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
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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
