Chicken Wellington

Chicken wellington is a delicious blend of chicken and herbs baked in pastry. Imagine, tender chunks of chicken mixed with baby spinach, chopped red onion, garlic, mushrooms and herbed cream cheese. Take that chicken mixture and wrap it in a blanket of puff pastry and bake until it is a mouthwatering golden brown. Do I have your interest?

Everything is better in pastry.

I’ve always said, everything is better wrapped in pastry. Sure, its not a guilt free dish, but it’s also not something you would make once a week. When you do make it though, you can certainly appreciate the decadence of it. The buttery pastry flaking away as you cut through it, revealing tender and delicious chunks of chicken bathed in herbs and cream cheese with the earthy flavours of spinach and mushrooms.

More about the cream cheese

We were using a commercial herb cream cheese for this recipe, but Kim decided to start flavouring plain cream cheese with her own herbs. This gives full control over the spice mixture, and to be honest, its like night and day. Using a high quality cream cheese with fresh herbs is the only way to go. Not only for this recipe, but any application that you feel requires herbed cream cheese. On crackers? Absolutely! Check out the herb cream cheese recipe here.

What’s inside?

The filling is pretty straight forward. Wilt the spinach, add sautéd onion and garlic and introduce the cream cheese I mentioned earlier. It is similar to a creamed spinach. Cook the chopped mushrooms. Don’t overcook the mushrooms, you want them to be softened and just starting to release some of the moisture they retain. Chop and cook the chicken and you are ready to build. There really isn’t a lot of spices in this recipe, some salt and pepper to taste and herbes de Provence. The ingredients pretty much speak for themselves.

Prepping the pastry

We aren’t making puff pastry for this recipe. The puff pastry we use comes in a 450g package. One sheet being 10″x10″ (225g). A sheet this size will give you about 6 slices not including the ends. You can find it in the frozen foods aisle of most major grocery stores.

After thawing out the pastry, you will want to roll it out on a lightly floured surface. Roll it to approximately 11 x 15 inches. Try not to overwork the pastry, rolling too flat can literally take the puff out of puff pastry. You don’t want that! Prepare your baking tray by cutting a piece of parchment paper to the size of the tray. Not only can you build it on the paper, you can simply lift the completed wellington, parchment paper and all, right onto the tray. If parchment paper isn’t available, simply spray the tray with no-stick spray.

Brushing the edges of the pastry with egg actually bonds the pastry to itself. Use the remainder of the egg to brush on top of the wellington before you place it on the oven rack. This results in a shiny golden brown finish that just entices you to slice into the completed chicken wellington.

Chicken Wellington

Tasty chunks of seasoned chicken stuffed in puff pastry.

5 from 1 vote

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Course Main Course

Cuisine Canadian, English

Servings 4 people

Ingredients

  

• 1 sheet puff pastry 10" x 10" sheet
• 4 cups baby spinach
• ¼ cup water
• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tbsp chopped red onion
• 2 cloves minced garlic
• ¼ cup garlic herb cream cheese
• 1½ cup chopped mushrooms
• ½ tsp herbes de provence
• 1 large skinless boneless chicken breast cut into ¾ inch pieces
• salt & pepper to taste
• 1 large egg beaten

Instructions

 

• Thaw the puff pastry.
• Add the spinach to gently boiling water and cook until it is just wilted. Drain and set aside in a medium bowl.
• Heat ½ of the oil and saute the onion and garlic until soft. Add the cooked spinach and mix with the onions and garlic, heating for about 1 minute. Put the mixture back into a bowl and toss with cream cheese until it is well distributed and melted.
• Heat the remaining oil and saute mushrooms (season with herbes de provence). Cook until the mushroom are cooked and releasing moisture. Add the chicken, salt and pepper to taste and cook until no longer pink. Let cool in the pan.
• Place the puff pastry onto a lightly floured surface and roll it out to approx. 11" x 15". Gently lift it onto parchment paper.
• Spread out the spinach mixture on the pastry leaving a 3 inch border around each edge. Do the same with the chicken and mushroom mixture. Brush the beaten egg around the perimeter of the borders.
• First fold the short sides of the pastry inwards, then fold in the long sides forming a cylinder. Pinch the seams together and brush the top of the puff pastry with the remaining egg. Cut three slits in the top of the pastry and slide it with the parchment paper onto a baking tray with raised sides.
• Preheat your oven to 350℉. Use the convection setting, if your oven is equipped.
• Bake for approx. 45 minutes. The chicken wellington should be puffed and golden brown. Place on a cutting board and let stand for 5 minutes before slicing. Cutting in six, 2 inch slices (plus the ends) will easily serve 4 people.

Keyword chicken, puff pastry

Enjoy!

Approximately forty-five minutes after being placed in the oven, the chicken wellington should be a delicious looking golden brown, remove it from the oven and let it stand for about 5 minutes before carving (if you can wait that long). It will be easier to slice.

This dish pairs well with a side salad and basmati rice. Steamed or roasted asparagus is a tasty addition as well.

It might not be the easiest or the most difficult entrée to prepare, but as I said earlier, you can appreciate the decadence.

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