Chicken and Feta Sausage Rolls

Chicken and Feta Sausage Rolls 

These rolls are inspired by a David 

Herbert recipe and are very addictive.   

As I usually seem to do, I added extra pinches 

of this and that. Also, I have 

successfully frozen half a batch ready 

to bake the following week – which 

were just as delicious and disappeared 

in nano seconds!  (witness Wilbur’s 

hovering greedy fingers in the photo!)

Allow 20 mins preparation,   30 mins pastry resting time    and approx. 20 mins baking time.

Ingredients

Makes approx 36 mini rolls.   (6 long rolls cut into 6 portions each – as in photo)

500 gram chicken mince.   Good quality – needs to be meaty, not watery.  (Lilydale is good)

1 small red onion – chopped

Grated zest of 1 lemon 

Good handful of baby spinach leaves – roughly chopped - about 4 tablespoons

2 slices of multigrain bread       (when later processed will yield 4 tablespoons breadcrumbs)

½  teaspoon dried chilli flakes    (this is not too hot, but omit if you dislike chilli)

150 gram firm feta crumbled    (Use the firm type, not the smooth, or it will lack texture)

Rosemary - fresh if possible -    about 1 teaspoon of fresh leaves chopped

Parsley    3 – 4 sprigs chopped  (Wilbur mistook my chervil for parsley –also turned out YUM)

Salt and Pepper - to your taste

3 sheets ready rolled Butter Puff Pastry – just thawed  - but do not allow to soften too much or will be gloopy and droopy and difficult to work with when rolling.  Thaws  very quickly.

Leave blue plastic on pastry sheet – for time being – aids with moving  pastry sheets about
Cut each sheet in half, so you will have 6 rectangles in total

Pampas brand is fine – use Non-butter type if you are avoiding butter

1 egg, beaten:    this is for brushing the pastry prior to baking

Optional – sesame seeds, either white or black – to sprinkle on top prior to baking the rolls

Method

Quick and easy using a food processor - but pulse only – do not mush to oozy mess. 

If mixing by hand, chop ingredients and mix well to combine in a large mixing bowl.

Whichever way the mix is prepared, ingredients need to be uniformly distributed through the mixture but not processed to mush.   It is good to see some texture and specks of green.

Preheat oven to 220 Celsius – NB - do this during the 30 min resting rolls time (see below). 

Your oven must be very hot before adding trays of rolls.

Prepare 3 medium-large oven trays. (Tiny edges or rolls won’t brown).  Line with bakepaper.

Place bread slices in food processer and pulse til crumbs

Add onion – pulse til onion finely chopped. You don’t want to bite into chunky onions

Add the mince, herbs, lemon zest, spinach, crumbled feta, spices, S&P – very brief pulses.

You just want it just to be mixed and combined – be careful not to over-process.

Divide the mixture into 6 equal balls.  

Use single use gloves if you like, or have your hands a little bit damp to mix so it won’t stick so much.   Make each ball into a long sausage shape tube.

Place sausage mixture tube onto the pastry - long-ways - about 2 cms from the edge of pastry. Fill to the ends.

Do 1 complete roll first to trial method - if you find there is not enough mix for 6 then do 5.

(Hope you find my fancy illustration below useful for how to place the XXXXX mixture)

Eggy wash xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Brush along edge (marked as ‘egg’) with some of the beaten egg on each pastry sheet.

Flip the long non-egged 2cm pastry edge up and on top of part of the meat roll (XXXXX).

LOOSEN the blue pastry plastic away from the pastry, - clean fingernails –

but keep the roll sitting on the plastic – will make cutting easier later.

Continue to roll the pastry towards the top edge.

Lightly brush pastry again, if needed, so both will stick together well. The eggy edge will now be able to seal down onto your roll and form a full sausage roll. 

The seam will be on the base of the final cooked roll.

Press gently to ensure pastry has sealed. But do not flatten.  Should look like a plump roll.

(If the pastry is getting a little soft at any stage, just pop the long rolls onto a tray and put in fridge for 5 mins –no more-  to firm up a bit. Will make cutting into smaller rolls easier).

With rolls still on the blue pastry plastic - Cut each long roll into 6 smaller sausage rolls. 

Now remove each cut portion off the blue pastry plastic.

Place sealed edge down onto prepared trays.  Do not crowd the tray.

Brush tops with remaining beaten egg.          

Sprinkle with sesame seeds if desired.

Chill in fridge for 30 minutes on the prepared trays. 

If planning to freeze – refer to option at end of recipe.

Remove from fridge.         

Bake for 15 – 20 minutes. Will depend on your oven.

Make sure you have removed the blue pastry plastic – Do not cook it onto the rolls (Ugh)

Check at 15 minutes – maybe rotate trays to ensure tops will all be crispy and golden.

Serve warm or hot with variety of sauces

Option:

If you decide to make 3 longer length rolls from each long tube instead of cutting into 6 mini rolls, you will need to prick tops with a fork a couple of times to release air during baking, and slightly increase cooking time by 5 – 10 minutes extra.  Again – depends on your oven.

Freezing option:

Place a tray of fully prepared uncooked rolls inside a large freezer bag.  Freeze overnight.  Once frozen, remove rolls from tray. Carefully bag up the rolls to store in freezer and have ready to cook later.  Hide them.

To cook from frozen: 

Allow rolls to partially thaw. 

Bake as usual (see above) -  but add  5 – 10 more minutes baking time.

Tested and approved by Wilbur                                                                   

                                                                                                                              

                                                                   Enjoy – Colleen