly braise 1 onion in the melted butter. Add 50 g of cream. Drain gelatine, dissolve in cream. Combine with liver stuffing. Wash and pat chicken fillets dry, cut a deep pocket into each fillet. Fill pockets with liver stuffing and close.
3. Soak porcini in 250 ml of water. Wash and clean mushrooms. Very finely chop 200 g of mushrooms. Wash, pat dry and chop parsley.
4. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil. Sauté fillets for approx. 5 minutes on all sides. Season with salt and pepper, remove from drippings.
5. Sauté 1 onion and finely chopped mushrooms in the cooking fat for 5 minutes, also season with salt and pepper, stir in parsley.
6. Roll out each puff pastry sheet on a lightly floured surface until slightly larger, trim off and set aside a bit of the pastry for decorating. Sprinkle bacon onto the puff pastry sheets, leaving an edge of pastry of about 2 cm. Top with mushroom mixture and add one chicken fillet to each sheet.
7. Cut small decorative shapes such as flowers out of the leftover pastry with a biscuit cutter or knife.
8. Separate egg. Brush egg white onto pastry edges. Wrap pastry around fillets. Whisk together 1 tablespoon of cream and egg yolk, brush pastry with egg wash. Decorate with cut out flowers. Place onto a baking sheet lined with parchment. Bake in a preheated oven (electric cooker: 200°C/gas: level 3) for approx. 20 minutes.
9. Meanwhile, drain porcini, saving the soak water. Coarsely chop remaining mushrooms and porcini. Wash and chop thyme. Sauté remaining chopped onion and mushrooms in 1 tablespoon of hot oil for 5 minutes over high heat. Season with salt, pepper and thyme. Add soak water, cook for another 5 minutes.
10. Meanwhile, wash and clean snow peas and cook for approx. 5 minutes in boiling salt water. Add cognac and 50 g cream to mushroom sauce, sprinkle in a little sauce thickener and season to taste. 

Click here for more information on cooking and baking with gelatine.

The chicken

Affordable and easy to raise, delicious meat and eggs thrown into the bargain. No wonder that this - originally Asian - fowl has attained such popularity around the globe. Domestic fowl has been supplying humans with meat and eggs for 4,000 to 5,000 years. Although chicken was once widely considered a poor man's meat, it has since become a veritable feast, and that for upscale occasions as well.

Poultry – What makes it so valuable
Its white meat is justifiably held in high esteem. Rich in protein, low in calories and easy to digest, nutritionally it is considered to be very wholesome. It also contains important nutrients that make it especially valuable for a balanced diet. Its high-quality protein, vitamins and minerals as well as beneficial composition of fatty acids are further good reasons to make poultry a regular part of the daily menu.

A genuine "Sunday roast" for connoisseurs
Poultry is simply delicious and can be prepared and enjoyed in a myriad of ways, whether briefly seared as a steak, braised in its own juices or, as in our recipe, prepared as a strudel. An exquisite combination of breast fillet, tender flesh of the chicken breast, and liver stuffing make this dish a culinary highlight. A mushroom sauce with cognac adds an unmistakable flavour to this recipe. A feast both for the eyes and the palate!

Lots of success in giving it a try!